Prtugal and the Colonial Question, 1961 - 1974

到1961年，殖民问题已成为葡萄牙新国政治议程上的中心问题。在整个20世纪60年代和70年代初，该政权不仅面临着为其顽固的殖民政策辩护的持续压力。此外，它还必须使在安哥拉、莫桑比克和几内亚比绍进行三线战争的必要性合法化。因此，本研究项目分析了1961年至1974年间葡萄牙的殖民辩论。它追溯了这场辩论的主导利益和主题，这场辩论在反对派团体和天主教组织等非官方圈子内以及在政府精英内部都受到了强烈的影响。随着档案研究的大部分完成，证据清楚地表明，对于专制政权来说，帝国首先构成了自我合法化的来源。然而，除了共产党之外，反对派也在很大程度上支持该政权的殖民计划，形成了支持维持殖民帝国的广泛共识。1961年以后，虽然针对殖民危机的争论和提出的解决方案变得更加多样化，但反殖民运动从未建立起来。一般来说，葡萄牙的殖民辩论，尽管延迟，集中在类似的思想在其他欧洲国家的殖民辩论；因此，葡萄牙联邦议院的概念是不合适的。本课题档案研究的主体部分已经完成，实际论文的写作过程即将开始。它只会被里斯本档案馆的一次短暂访问所打断，预计将于2015年2月完成。不过，该项目的完成取决于我们在此要求的第三年资金的发放。

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.