50 years is enough to go from undeveloped to developed, you can't really blame what happened back then for what the state is now. Under these 50 years Portugal didn't make any progress at all, it is still just as economically behind the main European powers as it was back then.

Uh, no a disadvantage from 50 years ago will absolutely show up 50 years later. Indeed, much of the reason Portugal remains behind can be traced back to further than that.

If you have a whole generation only recently retiring that wasn't educated because your state didn't fund schools, that is going to drag on your economy even to today.

Kinda just sounds like you don't know what you are talking about.