ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the third and final survey of Macau's constitutional landscape during the Portuguese colonial era. Fundamental shifts in Portuguese, Chinese, and international politics spell the beginning of the end for Portuguese Macau. The era begins in 1930 with the rise, in Portugal, of the Estado Novo – a fascist regime headed by António de Oliveira Salazar – and in China with the consolidation of power around Chiang Kai-shek. The 1930 Colonial Act was authored by Salazar himself, serving concurrently as Portugal's Minister of Colonies and Minister of Finance before becoming Prime Minister in July 1932. Salazar was promoted to Prime Minister in 1932: the position from which he would aggrandize a personal dictatorship. A much more significant occurrence than the arrival of these measures was Japan's invasion of Manchuria in September 1931, establishing the puppet state of Manchukuo.
