Lusotropicalism (Portuguese:Lusotropicalismo) is a term and "quasi-theory"[1] developed byBrazilian sociologistGilberto Freyre to describe the distinctive character ofPortuguese imperialism overseas, proposing that the Portuguese were bettercolonizers than other European nations.[2][3]
Freyre theorized that because ofPortugal's warmer climate, and having been inhabited byCelts,Romans,Visigoths,Moors and several other peoples in pre-modern times, the Portuguese were more humane, friendly, and adaptable to other climates and cultures. He saw "Portuguese-based cultures as cultures of ecumenical expansion" and suggested that "Lusotropical culture was a form of resistance against both the 'barbaric' Soviet communist influence, and the also 'barbarian' process of Americanization and capitalist expansion."[3]
In addition, by the early 20th century, Portugal was by far theEuropean colonial power with the oldest territorial presence overseas; in some cases its territories had been continuously settled and ruled by the Portuguese for five centuries.[citation needed] Lusotropicalism celebrated both actual and mythological elements ofracial democracy andcivilizing mission in thePortuguese Empire, encompassing a pro-miscegenation attitude toward the colonies or overseas territories. The ideology is best exemplified in the work of Freyre.[3]
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The beginning of thePortuguese Empire is usually traced to the 1415Conquest of Ceuta inNorth Africa. In the succeeding decades of the 15th century, Portuguese sailors traveled all over the world:Bartolomeu Dias rounded theCape of Good Hope in 1488;Vasco da Gama reachedIndia in 1498; andPedro Álvares Cabral made landfall inBrazil in 1500. At first the Portuguese were interested primarily in lucrative trade opportunities (including the slave trade), and by the end of the 16th century the Portuguese had established trading outposts in Africa, India, Brazil, the Middle East, andSouth Asia. During this time there was some minimal Portuguese intermarrying with and settlement among African and Asian peoples. It was much more common for the Portuguese to bring Asian and especially African peoples to Europe and Brazil, most often though not always as enslaved people. As early as the 1570s,Lisbon had a sizeable and well-known Black African population of enslaved and free people.[citation needed]
During theNew ImperialistScramble for Africa of the 1890s onward, Portugal expanded its coastal African territories in modernAngola,Mozambique, andGuinea-Bissau inland. Like other European colonial empires, Portugal achieved this expansion primarily through physical and economic violence against native peoples. After the1910 Portuguese Revolution, and as an official policy of the 1933–1974Estado Novo dictatorship, Black people in Portuguese Africa werede jure eligible for fullPortuguese citizenship and its attendant rights. In practice, Black people hardly ever achieved such status, and during theEstado Novo even white Portuguese born in Africa were denied the same legal rights and protections as whites born inmetropolitan Portugal.[citation needed]
Prior to Freyre's publication ofCasa-Grande & Senzala, few—if any—Portuguese politicians and colonial administrators conceived of the Portuguese Empire as a multicultural, multiracial, andpluricontinental nation (the idea that Portugal was not a colonial empire but a nation-state spread across continents).[5] They were more likely to think of Portuguese colonialism as a logical historical extension or continuation of theReconquista.[5] For example,Armindo Monteiro, Portuguese Minister of Colonies between 1931 and 1935, is considered a "social Darwinist" due to being a proponent of the traditional colonial "civilizing mission" andwhite saviorism.[5] Monteiro believed Portugal had a "historic obligation" to civilize the "inferior races" who lived in its African and Asian territories by converting them to Christianity and teaching them awork ethic.[5]
Portuguese dictatorAntónio de Oliveira Salazar strongly resisted Freyre's ideas throughout the 1930s and 1940s, partly because Freyre claimed the Portuguese were more prone tomiscegenation than other European nations. He adopted lusotropicalism only after sponsoring Freyre on a visit to Portugal and some of its overseas territories in 1951 and 1952. Freyre's workAventura e Rotina (Adventure and Routine) was a result of this trip.[citation needed]
Salazar adopted lusotropicalism by asserting that since Portugal had been a multicultural, multiracial, and pluricontinental nation since the 15th century, losing its overseas territories in Africa and Asia would dismember the country and end Portuguese independence.[3] According to Salazar, in geopolitical terms, losing these territories would decrease the Portuguese state's self-sufficiency.[citation needed]
In Hispanic circles, an "Ibero-tropicalist" movement has been developed, with the aim of developing ananthropology ofmestizaje based on the similarities between thePortuguese colonial model and theSpanish one to integrate the native peoples and having organically given atransculturation that forged a syncretic identity ofIberian andIndies roots. This "Ibero-tropicalism" considers thatIberism should not be understood as something purely European, but as an Ibero-Afro-American identity in which cultures of 3 great civilizations were integrated into a single transcontinental social community, evidenced in the cultural exchange present in food (beans, cocoa or potatoes), genes (Mestizaje), clothes, music (Reggaeton), terminologies, etc. in a common heritage (in addition to mutual migratory currents). This sociological approach would makeSpain andPortugal be understood as nations that are not purely European, but also American and African; and analogously with the fact thatIbero-America is not purely American, but also European and African, just asPortuguese Africa andSpanish Africa are not purely African, but also European and American; and that all these regions with a common tradition would be part of the Iberian Civilization and its plural character (expressed in theHispanidad orLusophonie).[6][7]
Iberotropicalism is not an idealistic justification of Iberian colonialism, but rather provides a theoretical basis for the extraordinary civilizing capacity of black Africans in situations of subordination. It is still necessary to develop an autonomous African Iberotropicalism to remove the stigma of the cynical instrumentalization of the Portuguese Estado Novo and of Brazilian “racial democracy.” Iberotropicalism is science and literature. More literature than science, according to its own author, since it is humanism in its purest form. Not in vain, Darcy Ribeiro, a great left-wing Iberotropical anthropologist, said that Freyre is on a par with Cervantes. Not because being fanciful, but because describes sociological reality more accurately than science.
— Pablo González Velasco
