It was the first consequent attempt to overthrow the Military Dictatorship that was then consolidated in Portugal following the 28 May 1926 coup d'état, which occurred nine months earlier, initiating a set of insurrectionary movements that became known as the Reviralhism.

The victory of the 28 May 1926 coup d'état, nine months earlier, led to the establishment of the Military Dictatorship, with the 1911 Constitution of the First Portuguese Republic suspended, the parliament closed and civil liberties abolished.

Although clearly anti-democratic, the regime that was then being drafted was in line with the anti-parliamentary movement that was growing in Europe and was accepted by a population tired of the instability and violence that had marked the last decade in Portugal.

The members of the military and militarized forces were joined by militants from workers' organizations, in particular the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), and from republican parties and institutions that remained in operation and continued to edit their press, despite increasing censorship and police restrictions.

[2] Thus, the February 1927 Revolt began as another routine military rebellion, following the dozens that had marked the final years of the First Portuguese Republic, not even having the element of surprise, since it was expected by the Government and the forces who opposed it.

It is known that on 25 June 1926, less than a month after the 28 May coup, a revolt against the military dictatorship was already being prepared, in a process led by the so-called National Library Group, which included among others Raul Proença, Jaime Cortesão and David Ferreira, the first with strong connections to Seara Nova.

Jaime Cortesão was immediately appointed civil governor of Porto and Raul Proença, in addition to being a conspirator, was an organizer and combatant with weapons in hand, serving as a liaison with the co-conspirators of Lisbon.

During the dawn and morning of 3 February, the forces of the rebels went to the area of Batalha Square, where the headquarters of the Military Region and of the Civil Government and the most important telegraph station were located.

He then assumed the operational control of the pro-government forces installed there under the command of Colonel João Carlos Craveiro Lopes, remaining at the front until the subjugation of the rebels.

[2] On the morning of 4 February, the 8th Cavalry Regiment, coming from Aveiro, faithful to the Government, managed to penetrate the fire of the revolutionaries and cross the Dom Luís I Bridge, but was stopped by the barricades that defended Praça da Batalha.

On the afternoon of February 4, when military adhesions did not live up to expectations, Raul Proença, deeply involved in the revolt, summoned civilians to fight alongside the rebels, but with little success.

To complete the defensive perimeter, another machine gun was placed in a trench built at the confluence of the streets of Cima de Vila and Madeira, an artillery piece was mounted at the corner of the Hospital do Ordem do Terço building, facing Rua do Cativo, and placed a machine gun in the missing Largo do Corpo da Guarda, at the top of the street that still maintained this designation.

On the afternoon of this day, Commander Jaime de Morais, military head of the Northern Revolutionary Committee, sent Óscar Carmona a telegram containing an ultimatum stating: The revolting officers decided to reintegrate the country within the constitutional democratic regime, with the formation of a National Government that affirmed the supremacy of the civil power, guarded and defended by the armed forces, which thus would have restored the functions from which they diverted it.

Contrary to what was predicted by the rebels, until the end of 4 February there were no adhesions in Lisbon, the vital center of political-military power, which allowed the Minister of War, Colonel Passos e Sousa, to concentrate all forces in the fight to the entrenched in Porto.

[4] Facing the tightening of the siege, on the night of 5 February, the rebels proposed an armistice, but Passos e Sousa responded, on the morning of the 6th, with the reiteration of the demand for unconditional surrender and the threat of even more intense and heavy bombardment, including the use of howitzers.

Raul Proença returned to Lisbon on the night of 6 February to ask for help and to try to unleash the revolt in that city, since the movement, without the expected support, was beginning to face serious difficulties in Porto.

In those circumstances, all that remained was to negotiate a surrender, since a bayonet attack against the government batteries of Serra do Pilar (Gaia) to reverse the situation was virtually impossible, with the bombing of the city being certain.

With their eyes set on Lisbon, where at great cost and with an exasperating slowness the movement finally seemed to take off, the rebels resisted during the 6th and 7th of February, but as the hours went by and the ammunition ran out, the feeling of defeat and the voices that advocated surrender began to rise.

Finally, on the afternoon of 7 February, when ammunition was exhausted, the headquarters of the rebels, installed in the São João National Theatre, ordered the dispersion of the civilians stationed there.

At midnight, General Sousa Dias arrived at the 5th Artillery Regiment, in Gaia, where he signed a document through Major Alves Viana, from the GNR, in which he proposed surrender, safeguarding the exemption of sergeants', corporals' and soldiers' responsibilities.

Shortly afterwards, João Carlos Craveiro Lopes sent Óscar Carmona the following telegram: Troops entered Praça da Batalha, Porto, at 8:30 am, taking over the city where life is resuming its normalcy.

In view of the alienation of the main units of the Army, the rebels were mostly sailors and companies of the Republican National Guard, supported by armed civilians, many of whom were former members of the White Ant Movement.

The bulk of the Army aligned with government positions, leaving the insurgents isolated and poorly armed, despite having assaulted the War Material Depot and the Weapons Factory.

In conclusion, the February 1927 Revolt was a defining moment in the ideological fields that would fight each other in the following decades, marking, in fact, the emergence of reviralhism and resistance to the Portuguese dictatorship.