1. Place, time, and date of the birth of Azorean autonomy

For many, the political autonomy of the Azores was born in 1976; for others, it was born in 1895, and this version corresponds to the region’s political discourse. Neither version is correct: the first, because the Azores already had political autonomy from the beginning of its history, which is when it was settled; the second, because the so-called administrative autonomy was, in theory, introduced in the country by the liberalism of the 1822 Constitution and implemented in 1836. But it’s not just because of these facts that those ideas are wrong; it’s also because, on the one hand, none of them determines what is meant by political autonomy and, on the other hand, because the political history of a locality begins at the beginning of what conveys an idea of autonomy.
The history of the Azores gives us reliable data on how it all began and why and where. It is, therefore, perfectly possible to look at the time frame of this history to determine a concept of political autonomy that can be verified scientifically: a formal or informal system, fixed or transitory, constitutional or just legal or contractual, of self-government of a locality within a global political space. This concept, which we developed in 2001, already gives us all the information precisely because it is based on history and not just theory. It starts from verifiable reality to hypothesis and then to theory.
Over the years, we have, here and there, pointed to the city of Angra do Heroísmo as an autonomous city. It is an autonomous city, not only because it has been responsible for the governance of the Azorean islands for many years and centuries but also because it is the precise location of this quality when the first substantial act that gives us this information takes place.
From the beginning of their settlement, the islands already had an idea of belonging, as seen in the island populations. But it could also have been reinforced by the method of their governance: it was an archipelago, of course, but each island had its own government, its own captain who freely managed his duties vis-à-vis the distant grantee. This is verifiable and has been widely studied. Angra, due to its geostrategic location, became a central point in the archipelago from the outset: it had a hospital in 1508, was elevated to a city in 1533, a bishopric and diocese were established in 1534, a seminary in 1568 and in 1578 it acquired the privileges of a “republic city.” It was the kingdom’s capital on the islands because the central services of the kingdom for the islands were concentrated here through control of the seas and state taxes. It was a cosmopolitan city full of political ideals due to the centrality of this power.
In 1580, the country was in the hands of Spain, although it was only acclaimed as such in 1581. Spain invested in Terceira precisely because Angra was the center of royal power, which came from its centrality in the archipelago, from its natural port of refuge; this is illustrated by the magnitude of the Castle of São João Batista, the fortress of Monte Brasil, which served to maintain this control: Spain was interested in geopolitical centrality due to the fortune of the maritime routes. At the time, Terceira was already an island republic with powers of central governance, which was why King António found refuge on the island with the help of the English and French. In 1582, the Mint was created, and the first coin with an Azorean was minted, which was already a distinctive mark of the archipelago’s unity. The story is well known. In the 1580s, two documents from the same period are central to interpreting autonomous sentiment. Both were written by the corregidor Cipriano de Figueiredo, then Governor General of the Azores, in agreement with his peers. One was addressed to the town council of Ponta Delgada: “A woman who is not very serious does not give herself up without being asked,” and the other to the foreign king: “it is better to die free than in peace subjected.”
The first letter was against the division of the archipelago because S. Miguel, by letting the foreign king know that it was accepted, along with St. Maria, its royal power against D. António’s faction, was abandoning the other islands to their fate. This was crucial for the defense of Terceira because if it fell, the rest would fall by nature. This letter must be read in the context of the time, in the strict sense of history; but not only that: it also constitutes an idea that changes over the centuries because it is these elements that are perpetuated over the years and centuries and which then translate into a general history and the fabric of what we are now. If we are what we ate yesterday, we are also what we were at the beginning of our lives as islanders. If, as happened during the preparatory work for the 1822 Constitution, we had been classified as overseas islands with a very different legal regime to the Azorean and Madeiran islands (see “The Island Regions in the First Portuguese Constitutions…”) – what would we be today?
The 2nd letter favored the archipelago: we would rather die as Portuguese on seven small islands than live without our autonomous identity and functional autonomy of each island commanded by one in the collective interest of all. In this case, this document cannot be read in isolation to understand a merely social and chronological feeling; it has to be read correctly, extracting from the sum of its history the values it has along the way.
In other words, the first great historical event of Azorean autonomy, the first significant event of autonomous consciousness on behalf of the islands, took place in Terceira and coincides with the moment when the Azorean motto, “I would rather die free than be subject to peace,” was consecrated. That’s why we call Angra do Heroísmo the Autonomous City, and that’s also why we call it the Heritage City because among the elements of the city’s elevation as a World Heritage Site by Unesco are precisely the maritime routes that made Angra the city-state, full of that political awareness of a mother city that was characteristic of it.

In Diário dos Açores, Osvaldo Cabral-director

Arnaldo Ouriqe is a researcher specializing in the political and constitutional affairs of Portugal’s autonomous regions. His main research areas are Constitutional Law, Autonomous Law, Statute Law, Regional Law, Administrative Law, Philosophy of Law, and Political History of the Azores.
As a specialist in Autonomous Constitutional Law, he has actively participated in the debate on autonomous matters since 1996, covering various constitutional, statutory, and legal issues for different media outlets and public and private institutions. He has also published extensively on these subjects at home and abroad.