Cartista

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In the history of Portugal, a Cartista was a member of the party that led Portugal over to a more conservative form of the liberalism that had arisen after the revolution of 1820, centered around the Constitutional Charter of 1826, granted by Pedro IV in an attempt to reduce the conflicts opened up by the revolution, less radicalising in character than the Constitution of 1822.

The cartistas made war on Miguel I, an absolute king, in collaboration with the vintistas, but ended up being misunderstood in 1834, after the Convention of Évora-Mount that put an end to the Liberal Wars, forming two political groups that became more and more distinct, with the vintistas little by little separating themselves and moving further to the left of liberal thought.

The cartistas were in power several times, under several different names, and were the main winners of the Patuleia and completely won the trial of strength that emerged after the Revolution of Maria da Fonte. When the formation of political parties was clarified as a result of the Regeneração, the Cartistas re-formed in 1851 as the "Partido Regenerador", which up to the advent of the Republic in Portugal was the main conservative party of the right of the Constitutional Monarchy. It alternated in power with the Partido Progressista. More than half of Portugal's presidents of the council of the second half of the 19th century belonged to this political party. A faction of 25 led by João Franco, opposing Hintze Ribeiro's leadership of the main party, formally broke away on 12 February 1901 and became the Partido Regenerador Liberal (officially called the Centro Regenerador Liberal) on 16 May that year.

Despite the resemblance of its name and some of its objectives, Portuguese "cartismo" is not directly equivalent to European chartism, since the letter it defended (the Constitutional Letter of 1826) was a charter that had been granted to the Portuguese in particular, rather than the generic charter of rights aspired to by European chartism. Indeed, it itself attacked the wishes of European chartism, particularly British Chartism, closer to the resolutions of Portuguese Constitution of 1822 than those of the Portuguese Constitutional Charter.

[edit] See also

• Chartism in general
• Septembrism, the anti-Cartista party