The Truth About Azorean Autonomy
Milestones of Azorean Autonomy
A Journey Through Three Great Landmarks of Freedom and Human Dignity—Yet Still Far from a Truly Decent Democracy
First Milestone – 1582
From the 1430s to 1822
“Better to die free than live in peace under subjugation.”
This declaration embodies an ideal. In 1582, in Angra, was born the motto that came to express the Azorean people’s enduring spirit of liberty. Long before the rise of liberalism, there already existed an insular consciousness that rejected subjugation and defended the rights of the Azoreans as Portuguese islanders.
From the beginning of settlement in the 1430s until 1822, several forms of local government existed in the Azores, alongside the municipal institutions where justice was administered.
The people of that era thought much as we think today. Although they possessed less accumulated knowledge, the fifteenth century was already an age touched by a certain modernity. Since the founding of Portugal, Renaissance ideas had gradually circulated, particularly by the latter part of the fifteenth century. What constrained knowledge and independent thought was not a lack of intelligence, but the monarchical regime itself. Very few people had either the opportunity to speak publicly or the means to disseminate ideas.
Even so, society functioned within a framework of rules and institutions; and those rules and institutions—in their ontological sense—reflected systems of thought and ideals.
In the first phase, power rested in the hands of the captain-major appointed by the hereditary grantee (donatário), who held ownership of one island, several islands, or even the entire archipelago, together with the principal landowners. Later, authority came to be shared with the Crown through the royal magistrate (corregedor) and other representatives of the State.
The burdens of military affairs and coastal defense fell largely upon Angra, where the principal institutions of the Crown were headquartered, including the Royal Treasury (Fazenda Real) and the Naval Administration (Provedoria da Armada).
With the creation of the Captaincy-General of the Azores in 1766, the archipelago began to be governed as a single region, with its administrative seat established in Angra.
Second Milestone – 1822
From 1822 to 1976
Liberal Administrative Autonomy. Constituent government and district authority in the three historic and demographic centers of the islands.
The Constitution of 1822 recognized that political authority and the patrimony of the State belonged to the people, while establishing an intermediate level of autonomous local government. Thus was born the district system, which became the foundation of the administrative autonomy of the Kingdom’s regions, including the Azores.
Throughout the period extending from the Liberal Revolution of 1822 until the democratic Constitution of 1976, the Azores continued to experience forms of governance beyond the municipal level.
Whereas the first three centuries had largely been characterized by governance on an island-by-island basis, during which powerful landowners built their own agricultural and commercial domains, this new era witnessed a reduced level of direct intervention by the central State. District autonomy provided a degree of administrative flexibility and local decision-making.
São Miguel enjoyed the advantages of generating substantial wealth while maintaining relatively modest public expenditures.
Terceira, however, shared responsibilities with São Jorge and Graciosa, while also bearing the burden of the State’s strategic presence in the Atlantic, resulting in greater administrative costs.
More difficult still was the situation in Horta, which administered Pico, Flores, and Corvo. Burdened with extensive responsibilities but limited revenues, the Horta District declined the administrative autonomy granted in 1895. It regained district autonomy only in 1940, when legislation required it to do so, despite the fact that the Estado Novo had already reduced district revenues even further.
Third Milestone – 1976
From 1976 to 2026
Political, Constitutional, and Democratic Autonomy.
The Portuguese Constitution formally recognizes the Azores as an Autonomous Region endowed with its own governing institutions, thereby giving constitutional expression to a long historical journey marked by aspirations, struggles, and achievements in defense of human dignity—always within the identity of the Azoreans as Portuguese islanders.
Finally, from the decisive turning point of 1976 to the present day, the constitutional model of autonomy has undergone significant and profound transformations—as is well known—and many more…
Arnaldo Ourique is a specialist in Azorean Autonomy and has been a contributing writer for many Azorean newspapers and a regular at our PBBI Fresno State/FLAD Lecture Series inpolitical science.