The Making of Imperial Public Sphere on Portuguese Colonialism

Abstract

This article explores the concept of the Imperial Public Sphere (IPS) in the Portuguese empire as a space for confrontation and negotiation within the framework of nineteenth and twentieth-century European colonial empires. In order to demonstrate the origin of political and ideological power, the emergence of IPS is characterized and its fundamental structures identified. The protagonists of IPS are revealed as the ‘imperial’ and ‘colonial’ elites. It concludes with the IPS hypothesis that the press and journalism are structures, institutions and mechanisms of political, social and cultural power that are essential for understanding colonial empires.