Abstract

CURTO, Diogo Ramada. The Debate on Race Relations in the Portuguese Empire and Charles R. Boxer’s Position. e-JPH [online]. 2013, vol.11, n.1, pp.1-63. ISSN 1645-6432.

How to read Charles Boxer's "Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire (1450-1825)"? In order to place the author's intentionality three main analytical contexts should be taken into account. In England, Basil Davidson among other journalists took the lead of an anti-colonial discourse. In the US, academics like James Duffy participated in the same kind of debate. Finally, under the pressure of a starting war in Angola in the beginning of 1961, Portuguese circles of academics and politicians prepared a variety of answers. Boxer arrived late to the debate on race relations and the nature of Portuguese colonialism. His conservative views refrained him from becoming an anti-colonial intellectual. By the same token, his noble dream of objectivity in using the past also prevented him to accept established myths on Portuguese life in the tropics.

Keywords : Colonialism; Race relations; Carles R. Boxer; Historiography.

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