Administration, economy, and society in the Portuguese African empire (1900-1975)

• Authors: Havik PJ
• Publication Year: 2018
• Journal: The Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial History
• Link: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-59426-6_8

Focusing on the period from the early 1900s to 1975, this chapter provides a comparative overview of the Third Portuguese empire, and the economic, political, social, and cultural ramifications and impact of Portuguese administration upon African societies. It constituted a fragmented empire including continental colonies such as Angola, Guinea, and Mozambique, and insular possessions such as Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. The chapter focuses on four contentious issues, namely: the racial categories guiding colonial administration, forced labor practices, economic (under) development, and armed conflict. Portugal’s refusal to decolonize, unlike other European nations, prompted the upsurge of armed conflict in the early 1960s in Angola, Guinea, and Mozambique, which would eventually provoke regime change in Portugal and the end of empire in 1974.