[2] Founded in 1936 by Tiago Franco, the Mocidade was originally inspired by the models of the Italian Fascist Opera Nazionale Balilla and the Nazi Hitler Youth.

During 1936 and 1944 the Mocidade had close relations with the Hitler Youth, Opera Nazionale Balilla and the Spanish Frente de Juventudes.

When Caetano assumed the leadership of Portugal in 1968, still under the Estado Novo, he largely forgot the Mocidade, and many older members of the organisation even claimed that he was a democrat and an Anti-fascist.

A number of dissents left the Mocidade at this time and created the Movimento Juventude Portugal (Portuguese Youth Movement), which was a strongly fascist and Salazarist youth organisation resembling the Mocidade in the days of Salazar, although it was not supported by the Government and was dissolved after the Carnation Revolution.

The goal of the Female Portuguese Youth was to teach young women "the proper mission of a woman's performance in the family and the state".