The Portuguese, Belgian and German Colonial Empires

Abstract

The modern Portuguese empire abounded in paradoxes which made it difficult to compare with its contemporaries. It was the oldest overseas empire; yet geographically the greater part of it was acquired only after 1884. For centuries it seemed likely to succumb to external attack or Portuguese lethargy; yet it survived all others in the age of decolonization. Portugal was poor and militarily weak, never able to hold the larger colonies against their will; yet after the secession of Brazil in 1822 she lost nothing until india seized Goa and her other possessions in india in 1961. The Portuguese were never as unconscious of race as they eventually claimed, for long making a distinction between Portuguese citizens and all others; yet there was never a colour bar in Portuguese colonies, and in the 1960s she was the only European state which still unashamedly proclaimed the ideal of full integration in a multi-racial state. In fact, Portuguese colonial history differed from that of all north European states precisely because she herself was different. In the modern period only Spain might have followed similar lines: but she had virtually lost what remained of her empire in 1898.