António Sardinha (9 September 1887 inMonforte, Portalegre – 10 January 1925 inElvas) was aPortuguese writer and leading theorist of the movement known asIntegralismo Lusitano. His worldview was stronglyconservative.[1]
Sardinha studied law at theUniversity of Coimbra and graduated in 1911.[2] During his student years, he was a supporter ofrepublicanism and briefly ofanarcho-syndicalism,[2] but by 1911 he had become a strong advocate ofmonarchism andCatholicism, partly because of the influence of his highly conservative mother.[3] He was also influenced in this regard by theSpanish conservativeJuan Vázquez de Mella, who was a close friend of Sardinha from the early 1900s.[4]
He helped found theIntegralismo Lusitano movement in 1913, along withJosé Hipólito Raposo andAlberto de Monsaraz.[5] He would serve as a deputy for a time under the Presidency ofSidónio Pais, who was vaguely sympathetic towards Integralism.[6]
Sardinha was this group's foremost ideologue and his programme was outlined in his 1925 work,A Aliança Peninsular, which called for a regression inIberia and a newCatholic corporatism that recalled the work ofCharles Maurras. This was a highlynationalist andruralist work was seen inSpain as a basis for the concept of aHispanidad.[7] His writings revealed a strong affinity foragriculture as a historical and economic basis, and also foranti-Semitism.[8] His anti-Semitism was influenced byAction Française, from whom he also took a strong strain ofanti-liberalism.[6] He added to his ideology a hard-lineracism, strongly criticisingmiscegnation.[6] This element of his ideology was rejected by some within the movement, most notablyJosé Hipólito Raposo.[9] Further to this Sardinha also grafted elements of the works ofGeorges Sorel, adopting his theories of revolutionary validity and the social value of myth to his own ideology.[6]
Under Sardinha's direction the movement converted from being a group of monarchist nostalgics into a coherent ideology that hoped to establish a new era in Portuguese history under the leadership of a strong centralised monarchy.[2] Unlike some of his contemporaries Sardinha considered a close relationship to Spain to be of central importance for Portugal and he also took an internationalist view in general, hoping to see similar integralisms develop elsewhere, particularly inBrazil where thatproved to be the case.[2]
His early death in 1925 saw Integralismo Lusitano lose its most celebrated thinker and as a movement it failed to recover from the blow.[10] Drawing from traditional monarchism, Hispanidad, ruralism,Integralism,scientific racism, fascism andnational syndicalism he had created a complexsyncretic ideology that inevitably fissured into various factions after his death.[6]
As well as his political activism Sardinha was also noted as a somewhat controversial historian. Much of his work was given over to ahistorical revisionism that sought to counterliberal interpretations of history.[5] Amongst his pet theories was thatAntónio de Araújo e Azevedo, 1st Count of Barca had collaborated withFrance during his time as Minister of Foreign Affairs during thePeninsular War.[11] Similarly he rejected the widely celebratedPortuguese discoveries as ushering in an era ofcapitalism andcosmopolitanism and thus flying in the face of his ruralist ideals.[12]
