Portuguese colonialism in Africa: Ideas, myths and historiography

Abstract

The construction of the Portuguese colonial system in Africa, carried out by the Portuguese during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, relied, much like other comparable political processes, on the careful development of ideologies grounded in ideas, representations, concepts, and myths capable of justifying and legitimising the acts of violence required by the operations of domination over the territories and their populations. The formulation of a colonial ideology influenced various forms of scientific production, particularly History, which played a significant role in the formation and transmission of a body of knowledge that would shape the Portuguese collective imagination, leaving traces that continue to persist in Portuguese society.