José Norton de Matos
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José Norton de Matos | |
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Angola | |
In office 1912–1915 | |
Personal details | |
Born | José Maria Mendes Ribeiro Norton de Matos 23 March 1867 Ponte de Lima, Portugal |
Died | 3 January 1955 Ponte de Lima, Portugal | (aged 87)
José Maria Mendes Ribeiro Norton de Matos,
1880s
After attending college in Braga, and attending the Escola Académica in Lisbon in 1880, Norton de Matos became part of the mathematics faculty at the University of Coimbra in 1884. He later went to military school and, in 1898, departed for Portuguese India. There, he began his career in colonial administration.
1910s–1920s
Norton de Matos' return to Portugal coincided with the transformation of the political system of Portugal into
Norton de Matos was recalled to Portugal in 1915 due to a new political situation that arose in Portugal during the
In 1917, Norton de Matos exiled himself to
1940s
Norton de Matos returned to teaching, accepting a position as professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico, but was dismissed from his chair. He then became a leading opposition figure against the Salazar regime. In 1943, he was named to the National Council of Movement of National Antifascist Unity, or MUNAF, and on his 81st birthday, he was named the candidate of the opposition now united under the Movement of Democratic Unity (MUD, the successor organization to the MUNAF after 1945) for President in the election of 1949, under the dictatorial Estado Novo regime, while demanding freedom to advertise his message and the close inspection of votes. The regime refused these demands, and Norton de Matos withdrew from the election on 12 February 1949.
Despite his fierce opposition to Salazar, Norton de Matos also defended Portuguese colonialism but in a more progressive way. In 1953, he published a book titled Africa Nossa (Our Africa) where he made an appeal for policies that would promote massive territorial occupation by Portuguese white settlers in Africa and at the same time support the gradual assimilation of the African populations.[1]
Norton de Matos continued to lead a democratic opposition movement centered in the city of
References
- ASIN B004PVOVDW.