Ending Empire: Lusotropicalism as an imperial ideology

Abstract

This article is an inquiry into the ideological foundations of Portuguese postwar imperialism, arguing that these reveal some conceptual tensions characteristic of late-modern justifications of imperial governance, such as anxieties about imperial decline and a deflection of imperial ambitions. Doing this, the article focuses on how the social theory of Gilberto Freyre was appropriated to legitimize Portuguese claims to authority over its overseas possessions, and how the resulting ideology of lusotropicalism continued to resonate long after the demise of the Portuguese empire. By exposing the structure and conceptual tensions of this ideology, the article tries to reveal some of the dilemmas that any imperial scheme has to confront in a world in which territorially bounded and culturally homogeneous states constitute the sole legitimate claimants to sovereign authority.