Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello, Conde de Oeiras, since 1769 the Marquis of Pombal ( Marquis, Portuguese: Marquês de Pombal ), ( born May 13, 1699 Lisbon, † May 8, 1782 in Pombal ) was First Minister of Portugal during the reign King Joseph I and the most important Portuguese statesman of the 18th century. Based on the thought of the Enlightenment, he tried to lead the many things still medieval Portugal into the modern age with a comprehensive reform program.

Life

Pombal studied at the University of Coimbra. In 1738 he became Portuguese Ambassador in London, seven years later the Portuguese ambassador in Vienna. 1750 he was appointed by King Joseph I to the Foreign Minister.

On the morning of November 1, 1755, the capital city of Lisbon was almost completely destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake. The Marquês de Pombal organized reconstruction. Having thus put his organizational skills to the test, Pombal in 1756 appointed the first minister. The king was not particularly interested in government affairs and granted Pombal largely free hand, so this became the real ruler of the country. Pombal laid the foundation stone for the entry of Portugal into the modern age. In place of the traditional clerical policy was the Marquês an enlightened absolutism.

The soon called forth the opposition of the Catholic Church. The Jesuits preached that the earthquake was God's punishment for the reforms. On 3 September 1758 came to an assassination attempt on Joseph. From a lovers coming with his mistress, was the king. , Without escort on the way home after Ajuda, where he resided in a tent city since the earthquake He was ambushed and shot. The perpetrators were caught and confessed under torture to have been entrusted by the family Tavora. The Tavoras belonged to the high nobility and stood in sharp opposition to Marquês de Pombal. He took the opportunity to accuse the entire family of high treason. Even the teachers of Leonora de Tavora, the Jesuit monk Gabriel Malagrida, was arrested and later burned at the stake. On January 13, 1759, the entire family was almost executed, confiscated their property and their name removed from the needle directory. 1759 the Jesuit order in Portugal and Brazil was dissolved, and Pombal received in the same year by the King for his work after the earthquake, the title of " Conde de Oeiras ". Pombal abolished slavery in 1761 in Portugal and in the Indian colonies from - but not in Brazil; all remaining legal discrimination between Cristãos - Novos ( New Christians, baptized Jews ) and the Cristãos - Velhos (Old Christians ) were abolished, censorship was transferred from the Church to the State, subject to the Inquisition the supervision of the State. At the University of Coimbra, a Faculty of Science was established, a state school system was established, the Indians in Brazil were emancipated.

With protectionist measures Pombal sought to strengthen national factories and overcome the economic dependence on foreign countries, notably from England. He founded under a state monopoly, granted concessions to local entrepreneurs and set up various state-controlled trading companies with monopoly character to life. So he created the Companhia Geral already in 1756 da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro, which received the wine-growing monopoly in the demarcated area of the Alto Douro. It was the first protected wine region in the world. He also put an emphasis on the reform of the financial system of the country.

Pombal made ​​sure that amplifies Portuguese were located in Brazil and promoted the Brazil trade through the establishment of commercial companies, such as 1755, the Companhia Geral de Comércio do Grão Pará e Maranhão and one year later, the Companhia Geral de Comércio de Pernambuco e Paraíba. Both agriculture and the trade experienced an upturn in this time, the financial position of the state improved significantly, the trade deficit with England was balanced.

In 1769, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello was appointed the first " Marquês de Pombal ", he received the Marquess of Lisbon. 1777 died Pombal great patron, King Joseph I, and his daughter Mary I ascended along with her husband and uncle, Peter III. , The Portuguese throne. The new queen was very pious, the anti-clerical policy of the Marquês de Pombal her therefore was an abomination. Hardly on the throne, she dismissed Pombal and set him at his country estate under house arrest.

Reception

The work of the Marquês de Pombal is still controversial. On the one hand he was a great modernizer in Portuguese history, which has undeniably laid the foundation for the modern Portuguese state. He reformed the education policy and put them under state control, and thus outside the direct influence of the Church. His profound changes, such as the prohibition of slavery in the mother country, the reform of the Inquisition, the prohibition of discrimination against New Christians ( Marranos, etc.), or the unification of the legal system were signs of an entirely new state, which was led by new social ideas. Individual strengths and merits presented Pombal about inherited and inherited privileges, possessions and credentials. And while the elites had been limited to the consumption of shrinking revenue from their possessions overseas and the mainland, Pombal encouraged now production and efficient trade to come to delivering adequate public finances, and to expand the capacity and enforcement power of the royal state so. Thus, for example, move internationally common today, protected wine regions back to his law concerning the Alto Douro in 1756.

On the other hand, he literally walked over corpses and was prepared to enforce its policies with violence against conservative elements. A number of his reforms were made or attenuated reversed after the end of his 25-year reform policy, which a final evaluation of his work hardly allows. Yet its peace treaty with Spain, the subsequent territorial expansion of Brazil, and the impact of its mercantilist policies on the public finances had strengthened the position of Portugal sustainable. Also, the effect of its policy on the intellectual and political climate in Portugal had continued inventory, as well a variety of non redeemed administrative reforms. To enabled the enlightened policy of Pombal, despite his ruthless approach and his relentless absolutism, the future liberalization and modernization of the country.

" The rule of Pombal had the great merit of preparing the country for the liberal revolution of the 19th century. Both the church and the nobility received a blow from which it never recovered again. At the same time the middle class ( businessmen and civil servants) was given the power that it needed to take over the administration and the economic power in the country. As he leveled all classes, laws and institutions before the despotism of the king, Pombal prepared the social revolution and the end of the feudal privileges before [ ... ] " ( author: AH de Oliveira Marques: Source: History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 1st edition, Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, page 324).