Portuguese Colonial Policy

Abstract

Many Portuguese have been brought up to dislike the term ‘policy’, owing to its having been so often misused in the course of the liberal period in our history (1820-1926); yet true it is that many others were led similarly to dislike the term ‘religion’ in consequence of its having been misused, chiefly in the period when intolerant clergy were to the fore (from the reign of Dom Manuel I, in the sixteenth century, to that of Dona Maria I, in the nineteenth century). By degrees, these terms are coming into their own again. The Portuguese politica, derived from the Greek through the Latin, has in English three equivalents— ‘politics’, the science of guiding peoples; ‘polity’, their constitution; and ‘policy’, the resulting activities. It is mainly with this last I wish to deal, viz. with Portuguese activities in the handling of colonial peoples and affairs. However, it appears to me necessary to begin with the constitutional and legal documents which determine such activities at the present day, in order to ascertain the factors which brought into being the legislation in question, the methods of applying it, and what has resulted therefrom.