How was perceived in India the rebellion that put an end the Union of the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns? This question will be the guiding line of this article, which aims to understand the global dynamics of the Restauração of 1640.... more
How was perceived in India the rebellion that put an end
the Union of the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns? This question will be the guiding line of this article, which aims to understand the global dynamics of the Restauração of 1640. Throughout the next few pages, we seek to analyze the constitution of a documental corpus composed of letters, sermons and festival descriptions, interpreting both the political language adopted by these discourses and the view of the history of the "Estado da Índia" through which they sought to legitimize the rebellion.
The Restauração of 1640, which marked the end of sixty years of political aggregation between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Spanish Monarchy, has been the object of many historiographical interpretations in the past two centuries.... more
The Restauração of 1640, which marked the end of sixty years of political aggregation
between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Spanish Monarchy, has been the object of many historiographical interpretations in the past two centuries. However, the dynamics which lead to the recognition of the new regimen by the overseas conquests of the Portuguese Crown have been hitherto neglected by these interpretations. Through an analysis of the main descriptions of the acclamation of D. João IV in the city of Goa, capital of the Portuguese State of India, this paper aims to scrutinize the ceremonies and discourses which legitimized the enthronization of D. João IV, questioning their multiple meanings and interpretations.
Nos últimos anos, o espaço tem sido uma dimensão crescentemente valorizada pela historiografia. Depois de um momento-chave associado à tradição dos Annales e, em especial, aos trabalhos de Fernand Braudel, que nos legaram uma história... more
Nos últimos anos, o espaço tem sido uma dimensão crescentemente valorizada pela historiografia. Depois de um momento-chave associado à tradição dos Annales e, em especial, aos trabalhos de Fernand Braudel, que nos legaram uma história atenta à geografia e às suas condicionantes, surgiram recentemente novas propostas historiográficas que procuraram repensar a espacialidade na história. Neste seminário propomo-nos reflectir sobre uma forma historicamente específica da dimensão espacial: o território. No primeiro painel pretendemos explorar fenómenos históricos que estão nas margens da constituição do território, mas que são determinantes para definir os seus limites externos (fronteira e descobrimento). No segundo painel, pretendemos discutir como se constrói materialmente o território, através, por um lado, do estabelecimento de uma malha administrativa territorial e, por outro, da intervenção tecnológica na paisagem. Transversal a estes debates será ainda a tentativa de relacionar e integrar numa mesma narrativa historiográfica os espaços metropolitanos e coloniais.
What did it mean to be Portuguese in Manila in the first half of the 17th century? Setting out from an exploratory research in the documentation of the Archivo General de Indias, this paper seeks to problematize the circumstances in which... more
What did it mean to be Portuguese in Manila in the first half of the 17th century? Setting out from an exploratory research in the documentation of the Archivo General de Indias, this paper seeks to problematize the circumstances in which the Portuguese identity emerged as a relevant category in the discourse of that time. Accordingly, a group of documents concerning the career of Diogo Lopes Lobo, a Portuguese officer who served in Manila during the 1620’s, constitutes the basis of this inquiry, as his identity is recurrently mentioned in the archival registers, granting us access to some of the debates which were manifest in the political culture of the 1600’s.
Isolated and hostile, the rugged and densely forested provinces of the New Conquests of Goa are usually seen as a space of alterity in relation to the Portuguese imperial order, mainly because of their ecological , social and cultural... more
Isolated and hostile, the rugged and densely forested provinces of the New Conquests of Goa are usually seen as a space of alterity in relation to the Portuguese imperial order, mainly because of their ecological , social and cultural specificities. This paper proposes a preliminary analysis of the colonial attempts to govern this territory, by looking at the work of the Forestry Committee of 1863, which aimed at ordering and administering the forests of Goa. By taking the colonial governance of natural resources as its object, this paper takes inspiration from the large number of studies that have been dedicated to the Environmental History of Empires, particularly in the case of British India.
In the early-20th century, Goa was a remote and economically fragile colony surrounded by the vast territory of the British Raj. Located on the periphery of an empire focused on its African colonies, Goa has therefore occupied a marginal... more
In the early-20th century, Goa was a remote and economically fragile colony surrounded by the vast territory of the British Raj. Located on the periphery of an empire focused on its African colonies, Goa has therefore occupied a marginal place in the historiographical discussion of Portuguese colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries. This article aims to question this image through an analysis of the debates over the modernization of the colony. By looking into the projects of forest administration and natural resource control put in place by the colonial authorities, the following pages argue that Goa is a privileged location to consider the colonial dynamics of the “long-19th century” and to rethink the links between colonialism, science, politics and modernity.
The former Portuguese colony of Goa is best known nowadays as a tourist hotspot. To many, its iconic landscape is one of sandy beaches and whitewashed churches nestling among the paddy fields and coconut trees. But beyond this postcard... more
The former Portuguese colony of Goa is best known nowadays as a tourist hotspot. To many, its iconic landscape is one of sandy beaches and whitewashed churches nestling among the paddy fields and coconut trees. But beyond this postcard image there is another lesser known landscape, epitomized by the rugged mountains and forests of the Sahyadri range. During the Portuguese colonial period, which lasted until 1961, this was the ‘other landscape’ of Goa, frequently portrayed as ‘wild’, ‘backward’ and inherently hostile to colonial rule. This essay discusses the production of these images and their importance in shaping colonial policies. Building upon recent research on Environmental and Imperial History, it argues that far from being mere discursive constructions these images had important political, economic, cultural and environmental repercussions which shaped the history of colonial Goa.
The thematic issue has three main objectives. First, it demonstrates the wide range of available documents that help to de ne aspects of the demo‐ graphy of Portuguese overseas territories between 1776 and 1822, of which the population... more
The thematic issue has three main objectives. First, it demonstrates the wide range of available documents that help to de ne aspects of the demo‐ graphy of Portuguese overseas territories between 1776 and 1822, of which the population charts produced under royal orders are the most important. Secondly, the articles discuss existing sources for writing demographic histories of speci c colonial territories, highlighting the normative context in which they were produced. Finally, as the articles assess the quality of the data and suggest methods for the correction of inaccuracies, this volume aims to improve the level of critical analysis of demographic data. Popu‐ lation tables or parish records may look unproblematic—quantitative data seem to provide an air of objectivity to historical analyses—but as with all historical evidence, careful examination of the sources is imperative. This collection of articles has grown out of the research project “Coun‐ ting Colonial Populations: Demography and the use of statistics in the Portuguese Empire, 1776–1875.” Most of the statistical tables used by the authors can now be pulled directly from the project’s website. Besides several scholars involved in this project, a number of other scholars —young Portuguese researchers as well as more seasoned historians—were invited or decided out of motu proprio to contribute this volume.
The following is an edited transcript of a roundtable that took place at the University of Glasgow in September 2018. The roundtable was organized by Dr. Julia McClure in conjunction with the Poverty Research Network’s conference - Beyond... more
The following is an edited transcript of a roundtable that took place at the University of Glasgow in September 2018. The roundtable was organized by Dr. Julia McClure in conjunction with the Poverty Research Network’s conference - Beyond Development: The Local Visions of Global Poverty. That conference brought into focus the ways in which the global and local levels meet at the site of poverty and highlighted the different conceptions on the global are generated from the perspective of poverty. The roundtable brought together leading scholars from Europe, Africa, Asia and North and South America to take stock of global history as a field, to consider the role of existing centres of knowledge production, and to assess new directions for the field.
