مجلة التاريخ المتوسطي
Volume 8, Numéro 2, Pages 103-115
2026-06-30
The Empire That Never Was: The Persistence Of Imperial Ideas And Portuguese Political Projects On Morocco (16th–17th Centuries)
Authors : Cardoso Arthur Feller Rigaud .
Abstract
This article analyzes a set of discourses devoted to Portuguese imperial policy in Morocco, written between the mid-sixteenth and the late seventeenth centuries. Its main objective is to analyze the persistence, at the ideological level, of the ambition for conquest and territorial expansion in Morocco after the Battle of Alcácer-Quibir (1578). The central problem is to understand how and to what extent the ideal of crusade and religious war against Islam continued to structure Portuguese discourses on Morocco after this defeat, in a context in which Portuguese imperial policy became predominantly defensive under Spanish rule (1580–1640) and was later marked by a process of strategic retrenchment during the period of the Portuguese Restoration War (1640–1668). Broadly speaking, it seeks to answer the following questions: during a period when Portuguese Moroccan policy was losing strength, who benefited from maintaining Portuguese strongholds in Morocco? What discourses and arguments were mobilized in defense of a policy of Portuguese territorial expansion in the region? The study is based on an approach that combines intellectual history and the history of written culture, seeking to cross-reference the discourses of authors from the period with documents from “high politics” –related to the court, tribunals and royal councils –, produced by advisors, diplomats, and the king himself. It is based on the analysis of discourses, treatises, chronicles, memorials, and historiographical texts, considered within their contexts of production, circulation, and political function. The corpus includes printed and manuscript works written by Portuguese authors between the late sixteenth century and the last quarter of the seventeenth century, such as Amador Arrais, Diogo do Couto, D. Gonçalo Coutinho, D. Jerónimo de Mascarenhas, Manuel de Faria e Sousa, D. Fernando de Meneses, among other speeches that circulated during the period. The analysis shows that, despite the gradual shift of official royal policy toward strategies of containment, negotiation, and abandonment, the idea of conquering Morocco persisted over the longue durée. Furthermore, we propose that the disintegration of Portuguese imperial policy in Morocco occurred from the 1640s onwards, with the new reigning Braganza dynasty, rather than during the period when Portugal was part of the Hispanic Monarchy (1580-1640). We argue that, starting with the Restoration War (1640–1668), with the Portuguese Crown under the Braganza dynasty, there was a political orientation focused on “practical” or “pragmatic” aspects to the detriment of one focused on religious, Catholic ends. Adapted to different contexts and mobilized for a variety of purposes, those discourses the appropriation of its historical, symbolic, and religious legacy by a segment of Portuguese society and reveals the persistence of an African-oriented imperial political culture beyond the material decline of the Portuguese presence in the region.
Keywords
Portuguese Empire ; Morocco ; Political discourse ; Hispanic Monarchy
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