The Portuguese Restauraçâo of 1640

Abstract

The portuguese Restauração of 1640 is a paradoxical event. According to the national tradition, it represents a return to independence, of a Crown which, according to some historians, was already de iure and de facto independent. The lecture will clarify the problem by showing that nationalistic simplification turns it into a providential mystery and that the historiographic critique can explain it only by building on its very complexity. Portugal’s exit from the Spanish Monarchy must indeed be carefully analysed as an specific political exercise, typical of the European Ancien Regime, and, having nothing to do with national movements of the Contemporary Era.