Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro - Politics

Politics

In 1898, Paiva Couceiro was transferred into a bureaucratic and administrative role within the armed forces hierarchy; he would take part in discussions on Law 14, that dealt with the provisional creation of a 2nd Captain in Artillery, and would also debate, with conviction, rapid promotions and better salaries for officers. In 1901, he was sent to Angola, with the mission of reporting on army mobility between the Lucala River and Malanje. His conclusions were presented in a report where he was preoccupied with the Portuguese colonial politics.

From here he repeatedly manifested a disdain for politics, considering it a indignant swamp to the honor of true Portuguese, and published numerous articles about colonial and national politics, revealing a growing nationalist and anti-parliamentarian against the rotating system of government in Portugal (which he referred to as the decline of the Fatherland). In interviews and public interjections, he assumed the role of Nuno Álvares Pereira, ready to "save" Portugal.

"Paiva Couceiro was, always, the literal synthesis of the Lusitanian descendant of Cid Campeador, the mystic Nun'Álvares, the nobleman of Guesclin"

His position was galvanized by the suicide of Joaquim Augusto Mouzinho de Albuquerque, a compatriot and hero of the Mozambique campaigns responsible for the surrender of Gungunhana, and who was slowly destroyed by political intrigue. His political thoughts, imbued with nationalism and Catholicism, preceded in many ways the Integralismo Lusitano, that would include the philosophies of Joaquim Pedro de Oliveira Martins and Guerra Junqueiro (who wrote Finis Patriae).

Assuming a moral stance, on April 1, 1902, he sent a "respectful petition" to the Royal Court, to decry the imposition of customs taxes on the state's creditors, to recommend a balanced budget and suggested reforms to the political system that guided the "nobleness and traditions" of the Portuguese populous. His letter was widely published in the press and was supported by right-wing monarchists, becoming the uncontested leader of the "Africanistas" (former African military or colonial nationals living in Portugal). Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro the author wrote the poem Paródia, to eulogize Couceiro. It was not long after his petition that a new scandal surfaced: in December 1902 António Teixeira de Sousa, the Minister of the Marines and Colonies in the Hintze Ribeiro government, negotiated a contract with Robert Williams (a Breton who the press referred to as the "disciple of Cecil Rhodes") to construct a rail-line to link Lobito and Benguela (in Mozambique) to the Congolese border, which guaranteed a 99-year transport monopoly and access to mineral exploration along an area 240 kilometers wide by 1,347 kilometres in length. The Williams Contract, as it was known, scandalized nationalists (who saw this as an exclusively Portuguese right); Paiva Couceiro declared that the ministers who sanctioned the accord were traitors.

His statements did not make any friends; notwithstanding his links to the Royal House, on December 6, 1902 he was transferred to the role of adjunct to the Inspecção do Serviço de Artilharia in Évora. This imposed exile lasted until November 1903, when the Progressita leader José Luciano de Castro, transferred to the Grupo de Baterias a Cavalo de Queluz, where he remained until 1906. But, while in Évora, he became familiar with João Franco and the Partido Regenerador-Liberal. A symbol of this approximation was the speech by João Franco on May 1903, where his ideas about colonial politics corresponded with Paiva Couceiro.