Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-r5zm4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T19:34:29.102Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Portugal in Africa: A Noneconomic Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Thomas Henriksen
Thomas Henriksen*
Affiliation:
Department of History, State University of New York, Plattsburgh, New York
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Contemporary critics of Portugal's presence in Africa charge that economic exploitation is the basis of Portuguese colonialism. They often emphasize, to the exclusion of other factors, economic reasons for Portugal's past and present stake in the tropics. These arguments contrast the actual and potential mineral wealth, agricultural produce, and abundant sources of hydroelectric power in Angola and Mozambique with the lack of them in Portugal. The Portuguese goal is often characterized as making the African dominions yield a profit on investments, furnish raw materials, and provide protected markets for metropolitan industries (Hance 1967, p. 23). In a recent issue of Africa Today, Jennifer Davis concluded that “the prospects for profit are exciting. Small wonder that the Portuguese want to keep their colonies now” (1970, p. 6). John Gellner, in a special to the Toronto Globe and Mail (1971), wrote: “Thus the strategic aim of the Portuguese is to hold what is worth holding.…Angola is a very rich country.”

African revolutionaries and their sympathizers reiterate these economic explanations of Portuguese behavior in a steady stream of books, pamphlets, and leaflets. Marxist in outlook, the authors couch their analysis of Portugal's colonial motives almost exclusively in economic terms. With the exception of revolutionary leaders such as Amilcar Cabral and Eduardo Mondlane, who identified other reasons for Portugal's retention of African colonies, many of those favorable to African liberation emphasize the economic rationale for Portuguese colonialism. (For representative accounts, see Chaliand 1969, pp. 5-12; Dependency…, pp. 3-6; Davidson 1969, pp. 25-28.)

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , December 1973 , pp. 405 - 416
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Abshire, David M. “From the Scramble for Africa to the ‘New State.’” In Abshire, David M. and Samuels, Michael A., eds. Portuguese Africa: A Handbook. New York: Praeger, 1969.Google Scholar
de Andrade, Mario. “Le Nationalisme Angolais.” Présence Africaine, Nos. 42-43 (1962).Google Scholar
Boxer, Charles R. Four Centuries of Portuguese Expansion, 1415-1825. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969a.Google Scholar
Boxer, Charles R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825. New York: Knopf, 1969b.Google Scholar
Cabral, Amilcar. Revolution in Guinea: Selected Texts. Trans. by Handyside, Richard. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Cabral, Amilcar. “National Liberation and Culture.” Eduardo Mondlane Memorial Lecture at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, February 20, 1970.Google Scholar
Chaliand, Gerard. Armed Struggle in Africa with the Guerrillas in “Portuguese” Guinea. Trans. by Rattray, David and Leonhardt, Robert. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Cheyney, Edward Potts. European Background of American History, 1300-1600. New York: Macmillan, 1961.Google Scholar
Chilcote, Ronald H. Portuguese Africa. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1967.Google Scholar
Davidson, Basil. The Liberation of Guiné. Baltimore: Penguin, 1969.Google Scholar
Davis, Jennifer. “U.S. Economic Involment.” Africa Today, Vol. XVII, No. 4 (July-August 1970).Google Scholar
Dependency and Underdevelopment Consequences of Portugal in Africa. Report Prepared by the Research Group for the Liberation of Portuguese Africa. Riverside, California.Google Scholar
Duffy, James. Portuguese Africa. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959.Google Scholar
First, Ruth. Portugal's Wars in Africa. London: Christian Action Publications, 1971.Google Scholar
Freyre, Gilberto. The Portuguese and the Tropics. Lisbon, 1961.Google Scholar
Gellner, John. In Toronto Globe and Mail (April 14, 1971).Google Scholar
Hammond, Richard J. “Economic Imperialism: Sidelights on a Stereotype.” Journal of Economic History, Vol. XXI (December 1961).Google Scholar
Hammond, Richard J. Portugal and Africa, 1815-1910. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Hance, William A. “Three Economies.” Africa Report (November 1967).Google Scholar
Howe, Marvine. “Portugal at War: Hawks, Doves and Owls.” Africa Report (November 1969).Google Scholar
Livermore, H. V. A New History of Portugal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marcum, John A. “Three Revolutions.” Africa Report (November 1967).Google Scholar
Mondlane, Eduardo. The Struggle for Mozambique. Baltimore: Penguin, 1969.Google Scholar
Moreira, Adriano. Portugal's Stand in Africa. New York: University Publishers, 1962.Google Scholar
Nogueira, Franco. The Third World. London: Johnson Publications, 1967.Google Scholar
Nowell, Charles E. “Portugal and the Partition of Africa.” Journal of Modern History, Vol. XIX, No. 1 (March 1947).Google Scholar
Samuels, Michael A. “Southern Africa: The Strategies of Change.” Interplay (December 1970).Google Scholar
Wheeler, Douglas L. “Thaw in Portugal.” Foreign Affairs, Vol. XLVIII, No. 4 (July 1970).Google Scholar
Wheeler, Douglas L. and Pélissier, René. Angola. New York: Praeger, 1971.Google Scholar
Zartman, I. William. “Guinea: The Quiet War Goes On.” Africa Report (November 1967).Google Scholar