Portugal

Convents as a Refuge in Early Modern Lisbon

Lisbon’s convents were not just religious houses, but safe havens for the noblewomen of Portugal offering refuge from abusive husbands, unhappy marriages and a city swarming with ‘dogs and devils’.

Friends to Friends, Enemies to Enemies

The Anglo-Portuguese alliance is the oldest of its kind. Concluded in June 1373, it has survived world wars, the rise and fall of empires and globalisation. How?

Soft Fascism

The buildings that came out of Portugal’s New State were described as an ‘architectural lie’.

Salazar: Portugal’s Great Dictator

A contemporary of Hitler, Franco and Mussolini, Salazar is remembered by some of his compatriots as the greatest figure in the nation’s history. Why?

The First Global Empire

Poor and small, Portugal was at the edge of late medieval Europe. But its seafarers created the age of ‘globalisation’, which continues to this day.

The Portuguese in Southeast Africa

In the coastal regions of the modern colonies of Kenya and Tanganyika,  the Portuguese, first among Europeans, came into contact with the Arab-African civilization that flourished on the edges of the Indian Ocean.