Science, Technology and the Empire

Description

This project aims at giving continuity to a former one (funded by PRAXIS XXI), and that is why it keeps the same name. Its fundamental purpose is the analysis of the process of affirmation and institutionalisation of the concept "tropical science and technology" in Portugal, nationally as a structuring element of 18th and 19th century progress; internationally as the centre of a network of centre(s) and peripheries on which European power was based. 

The 19th century, revolving around a concept of progress identified with science, technology and industry re-locates the role of colonies in the world chessboard, as fundamental pieces of the power of European nations. The Berlin Conference by establishing the principle of "effective occupation of colonial territories" forces the colonising countries to define strategies of affirmation truly operational. In this context, the exploration travels and the construction of networks of communication (fundamentally based on railways), both associated with the concept of a " civilising mission", become instrumental to an effective occupation. 

Portugal, being a peripheral country of an industrialised Europe, is confronted with the necessity of consolidating in the African territory a presence; sufficiently effective and visible in order to keep those territories that historically were Portuguese. It is in this sense that the concept of "tropical science and technology" reaches all its relevance, the levels and varieties of analysis being manifold: the understanding of the processes of production and appropriation of scientific and technological knowledge in the double axis continent/colony, the study of the political dimension underlying the options in the realm of science and technology and the analysis of the relationships between centre (s) and peripheries.

From the point of view of the history of Portugal, this project will allow a better understanding of the anatomy of Portuguese modernity, in particular, the role of science and technology (as agents and institutions) in the European framework, and to analyse the Portuguese case in the context of the process of mundialisation of science and technology.