The Luso-Tropicalist Message of the Late Portuguese Empire

Abstract

Empire was a core element of Portuguese nationalism from the last quarter of the nineteenth century onwards, and pervaded the nationalist ideology of the Estado Novo. This chapter contributes to the study of the Portuguese media’s entanglements with the colonial empire and to the discussion on the use of Luso-Tropicalism in the regime’s media offensive, by focusing on a hitherto invisible aspect of this problem: the elaboration by the Bureau of Political Affairs of the Overseas Ministry of a narrative of Portuguese exceptionalism that was clearly indebted to Luso-Tropicalism, which was reproduced by the media and internalised by the Portuguese people. The chapter reflects on the production, reproduction and naturalisation of ideas concerning the ‘Portuguese way of being in the world’.

Translated by Robert Patrick Newcomb.