Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução dos Cravos or 25 de Abril) was a bloodless left-leaning revolution started on April 25, 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, that effectively changed the Portuguese regime from a fascist dictatorship to a liberal democracy at the end of a two-year process."Bloodless" must be qualified: the governmental forces killed four people before surrendering. However, this revolution is peculiar in that the revolutionaries did not use direct violence to achieve their goals. And the population, interacting with the red carnations, demoved the regime soldiers, who easily changed their bullets for flowers. Shouting in the streets words of unity, like "O Povo unido, jamais será vencido!" (Which means something like The United People, will never be defeated!). It was the end of the longest dictatorship in Europe.
Freedom Day on April 25 is one of the major holidays in Portugal, usually a day of celebration and joy, though some right-wing sectors of population still regard the developments after the coup d'état as pernicious for the country. On the other hand, some of the military leaders think that the leftist inspiration of the uprising has since been abandoned.
The carnation is the symbol of this revolution, since soldiers put these flowers in their guns, in what came to symbolise the absence of violence for changing the regime in Portugal—a regime that had been one of the longest dictatorships of the 20th century.
There were two secret signals in the revolution: first the airing of the song E depois do adeus by Paulo de Carvalho, which alerted the rebel captains and soldiers to start the revolution; and then Grândola, Vila Morena, confirmed the actions and "announced" that the revolution had started and nothing would stop it except "the possiblity of a regime's repression".
The revolution was closely watched from neighbouring Spain, where democrats and totalitarianss were planning for the succession of Francisco Franco (who would later die in 1975).