Portugal.

The Revolution of 25 April 1974 was a great milestone of change with obvious consequences for the historical development of schooling in Portugal. Putting an end to a forty-eight-year-old dictatorship, it opened the country to democracy. After Salazar's death in 1968, the new Prime Minister, Marcello Caetano, tried to gradually reform the regime, but the so-called Marcellist spring was so weak and corrupt that the Revolution broke out in the early morning hours of 25 April 1974. It was the army, tired of a bloody and futile war in remote colonies in Africa, that led the Revolution (also known as the Carnations Revolution, because these flowers were in bloom at that time of the year and were placed in the guns of the soldiers). It was a peaceful revolution, since the forces of the ancien régime surrendered with little resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]