Introduction: The International and the Portuguese Imperial Endgame: Problems and Perspectives

Abstract

Portuguese Studies vol. 29 no. 2 (2013), 137–41© Modern Humanities Research Association 2013 Introduction The International and the Portuguese Imperial Endgame: Problems and Perspectives Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo and António Costa Pinto ICS-UL/King’s College London and ICS-UL The present volume, International Dimensions of Portuguese Late Colonialism and Decolonization, offers a multifaceted approach to the role played by inter­ national factors and processes in Portuguese late colonialism. In identifying and assessing some of its main manifestations, it explores their relation with metropolitanandcolonialhistoricaleventsanddynamics.Itssixoriginalarticles examine the ways in which Portugal (and its authoritarian regime) interacted with the fundamental transformations that characterized the international arena after World War II, especially those impacting on imperial and colonial formations, on their late evolution, and eventual demise.1 The chronological boundaries of this volume correspond to the major transformations of the international regime that resulted from the War, that is, from the constitution of the United Nations system (and in acknowledging the important changes brought after 1945 one must stress the fundamental legacy of the League of Nations in relation to imperial and colonial questions)2 to the zenith of the decolonization process in Portuguese Africa, the formal dissolution of its colonial empire.3 Despite evident differences in scope, method and research concerns, these con­ tri­ butions nonetheless manifest a common analytical framework. They 1 ThesearticlesaretheproductoftheResearchprojectentitled‘Portugalisnotasmallcountry’:TheEnd of the Portuguese Colonial Empire in a Comparative Perspective (FCT-PTDC/HIS-HIS/108998/2008). 2 For the United Nations see David W. Wainhouse, The Remnants of Empire: The United Nations and the End of Colonialism (New York: Harper&Row, 1964); Evan Luard, A History of the United Nations: The Years of Western Domination, 1945–1955 (London: Macmillan, 1982); idem, A History of the United Nations: The Age of Decolonization, 1955–1965 (London: Macmillan, 1989). For the importance of the League of Nations see Susan Pedersen, ‘Back to the League of Nations’, The American Historical Review, 112.4 (2007), 1091–1117. Related to the genealogies of the UN system see Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empires and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009). 3 See Norrie MacQueen, The Decolonization of Portuguese Africa: Metropolitan Revolution and the Dissolution of Empire (London and New York: Longman, 1997); António Costa Pinto, O Fim do Império Português: A Cena Internacional, a Guerra Colonial, e a Descolonização, 1961–1975 (Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 2001). Introduction 138 examine the historical evolution of the engagements between Portugal and other international actors, including other states, international organizations, inter­ governmental and non-governmental organizations, trades unions, found­ ations, churches and missionary bodies, and corporations. This variegated set of relationships is addressed, and contextualized, in the light of the different periods of post-World War II dynamic developments. How these shaped the evolution of Portuguese late colonialism in a context of global decolonization (highlighting, for instance, the relationships between them and anticolonial, nationalist movements); how Portuguese authorities assessed the global and local transformations entailed by Cold War dynamics and the changes in the geopolitical strategies and normative arguments deployed by other states, includingimperialones;andhowtheyperceivedandreactedagainstthepotential impact of these developments in the planned continuation of the Portuguese imperial polity — these are some of the questions that unify the contributions to this volume. In order to provide answers to these and other important questions, the articles explore, in different ways, a combined analysis of the international (for example, the effects of the change in the international regime and of the bipolarization of the international system, and respective competing modernities),4 the metropolitan (for example, the nature and the functioning of the authoritarian political regime and the formulation of its African policies),5 and the colonial (for example, the emergence of political liberation movements and the specificities of the late colonial state and administration),6 aiming to bring together diverse histories and historiographies (international, national, imperial and colonial). In this sense, these contributions contribute to the ongoing debates about the study of late colonialism and the endgames of European colonial empires.7 Studies of the Portuguese colonial empire and its demise are scant, and rarely incorporated into international studies. And when they are, there is...