Author:
Soraia Milene Carvalho, MA
PhD Student in Contemporary History
at the Lisbon School of Arts and Humanities
(FLUL)
Researcher at the Centre for History
of the University of Lisbon (CH-UL)
Contact: soraiamilenecarvalho@campus.ul.pt
Small powers on the “scale of Europe” sat at the table of the Peace Conference after the Great War: Portugal and Serbia intended each other as equal at the moment the war had finished. The Portuguese Delegation sent to Paris in 1919 at the time of the Peace Conference had sought to strengthen her ties with the Balkan nation carrying out identical diplomacy in some circumstances at the League of Nations until the decade of 1930. From this, our study deepens the understandings of Republican and Monarchical Portuguese Authors – Brito de Camacho (1862-1934) and Quirino de Jesus (1865-1935) – in the period between wars over Serbia and the Balkan Peninsula, analyzing the approximations between Portugal and her counterpart of the Old Continent. The first Author understood the Balkans through the antagonisms that allowed the so-called great Powers to interfere in Peninsula; Brito Camacho was thinking on a prospect of a “confederation” that could unite the Balkan peoples. Quirino de Jesus in his study publishing in 1932 observed the growing of nationalist and popular movements in Europe, culminate his analyses in the advent of the Yugoslav State, underlining the political differences between Serbia and Croatia. We emphasize that at the end of the Great War the Serbian-Croatian-Slovenian State and Portugal were declared as winning Powers; in the new international order they were also founders of the League of Nations, providing their contributions to the creation of the International Organization that had as a requirement the maintenance of a lasting European and world peace. Both States signatories to the Treaty of Versailles – in the case of Serbia-Croatian-Slovenian State through Nicholas P. Pachitch, Ante Trumbic and Milenko Vesnitch; by Portugal was Afonso Costa and Augusto Soares – this small Powers sought to legitimize their diplomacy in Geneva to where was transferred the International debates of the time; both States had manifested the most alive interests and remained attentive on the proposals voted and the events and issues analyzed in the League. Our study culminate in 1929, when French Minister Aristide Briand (1862-1932) had send his Memorandum to the European States for the construction of a union among Europeans: Yugoslavia and Portugal had their answers in accordance with the their interests, concluding both in a safeguard that would allow them to define their diplomacy regarding the League of Nations and on an European Union where all Member States of the League would not fit; Yugoslavia noted the situation and underlining her opinion: a union of Europeans would necessarily have to distance themselves from the International Organization born in the post-war (SDN). Portugal had seen more obstacles: intended to participate as much as possible – “in principle” as the words sent to Briand – an European Union designed before her time; however, the economic obstacles were allied with Europe’s growing nationalisms.
"Yugoslavia and Portugal had their answers in accordance with the their interests, concluding both in a safeguard that would allow them to define their diplomacy regarding the League of Nations and on an European Union where all Member States of the League would not fit"
The present investigation focuses on the analysis of the Portuguese and Serbian presence at the Peace Conference and at the League of Nations as the both were designated “Powers of limited interests” during the negotiations; we focuse on the treatment of historical sources related to the Portuguese position and readings until the proposal of the Memorandum Briand and concerning the Balkan Power.
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