| | Over the years, a number of imaginative myths have arisen to explain the nature of Portuguese colonialism. Certainly, the most prevalent one has been the notion that Portuguese colonialism was a case of 'economic imperialism' . First used by R J Hammond in an otherwise quite useful account of 19th and early 20th century Portuguese colonialism, it referred to the idea that unlike other imperialists, Portugal was not interested in the economic advantages of colonialism, but instead hoped to recover lost national pride by re-creating the illusion of empire in Africa after the 'loss' of Brazil in 1825. Subsequent writers have adopted the idea without questioning the assumptions upon which it was based, but then ironically, as Clarence-Smith points out, '... made the claim that Portugal could not de-colonise because it could not neo-colonist.' Clearly, either something occurred in the interim to alter the economic relationship between Portugal and its colonies or earlier writers have been careless in their assessment of Portugal's colonial motivations. |
