Tiny transmitters of nationalist and colonial ideology: the postage stamps of Portugal and its Empire*

Abstract

Abstract. Postage stamps may be seen as tiny transmitters of the dominant ideologies of the state destined for the imagined community of the nation. The issuing of stamps, starting in the nineteenth century, and the postal reforms that accompanied this, greatly contributed to the ‘communicative efficiency’ of national communities and made a significant contribution to nation‐building. The imagery of stamps promotes the dominant discourses of a particular nationalism, recalls historical triumphs and myths and defines the national territory in maps or landscapes. Issuing authorities also print stamps for sale to a large, epistemic community of philatelists and this has been of particular importance to many colonial authorities and impoverished post‐colonial states. This article addresses these themes by focusing on the stamps of Portugal and its Empire. The representation of images of women on the stamps of the Portuguese monarchy, the Republic, the Estado Novo and the modern Portuguese Republic, as well as in the former Empire, all confirm the patriarchal construction of Portuguese nationalism as well as a focus on the ‘great discoveries’.