Live and Let Live
Britain and Portugal's Imperial Endgame (1945–75)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11487487 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paula A Oliveira (0000-0002-0987-376X, corresponding author), Pedro Aires Oliveira Pedro Aires Oliveira |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 186 |
| Publication date | 2013-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Portuguese Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0267-5315 • E-ISSN: 2222-4270 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.5699/portstudies.29.2.0186 |
| OpenAlex | W2482518180 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 7 |
In an era of profound changes in the colonial world, it was inevitable that the trajectories of Britain and Portugal would at a certain point intersect. Since differences between their colonial philosophies became more pronounced after the Second World War that intersection was likely to result in a clash of interests, opinions and attitudes, especially when certain developments in Britain’s foreign and imperial policies impacted on Portugal’s increasingly vulnerable position. Historically, Britain’s relation with the Portuguese overseas empire was far from having been a simple one. While bound to Portugal by an alliance forged in 1373, its position as the senior member of that relationship was significantly strengthened in the early nineteenth century, thanks to its undisputed economic and strategic primacy. The fact that Britain was able to exact a high price for the assistance provided to the Portuguese crown during the Napoleonic wars (above all, the opening of the Brazilian ports to foreign trade in 1808), and apply significant pressure to bring about the extinction of the slave trade in their colonies, created a strong anti-British bias among large sectors of the Portuguese ruling classes. Such a feeling was only mitigated by the awareness that their independence in Europe, as well as access to credit and to the know-how and technology of the industrial era, was to a large extent secured by their haughty ally. This may explain why several traumatic episodes — the most notorious being Lord Salisbury’s 1890 ultimatum — were, if not forgotten, then at least overcome by the pragmatic instincts of their liberal elites. Portugal’s last imperial cycle — the ‘Third Portuguese Empire’1 — relied heavily on Britain’s economic tutelage (at least until the 1940s) and, more crucially perhaps, on the diplomatic and military protection that Britain was ready to provide, in accordance with its own strategic interests in several areas of the globe. For some Portuguese colonial ‘theorists’ and administrators, Britain’s imperial record was also a source of admiration and, at times, her imperial institutions were emulated in reforms introduced in Portugal’s overseas possessions (for example, the High Commissioners’ regime in Angola and Mozambique after
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| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2014 - 2019 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |