This article aims at analyzing the main measures implemented by the municipality of Lisbon (the first Portuguese city) in order to adapt to the needs created by the war. It will therefore analyze the limits and dimensions of the “politization” of consumptions, emphasizing the impact of food scarcity in workers’ living conditions, stressing the devaluation of salaries, the insufficiency of productions, distribution problems, speculation and hoarding. These events also help us to understand the wave of strikes that affected Lisbon in the Spring and Summer of 1917, reflecting the difficulties that the country suffered since the entrance in the war.

Keywords:
Great War, Lisbon, municipal power, First Portuguese Republic, popular uprisings, food.