Germany declares war on Portugal

On the afternoon of Thursday 9 March 1916 the German minister in Lisbon, Friedrich Rosen, asked the Foreign Minister of Portugal, Augusto Soares, for an urgent audience. The minister gave him an appointment at 6 p.m. According to the Lisbon press Rosen arrived punctually, in a black frock coat and top hat, and the conversation lasted less than twenty minutes. The minister handed over a long note from his government. It listed the German grievances against Portugal and ended with the statement that the German Empire henceforth considered itself to be in a state of war with Portugal. That same evening the American minister in Lisbon cabled Washington that the German government “considers itself in a state of war with Portugal” and that German interests were being taken over by the Spanish legation.

The following evening Rosen, with his wife and the legation staff, left Lisbon by special train for Madrid. Many members of the German colony left the country with him, although some Germans decided to stay. The Portuguese minister Sidónio Pais, who had represented Portugal there since 1912, had to leave Berlin.

The dispute over the ships

The immediate cause of the rupture was ships. On 23 February, at Britain’s request, the Portuguese seized the German and Austro-Hungarian merchant ships lying in the Tagus, and in the following days also those in the country’s other ports and in the colonies. By 9 March they had taken over about 70 of them. The government of Afonso Costa presented this as an ordinary requisition in the public interest, needed by the economy, and that same day instructed its minister in Berlin to explain to the Germans Lisbon’s position on the rights of shipowners, crews and compensation.

Berlin did not accept these explanations. According to a later report by the Portuguese government, a few days after the seizure of the ships Rosen handed Soares a note in which he called Portugal’s conduct “a particular violation of law and an act of violence” and demanded that the decision be revoked immediately. Lisbon refused. It invoked a provision of international law that Italy had recently applied when requisitioning German ships in its ports, without Germany declaring war on it for that. It also recalled that in August 1914 Portugal had openly declared its loyalty to the alliance with Britain, and that Germany had taken note of this, keeping its minister in Lisbon.

Rosen’s note

The answer was the note of 9 March. In it the German government listed all the acts of Portugal that it regarded as breaches of neutrality. The Portuguese had refused coal to German ships, allowed British warships to stay in their ports, let British troops pass through Mozambique, allowed Madeira to be used as a naval base and handed over the vessel Lis to the British. According to the Germans they had also sold arms to the Entente, which Lisbon firmly denied. The note also returned to the Naulila incident in Angola in October 1914 and presented it as if the Portuguese had lured the Germans onto their territory, detained them without grounds and shot some of them. Finally, the Germans rejected the Portuguese legal arguments about the ships. They regarded the seizure as a violation of law which proved that Portugal was behaving as England’s vassal.

The Portuguese government later replied that all these acts would have been disloyal only if Portugal had ever proclaimed neutrality. It had, however, never done so. At London’s request, in 1914 it had declared neither neutrality nor entry into the war, but from the start it had stood by its British ally.

A war Lisbon wanted

There was no great surprise in Lisbon. For several days the city had been living on rumours. Germans were withdrawing their savings from the banks, and at the legation in the Rua do Século, as the press reported, the lights burned until morning. The government, in any case, was deliberately heading for a rupture. Costa’s Democrats, who governed the country, and also António José de Almeida’s opposition Evolutionists had wanted since the start of the war for Portugal to fight alongside Britain, not only in Africa but also in France. Historians point to several reasons. The most important were the colonies. In 1898 and 1913 Britain and Germany had reached understandings on dividing Portugal’s possessions in Africa in case Lisbon failed to repay its debts. The republicans calculated that a country which shed blood for its ally would take a seat at the peace table and defend its empire. Participation in the war was also meant to strengthen the young republic, regarded with reserve in Europe, and the position of the Democrats themselves.

There was no shortage of opponents. A war in Europe was not wanted by monarchists, Catholics, a large part of the officer corps and many workers, who were already feeling the high cost of living. The moderate republicans, Manuel de Brito Camacho’s Unionists, were also sceptical. Britain long cooled its ally’s ardour: in 1914 it asked Portugal not to announce its entry into the war, and was in no hurry to accept Portuguese help. Only the shortage of tonnage at the beginning of 1916 meant that London needed something Portugal could give, namely ships.

The Portuguese had in fact been fighting the Germans for a long time, although formally there was peace. In August 1914 Germans from German East Africa attacked the Maziua post on the border river Rovuma in Mozambique. In the autumn of that year, after the Naulila incident, troops from German South West Africa raided Portuguese posts in Angola, and in December they defeated the Portuguese at Naulila itself.

Congress and a national government

On the afternoon of 10 March Congress, that is both chambers of parliament, met in extraordinary session in the São Bento Palace. A crowd filled the galleries and the streets around the building. President Bernardino Machado watched the proceedings from a box, and in the diplomatic gallery the British and French ministers were given an ovation. The reading of the German note provoked indignation. Costa declared that Portugal would fulfil all the obligations arising from the alliance with Britain. Congress unanimously adopted a motion by the deputy Alexandre Braga: it supported the government’s actions and declared that the time had come for a “national ministry” that would guard the honour and interests of the country.

Costa tendered his cabinet’s resignation and continued to govern on an interim basis. Talks on a new government went slowly, because several candidates for prime minister declined. In the end a cabinet was formed that was called the “Sacred Union”, on the model of the French national concord of 1914.

The first months of the war

A few days later Austria-Hungary followed Germany’s lead. In Africa the Portuguese went into action at once: on 10 April 1916 they occupied the Kionga Triangle at the mouth of the Rovuma, a disputed scrap of land that the Germans had taken from them in 1894. Only in the summer of 1916 did Britain formally ask Portugal to take an active part in the war in Europe. A division was then formed at the Tancos training ground, from which the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps grew. Its first soldiers landed in France at the beginning of 1917. The Portuguese paid a high price for their choice: German submarines sank several dozen Portuguese ships, and on 9 April 1918 a German blow fell on the Portuguese sector of the front, opening the Battle of the Lys.