Portuguese statesman Pombal was one of the giants of the XVIII century. Often forgotten outside Portugal, the dreaded Marques de Pombal was Portugal's Richelieu. A man to be feared and obeyed.

After studying law at the University of Coimbra, he served as ambassador to England and Austria, was made secretary for foreign affairs and war by King Joseph in 1750, and became chief minister in 1756. The most dynamic political figure in Portugal since the 16th century, Pombal was an exponent of absolutism, an anticleric, and a zealous organizer.

When Lisbon was destroyed by the earthquake of 1755, he met the emergency head-on as he supervised the reconstruction of the city. It was an increadable recovery in the wake of cataclysmic destruction. Lisbon, one of the great cities of the world, was almost anihilated in less than a hour, and Portugal's very existence threatened. Pomabl's response was brilliant, swift, courageous, and humane. He did not utter the famous "let us bury the dead and care for the living" that was attributed to him though he was the man to put the sentiment into practise. He was also a ruthless and dangerous man, viewed as a contagion, an enemy of the state, real or imagined, one to be cured or eradicated.

Pombal's achievements, however, went far beyond the reconstruction of the capital. An unusually single-minded and ruthless first minister, he was also one of the eighteenth century's most successful 'enlightened despots'. He curbed the Inquisition by subordinating it to the King's authority, he expelled the Jesuits from Portugal and its colonies, and he redrafted the property laws to prevent the accumulation of great wealth by the church. A believer in enlightened despotism, he ended slavery in Portugal, reorganized the educational and military systems, and encouraged agriculture and industry, partly by establishing monopolies.

He came into conflict with the Jesuits, who exercised influence at Court and in the country. They blocked his projects to marry the heiress presumptive to the Protestant Duke of Cumberland and to grant privileges to the Jews in return for aid in rebuilding Lisbon, but the first open dispute arose in 1750 over the execution of the Treaty of Limits which regulated Spanish and Portuguese jurisdiction in the River Plate.

Pombal took strong measures to build up Brazil with increased production of minerals, tobacco, and sugar. He also sought to strengthen and regulate Portuguese commerce, thus making the country less dependent on England. Pombal's whole program, however, was executed by ruthless suppression of all opposition. The creation of a wine monopoly in 1757 caused an uprising in Oporto, which was put down with ferocity. A group of nobles accused of attempting to kill the King in 1758 were tortured to death and thousands imprisoned. Upon King Joseph's death in 1777, however, the new ruler, Maria I, banished the former minister from Lisbon, deprived him of his powers, freed his prisoners and revoked many of his reforms.