The Portuguese authorities balanced missionary and political dynamics as they sought to strengthen their claims over African territories in an imperial and colonial world that was becoming increasingly internationalized. This book sets out to investigate how missionary authorities reacted to national challenges from the monarchical and republican regimes, and rising competition within the Catholic world, as well as the Protestant threat, at the international level. To what degree were religious and missionary projects a political instrument? Was this situation similar in other colonial empires? The 1890 British Ultimatum was part of a process of conflicting religious competition in Africa (among Catholics, and between Catholics and Protestants) in parallel with inter-imperial disputes. The Portuguese authorities saw missionary presence as a potentially useful political weapon, but it cut two ways: in favour of or against its colonial rule. Foreigner missionaries in what was considered the Portuguese empire were viewed as threats since they could act as political bridgeheads for other imperial powers or could influence the native populations against Portuguese colonial presence. Anglo-Portuguese competition in Africa, the native uprisings against Portuguese rule, the attempts to negotiate a concordat with the Holy See, the Portuguese First Republic, and the aftermath of the First World War had powerful effects on the direction of Portuguese statehood, and were reflected in substantive internal debate and political disagreement. The overview of missionary experience in the Portuguese empire provided in this book is a major contribution to the international historiography of missions and empires.

This edited collection examines church-state relations in the European colonies in Africa during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The chapters focus on the period stretching from the most agitated stages of the ‘scramble for Africa’ during the 1870s and 1880s, to the great wave of independence of African colonies in the 1950s and 60s, and culminates in a discussion of colonial legacies during its aftermath. The Church and the State, although often having conflicting goals and agendas, walked hand-in-hand throughout the entire colonial period, with ‘imperialism of the spirit’ being inconceivable without the groundwork of Catholic missionaries. Exploring the major domains that determined the course of church-state relations in the colonies, the authors analyse relations between the Holy See and the colonial powers, and between national Catholic authorities and secular authorities, as well as the international order and socio-political developments in the metropoles. They argue that interactions between state and church in Africa’s European colonies were contingent upon the complex dynamics of interests that both secular and ecclesiastical entities endeavoured to preserve or promote. With a particular focus on the Belgian and Portuguese colonies in Africa, this book provides useful reading for scholars of European imperial history and ecclesiastical history.

In Mozambique and Guinea, the Portuguese colonial administration had to deal with Muslim communities of significant population expression and whose internal cultural differentiations presented a complexity to which the administrative power was often unprepared. The exercise of this governance, with all the variations that characterized it, extended throughout the period that the colonial project lasted, from the phase of effective military occupation, in the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, until the end of the colonial wars in 1974. In this chronological segment, Portuguese Colonialism and Islam seeks to address the circumstances of the colonial governance and regulation of those populations, focusing on: (1) The representations and images of Islam and Muslims that the agents of Portuguese colonialism produced at significant stages of the period, the recurrence of this imagery, its evolution, and the way it interacted with the concrete policies of control and governance of the populations. (2) The changes that such policies underwent, oscillating between a posture of ambivalent hostility, more visible in the 1930s to 1950s and more present in Mozambique than in Guinea, and a strategy of rapprochement with the Islamic leadership and their religious enticement, a strategy developed in the final phase of the Colonial War as part of the fight against nationalist movements. (3) The critical eye with which representatives of former colonial powers followed the Portuguese policies of governance of Islam, expressed in the testimonies of consuls-general of France and the United Kingdom, and documents conveying how diplomatic bodies perceived the Portuguese colonial system.

The third of October 2020 marked the 90th anniversary of the Brazilian Revolution of 1930. Although this event is recognized in Brazilian historiography as an important landmark in the construction of contemporary Brazil, debate, discourse and indeed publications commemorating the event have been much less numerous and profound than would be expected. Comparisons have been made with what took place in 1980, the year of the revolutions fiftieth anniversary, where meaningful historical judgements were made across a wide spectrum of society and the political establishment. It is pertinent to ask why there is no longer the appetite for substantive discussion on the Vargas period. Perhaps it is due to the new political climate in Brazil in the last decade, especially with regard to various projects aimed at labour and trade union reform, the main legacies of the revolutionary period which today are considered by many as obstacles to the modernization of the labour market and the country's economic development. Given the economic imperatives and aims of the 1930 Revolution, a re-evaluation of the Vargas Period will assist in better understanding the contemporary economic issues that face Brazil today. The exercise is neither one of nostalgia or exaltation of this past period, but rather to offer a (positive and negative) overview of Vargas legacy and the vast historiography that surrounds it. Scholars, politicians, business and the Brazilian workforce need to learn from past economic choices in order to better understand the challenges that contemporary Brazil faces. Recently proposed reforms have strong overtones to the revolutionary agenda of the 1930s, namely the forging of a New Brazil and the necessity of avoiding political schism. This book examines the political, economic, labour, cultural, military, and gender ramifications that will guide debate.

The events related to the 1964 coup and the military dictatorship (1964-85) have become common currency in the recent public debate in Brazil. The issue is especially strategic to the extreme right-wing groups surrounding Jair Bolsonaro, the president elected in 2018. For them, the 1964 coup is cherished and celebrated, marking defeat of the left and the beginning of a political regime oriented towards order and progress. The political project built around Bolsonaro is an attempt to impose a distorted and Manichean view of recent history, both by discourse and attempts of censorship. According to that view, 1964 was not a coup detat, but a revolution that saved Brazilians from communism. In Brazil, history is being manipulated to convince people that the military were good rulers, an image that connects to the present authoritarian (albeit elected) government supported by the Armed Forces. Right-wingers, nostalgic for the 1960s dictatorship, promote initiatives to discredit academic researchers and historians who disagree with their mind set. A Present Past offers a well-founded approach to the history of the military dictatorship. Chapters are dedicated to analysing the most controversial topics of the current debate. The primary aim is to disseminate knowledge about the prevailing dictatorship circumstances, with a firm eye on how the past military regime impacts on the present. The purpose is to prevent peddlers of fake news and the ultra-right negationists from winning over the Brazilian public with their authoritarian versions of history. In sum, this is a book committed to democracy. This commitment does not imply any disrespect for the academy, or for opposing points of view, but at its heart it defends historiography via scientific method to counter authoritarian imposition of a historical narrative that supports dictatorship in any form and its leaders, political and military, remaining in power through coercion.

After World War II, with the triumph of multilateralism, several international organizations were created, including two which would be of special importance for the external funding of the Portuguese economy in the second half of the twentieth century and in the early twenty-first. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have been responsible for providing large amounts of funding, both in periods of economic development and during times of financial crisis. This contributory volume provides a thorough analysis on specific case studies: the Marshall Plan (1949-1952); the three IMF interventions (in the seventies, eighties and the 2011 bailout); the implementation of the first EU funds Portugal received prior to accession; and the debate on the new framework for European funds for the period 2021-2027. These case study analyses provide an overview of the legal, economic and financial implications that such external funding has on the country at different times and in different economic contexts. Of particular import at all times is the public finance legal framework, and this is especially the case for the new European funding structures, which has attracted some criticism. And for any future IMF financial assistance and its political implementation implications. Portuguese Economic Development and External Funding in the Modern Era provides important insights into economic development, crisis management, financial assistance and European investment funds. While the work is Portuguese-centred, the topics investigated and the means of analysis adopted are applicable to other countries. This is the first book to address economic development and external funding, and it will inevitably be used as a template for future research.

As Portugal is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, this book conveys a global and differentiating perspective on the aims and actions of its three main protagonists – the Armed Forces, the political parties and mass social organizations – by close examination of original archival documentation; oral and written primary sources; and government records.