Prtugal and the Colonial Question, 1961 - 1974

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By 1961 the colonial question had grown to be the central problem on the Portuguese New State's political agenda. Not only was the regime under constant pressure to justify its intransigent colonial policy throughout the 1960s and early 70s. Furthermore, it also had to legitimate the necessity of a three-front war in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. This research project therefore analyses the colonial debate in Portugal between 1961 and 1974. It retraces the dominating interests and leitmotifs in this debate that was led within non-official circles such as oppositional groups and catholic organizations as intensely as within government elites. As the archival research has mostly been completed, the evidence clearly indicates that for the authoritarian regime, the empire first and foremost constituted a source of self-legitimization. However, the opposition, except for the Communist Party, also largely subscribed to the regime's colonial project, forming a broad consensus in favour of maintaining the colonial empire. While the arguments and the proposed solutions for the colonial crisis became more diverse after 1961, an anti-colonialist movement never came to be established. Generally speaking, the Portuguese colonial debate, despite its delay, centred on similar ideas as the colonial debates in other European states; the notion of a Portuguese Sonderweg is therefore inappropriate.The main part of the archival research for this project having been completed, the process of writing the actual dissertation is about to begin. It is only going to be interrupted by one brief visit to Lisbon archives and is expected to be completed by February 2015. The completion is subject, though, to the release of funds for a third year which we hereby request.