Portugal - a glance at a long history

2011

Portugal has undergone a significant process of change during the last years. It has seen political transformation, marked by the end of 48 years of dictatorial rule and the consolidation of democracy. Economic and social change has taken place with Portugal, once a backward and socially underdeveloped country, becoming a developed nation. The aim of this book is to present an introduction to that process of change and to examine it as part of the evolution of Portuguese politics and society since the beginning of the twentieth century. Written by historians, sociologists, political scientists and specialists in literature and art, this book seeks to provide specialists, students and general readers a global view of contemporary Portugal. Essays written by Portuguese academics explore a broad spectrum of topics: the colonial empire, international relations, economic development, social change, gender issues, democratic consolidation, Portugal and the European Union, issues of national identity and a review of Portuguese contemporary literature and art. This edition has already its longue durée. It was during my stay as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University during 1992-1993, that I accepted the challenge of Peter Stansky, who was at that time a Professor in the Department of History, to produce the first book, xiii Preface and Acknowledgements I would also like to acknowledge the support of the Institute of Social Science, University of Lisbon and to thank Stewart Lloyd-Jones and Claudia Almeida for their invaluable assistance in editing the book to very tight deadlines.

2011

Portugal has undergone a significant process of change during the last 40 years. It has seen political transformation, marked by the end of 48 years of dictatorial rule and the consolidation of democracy. Economic and social change has taken place with Portugal, once a backward and socially underdeveloped country, becoming a devel- oped nation.The aim of this book is to present an introduction to that process of change and to examine it as part of the evolution of Portuguese politics and society since the beginning of the twentieth century. Written by historians, sociologists, political scientists and special- ists in literature and art, this book seeks to provide specialists, students and general readers a global view of contemporary Portugal. Essays written by Portuguese academics explore a broad spectrum of topics: the colonial empire, international relations, economic development, social change, gender issues, democratic consolidation, Portugal and the European Union, issues of national identity and a review of Por- tuguese contemporary literature and art.

2016

In recent decades, the study of historiography, historical memory and the uses of the past has become a subject of increasing attention in academic circles. Medievalism in particular, commonly understood as the representation or use of the Middle Ages in the post-medieval period, assumes here an significant role, given the importance of the medieval epoch in Romantic historical culture and in nation-building processes since the nineteenth century. However, medievalism has still been scarcely analysed in the Portuguese context, lacking a study that encompasses its multiple dimensions, from historiography to politics of memory. This dissertation aims to fulfil this gap, by exploring the various representations of the Middle Ages in Portugal between the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. Focusing on three major topics – writing of history, artistic heritage and historical commemorations –, we will demonstrate how certain concepts, institutions, figures, events and works of Portuguese medieval history were narrated, reworked and celebrated, in the light of decadentist discourses about the nation and the Western world and of Portugal‘s political evolution in this period. International research on the topic will allow the making of comparative analyses and the understanding of the transnational dimension of Portuguese medievalism, inserted in the major cultural trends and political ideologies that influenced the various depictions of the medieval epoch in this period. In the end, we will show that an essentially Romantic view of Portuguese history persisted through the twentieth century, dichotomically presenting the Middle Ages in a positive light in comparison with a Modernity identified with civilizational and spiritual decline.

2012

To better understand the contemporary age, it has been necessary to study the relation between memory, national identity and political culture. On this field several studies have been produced that focus on the forms that the memory of the past ages has taken on the contemporary age. This thesis will study the representations of medievality that have been built in Portugal by the speeches and actions of contemporary agents. Major attention will be given to the national histories produced by historiographic and political speeches and to the development of memory and heritage politics by State agents. Although the mains focus of the thesis will be the 1930s and the 1940s, it will narrate several aspects of previous and later periods.

In recent decades several historians have stressed the importance of studying the relation between historical memory, national identity and political culture for a better understanding of the contemporary age. Numerous studies have been conducted in this field, focusing on the forms that the memory of past ages has taken in the contemporary period, as well as the history of the modes and contexts of production of historiography and of their effects on collective memory. The memory of Middle Ages has received particular attention, given its importance to the nation-building processes since the beginning of the nineteenth century and also its large impact on artistic, cultural and literary trends. As part of this tendency, the purpose of my thesis is to study the relation between medieval studies and political discourse in contemporary Portugal, focusing particularly on the period between 1890 and 1947. From the search of multiple historiographical works, as well as discourses and texts issued by the political power in order to institute politics of memory, I intend to demonstrate to which extent there was an ideological instrumentalization of the memory of the Portuguese Middle Ages. The fulfillment of this objective will contribute to a better understanding of how political action in the present and speeches about the past – from historiography to other practices of memory – are related within the emergence and consolidation of modern politics, of History as a subject and of a sense of national identity. In this paper I intend to present the contents and structure of my doctoral thesis project to my colleagues at the Forschungskolloquium Vormoderne. For me to profit with the discussion of the project, in the Kolloquium I will present three examples of authors that I have already worked and that I consider essential to the understanding of the topic. After giving a short theoretical background about the debate concerning medieval studies and medievalism, I will give a brief context of the political importance of the Middle Ages to the period which I am studying, with some notes about the people, dates and events of the medieval and contemporary periods in Portugal. I will also briefly describe the structure and methodology which will be employed at the project. At the end of the paper, I will give more detailed biographies of the three authors that I will present in the Kolloquium: Joaquim de Oliveira Martins, António Sardinha and Vitorino Magalhães Godinho.

e-Journal of Portuguese History, 2003

The political history of twentieth-century Portugal has recently become the focus of intense research by historians of that country. This article attempts both to summarise the political developments of the period and to provide an English-language readership with an introduction to the on-going debate. This debate is driven to a great extent by the attempt to explain the reasons for the longevity of Salazar´s New State and by the attempt to place it within a broader European context. As a result, the regime immediately preceding the New State, the First Republic, has been somewhat neglected by Portuguese historians.

2017

See abstract above, 2021

This is a consolidation of nine essays which were published during 2021 in English by The Portugal News and in Portuguese by the newspapers SOL and O Templário. Esta é uma consolidação de nove ensaios que foram publicados durante 2021 em inglês pelo The Portugal News e em português pelos jornais SOL e O Templário. Spring 2025 - The series is now being revised prior to publication in e-book format.

2012

This volume has its origins in the conference “The Republic of Portugal: Its Tradition, Achievements, and Future” held at the University of California, Berkeley, March 12–13 2010, organized by the Portuguese Studies Program of the Institute of European Studies.

Portugal went through one of the most complex periods in its whole history when an informal British occupation followed the French invasions. This provides an interesting case for the study of the evolution of the three main institutions and political concepts involved in the ending of the Old Regime: the Crown, the Empire, and the Nation, each with its own chronology. The main focus of this article is the changing relationships between these concepts during this period, in which the coexistence of old and new institutions is visible and their changing geography appears both as a factor in and as a consequence of this process.

This is an edited volume of activist and academic writings on the Portuguese protest movements of 2011-2012

The political history of nineteenth-century Portugal was, for a long time, a neglected subject. Under Salazar's New State it was passed over in favour of earlier periods from which that nationalist regime sought to draw inspiration; subsequent historians preferred to concentrate on social and economic developments to the detriment of the difficult evolution of Portuguese liberalism. This picture is changing, thanks to an awakening of interest in both contemporary topics and political history (although there is no consensus when it comes to defining political history). The aim of this article is to summarise these recent developments in Portuguese historiography for the benefit of an English-language audience.

2006

After a survey of the natural resources in the different areas of the Portuguese territory, the effects of the overseas expansion on these sectors were studied. An excessive demand was noted, given the scale of the available resources, together with the general incapacity to rapidly replace them. The serious involvement of all social classes in the realm's principal political projects was demonstrated, as well as the existence of leaderships and the financial and technical resources necessary for ensuring Portuguese primacy in European expansion. Urgency justified the overexploitation of resources and the heavy tax burden, but it also compromised the country's future, with its small metropolitan space proving incapable of sustaining a lengthy revitalization effort, hence the title of this paper.

2016

This book offers a fascinating exploration of the evolution of the Portuguese economy over the course of eight centuries, from the foundation of the kingdom in 1143, when political boundaries began to take shape in the midst of the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, and the formation of an empire, to the integration of the nation into the European Communities and the Economic and Monetary Union. Through six chapters, the authors provide a vibrant history of Portugal's past with a focus ranging from the medieval economy and the age of globalization, to war and recovery, the Atlantic economy, the rise of liberalism and patterns of convergence. The book provides a unique long-term perspective of change in a southern European country and its empire, which responds to the fundamental broader questions about when, how and why economies expand, stagnate or contract.