| João Chagas | |
| Office: | Prime Minister of Portugal |
| Term Start: | 3 September 1911 |
| Term End: | 12 November 1911[1] |
| President: | Manuel de Arriaga |
| Predecessor: | Provisional Government |
| Successor: | Augusto de Vasconcelos |
| Office1: | Ambassador of Portugal to France |
| Term Start1: | 25 April 1911 |
| Term End1: | 31 December 1923 |
| Nominator1: | Provisional Government |
| Predecessor1: | Tomás de Sousa Rosa |
| Successor1: | António Joaquim Ferreira da Fonseca |
| Office2: | Minister of the Interior |
| Term Start2: | 3 September 1911 |
| Term End2: | 12 November 1911 |
| Primeminister2: | Himself |
| Predecessor2: | António José de Almeida |
| Successor2: | Silvestre Falcão |
| Office3: | Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| Term Start3: | 3 September 1911 |
| Term End3: | 12 October 1911 |
| Primeminister3: | Himself |
| Predecessor3: | Bernardino Machado |
| Successor3: | Augusto de Vasconcelos |
| Birth Date: | 1 September 1863 |
| Birth Place: | Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil |
| Death Place: | Estoril, Portugal |
| Party: | Portuguese Republican (1890–1911) Independent (1911–1925) |
| Occupation: | Diplomat, editor, journalist, political analist, politician, writer |
| Signature: | Assinatura João Chagas.svg |
João Pinheiro Chagas (1 September 1863 – 28 May 1925; pronounced as /pt/) was a Portuguese politician, literary critic, propagandist, editor, and journalist.[2] He was heavily involved in several rebellions condemning the monarchy and disseminating materials via pamphlets and newspaper in support of the Portuguese Republican Party. He was among the leaders of the 5 October 1910 revolution and the Lisbon Regicide, and later served as Ambassador to Paris, and twice as interim prime minister of the Portuguese First Republic.
Chagas was born 1 September 1863 in Rio de Janeiro, Empire of Brazil to João Pinheiro Chagas and Maria Amélia Rosa Pereira.[3] [4] His father was a Portuguese emigrant with ancestral ties to Portuguese refugees from Beiras who fled to Brazil during the Liberal Wars.[5] On his paternal side, Manuel Pinheiro Chagas was his cousin and his son Mário was his first cousin once removed.[5] His mother was an Indigenous American.[5] The family relocated to Lisbon when Chagas was a child and he was orphaned at a young age.[5] [6]
Chagas could not afford to attend university, so he moved to Porto at age 16 and began his writing career.[5] [3] At times, he wrote under the pseudonym João Rimanso or Ivan.[7] His first publication was in O Primeiro de Janeiro in Porto; he later moved back to Lisbon to collaborate with Temps, Correio da Manhã, and O Diá.[3] [5]
At the end of the 19th century, Chagas founded La Marseillaise (1896—1898), O Berro (1896), Branco e Negro (1896—1898), A Paródia (1900—1907), and A República Portuguesa,[5] [8] and became director of Brazilian newspaper O Paiz (1898) and the Portuguese publications A Lanterna (1899) and Batalha (1900).[3] [5] While incarcerated in Angola, he headed the prison's newspaper (1896—1897).[5] La Marseillaise closed in 1898 due to censorship laws and Chagas' known allegiance to the Republican Party.[5] When he returned from exile, he founded A Portuguesa (1893), which he considered a revival of La Marseillaise.[8]
All of the newspapers he founded, directed, and contributed to were anti-monarchy propaganda tools; his articles were extremely controversial and led to him being arrested several times.[8] [9]
During his early years in Porto, he met and befriended several members of Life's Vanquished.[8] He became more critical and more deeply involved with the Republican Party as a result.[8] In 1891, he published an article in A República Portuguesa that was controversial enough to get him arrested and jailed for 10 days.[4] Within days, he participated in and helped plan a rebellion, and his sentence was increased to 4 years in prison or 6 years in exile.[8] [3] [10] Chagas was originally bound for Luanda but was transferred to Moçâmedes after one day.[10] He escaped within a few months and traveled to Paris before returning to Portugal in 1892, where he was arrested again.[10] [4] While in prison, he continued to petition against governmental oppression of rights and wrote extensively about his experiences, making him the only primary source from a Portuguese prisoner from that period.[10] [8]
He was freed from prison in 1893 due to an amnesty resulting from the 1890 British Ultimatum.[11] He lived in Porto, Brazil, and Madrid for varying lengths of time before being arrested again in 1896, and again in 1908 for his involvement in the Lisbon Regicide.[5] [8] [4] He participated in the 5 October 1910 revolution not long after.[11]
The Portuguese First Republic was established in 1910, and Chagas' governmental career began.[8] His first role was an ambassador to Paris; he did, however, resign twice due to political disagreements with his supervisors.[8] [11] He served as both prime minister and Interior Minister for 70 days in late 1911 and again in 1915.[3] [11] [6] While in Paris, he continued to keep a critical eye on Portugal's political decision-making.[6] During the Republic's early days, Chagas met with Sir Lancelot Carnegie of Britain, Portuguese War Minister Freire de Andrade, and French diplomat Émile Daeschner to keep himself informed.[6] He was very critical of Portugal's lack of involvement when World War I broke out and was one of the delegates who led the Republic to join the war in 1916.[8] [6]
Following the 1915 May 14 Revolt, Chagas was nominated to succeed Manuel de Arriaga's role as president of Portugal.[8] Senator João José de Freitas disagreed with this decision and attempted to assassinated him.[3] He shot several times at a car Chagas was traveling in with his wife in Entroncamento.[3] [11] Chagas' head was shaved and he lost an eye in the attack.[11] He withdrew from politics during his recovery and turned down the presidential nomination, preferring instead to continue working as an ambassador in Paris.[4] [8] He kept this role until he retired in 1924, with the exception of 1917—1918 during the period of Sidónism.[11] [6] [8] Chagas died on 28 May 1925 in Estoril, Cascais, Portugal.[3] [8]
He died of aortitis and is buried in the Alto de São João Cemetery.[12]
Chagas served as part of the Portuguese delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference and the League of Nations.[11] [8] He was also a co-founder of the Portuguese Association of Journalists and the Porto Men of Letters, and became a Freemason in 1896.[13] [3] In 1919, he was awarded a Gold Cross from the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword.[8]
He is the namesake for a road in Lisbon and a garden in Porto.[14] [15]
During his lifetime, Chagas wrote at least 15 books and many more journal articles and pamphlets:[9]
| width=2% | Year | width=32% | Original title | width=32% | Title in English (Approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1894 | Diario de um condemnado politico | Diary of a Political Convict | |||
| 1897 | De Bond. Algunas aspectos da civilisaçaõ brasileira | Some aspects of Brazilian culture | |||
| O crime da sociedade | Society's crime | ||||
| 1898 | Na Brecha (Pamphletos) | The Gap (Pamphlets) | |||
| 1900 | Trabalhos forçado | Forced labour | |||
| 1905 | Bom-Humor | Good spirits | |||
| Homens e Factos 1902—1904 | Men and Facts 1902—1904 | ||||
| 1906 | As minhas razões | My reasons | |||
| Posta-restante (Cartas a toda a genta) | Remaining notes (Letters to everyone | ||||
| Vida Litteraria (ideias e sensacoes | Literary life: Ideas and sensations | ||||
| 1907 | João Franco. 1906—1907 | ||||
| 1908 | 1908. Subsidios criticos para a historia da dictadura | 1908. Critical subsidies for the history of the dictatorship | |||
| 1908—1910 | Cartas Politicas | Political notes | |||
| 1915 | A ultima crise. Comentários a situação da Republica Portuguesa | The last crisis: Comementary on the Portuguese Republic | |||
| Portugal perante a Guerra. Subsidios para uma pagina da Historia Nacional | Portugal before the war. Subsidies for a page in National History | ||||
In 1929, four years after his death, Diario de João Chagas was published.[9] He wrote the prefaces for Guedes d'Oliveira's 1890 Gazetilhas; and Luciano Fataça's 1895 A revolução de Cuba.[9] He co-wrote Historia da revolta do Porto de 31 de Janeiro de 1891 (depoimento de dois cúmplices) with Ex-Tenente Coelho.[9] He was also a translator; works included prose from Jacques Offenbach's operetta Os Bandidos and Adolphe d'Ennery's play Martyr.[8] [9]