The remainder of Salazar’s career would focus on his efforts to retain the Portuguese Empire. Salazar clearly saw that granting independence to Angola and Mozambique would more than likely result in nothing but an even greater influence for Communism in Africa. Accordingly, he jealously guarded Portuguese Africa until his death.

Many critics, both during Salazar’s life and after his death, accused Salazar of being a fascist dictator. But there were significant differences between the Portuguese nationalism that Salazar encouraged and the German nationalism that Hitler manipulated. Portuguese nationalism was never aggressive…

Salazar approached all three generals directly and demanded that he be given control over all spending as Minister of Finance, and that any legislature which concerned finances have his approval before it became law. The generals refused, and Salazar resigned. He only spent five days in office, from June eleventh to June sixteenth…

As soon as Dr. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar assumed his role as Minister of Finance, he devoted himself to working for the benefit of Portugal. His budgets were balanced, he paid off the debt Portugal owed to England, and he modernized Portugal’s infrastructure and military. On the global stage, he solidified his ties with Great Britain and Spain, while also struggling to keep Portugal and Spain out of World War II.