Francisco Xavier da Cunha Aragão (15 March 1891–26 February 1973) was a Cavalry officer of the Portuguese Army who reached the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Francisco Xavier da Cunha Aragão married Georgina Pereira de Vasconcelos, also a native of Angra do Heroísmo, on May 19, 1919.
On 18 October 1914, a platoon commanded by Lieutenant Manuel Álvares Sereno, who was patrolling the border with Damaraland, encountered a small German force about 12 km (7.5 miles)from the Naulila post.
It was commanded by Dr. Hans Schultze-Jena, judge and administrator of Outjo district,[6] who had entered Angola without informing the Portuguese authorities and without contact with any border post.
During his stopover in Funchal, Aragão made statements to the press in which he repudiated the Pimenta de Castro dictatorship and urged Portugal to enter the First World War to avenge the German outrage.
Francisco Xavier da Cunha Aragão was selected along with Cifka Duarte, João Barata Salgueiro Valente and Carlos Esteves Beja; they were sent to California to attend a basic piloting course at the Signal Corps Aviation School, San Diego, to learn to fly seaplanes and conventional airplanes.
After fulfilling their duty and oath to give their blood for the homeland, the League believed veterans had been abandoned by the contemporaneous government, causing serious damage to the patriotism, discipline and morals of the Portuguese people.
Along with Ezequiel de Campos, Jaime Cortesão and Sarmento Pimentel, Aragão was part of the group that handed over the document to António Maria da Silva, who was President of the Republic at that time.
Following this initiative, Aragão was also a member of União Cívica's Lisbon Directive Commission, along with António Sérgio, Jaime Cortesão, Filomeno da Câmara, Ferreira do Amaral, Quirino de Jesus and Afonso Augusto Bourbon e Menezes.
In early 1926, in the final months of the First Republic, Aragão was appointed sub-director of Aeronautics for the Portuguese Army, serving until the coup of 28 May 1926 that ended the democratic regime.
Having been linked to the republican left from an early age, Francisco Aragão quickly gravitated to a group of military men who opposed the National Dictatorship and the Estado Novo.
Initially, he waited to see what direction the new regime would take but after an attempted revolt in February 1927, in which he did not participate, Aragão was considered a political ally of Mendes Cabeçadas and Cunha Leal, and was invited to join the group of revolutionaries.
I consider the victory of the men who revolted in Porto to be pernicious for the Republic and for the Army, and my duties of loyalty oblige me to carry out the orders given to me.
In December 1927, in an apparent attempt to appease the armed forces, the dictatorship awarded Aragão the rank of Commander of the Military Order of Avis, which he accepted.
By an ordinance of 26 July 1928, the administration of General José Vicente de Freitas created a commission to study the possibility of building an airport in the Azores, of which Aragão was appointed a member.
16424 of 26 January 1929 that had a broad remit to advise on matters of transport, national defence, postal services, colonial and commercial relations, and diplomatic agreements, among others.
The delegation also included José Lobo de Ávila Lima, full professor at the Faculty of Law of Lisbon, to support him in legal matters.
[26] Despite his increasing distance from the regime, on 30 January 1931, the Domingos Oliveira-led government praised Aragão for his "intelligent manner, great dedication and unsurpassed activity" as secretary of the National Air Council and in particular for his report on the importance of the Azores for the progress of aeronautics.
He first openly criticized the Colonial Act and formed closer ties with military officers who repudiated Cunha Leal's imprisonment and exile to the Azores in May 1930.
In December of that year, Aragão took part in a meeting in Madrid aimed at analyzing the consequences of the failed mid-November revolt attempt.