Portugal 1640: National Identity, Providentialism

We will dive into the image worlds of the Portuguese Restoration by examining images that had a role in the run-up to the revolt. These were certain images woven into stories of miracles and others which we can assume were used for clandestine purposes by the coup's conspirators. A miracle-centered discourse formed the decisive ideological framework for images of the Restoration. This was true for autonomist texts appearing before 1640 and for legitimist texts that were published after the revolt. In both, Portugal was represented as an instrument of divine providence and the Portuguese as God's second chosen people. In its unwavering attempt to discern divine working in the temporal realm, Portugal was similar to other Early Modern empires. Strikingly, we also find comparable discourses in the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires. Nevertheless, in seventeenth-century Portugal, political providentialism interacted in a special way with the emergence of a national Portuguese identity. As we will see, the decisive aspect of this providentialism was its spread over a number of continents. It was present in both Portugal and the colonial territories, above all in Brazil and the Estado da Índia.