Cosmopolitanism is considered here as openness to and engagement with other cultures; the capacity to mobilise and negotiate plural identities; and the ability to adapt, transform and create new or hybrid cultural forms. The focus of this volume is on the Portuguese-speaking countries in different continents, which not only had their own specific historical features, but also diverged from each other both before and after their processes of independence. Long term imperialism and colonialism, spanning three continents for several centuries, involved vast territories shaped both by the interests of different social groups of Portuguese migrants and by the response and agency of native populations. Portuguese imperialism also had an impact back in Portugal; one that has now been well assessed in terms of economic output.1 The imperial world was built on hierarchical relations between centres and peripheries, in which tensions between imperial violence and possibilities of a cosmopolitan outlook emerged. A divergence of historical trajectories was looming before the independence of Brazil in 1822, the absorption of colonies by the Republic of India in 1961, the independence of the African colonies in 1974–5 and the integration of Macau into China in 1999.
This permanently shifting world has been studied from a variety of angles, but not yet that of cosmopolitanism.2 In making good this omission, it is not our intention to present a rosy vision of Portuguese imperialism, but to add to our understanding of all the consequences of violent and asymmetrical exchange. It is our goal to give voice to alternative visions and to practices that have been less scrutinised. We shall address the cosmopolitan dimension not only of the early colonial world, but also of the postcolonial set of independent countries. Cosmopolitanism among specific elites on different continents, both in the early modern and modern periods, is here addressed. But this Portuguese-speaking world presents an even more interesting setting for the study of cosmopolitanism when this is done from below, based on
Cosmopolitanism may have reached higher levels in regions where there was a looser presence of Portuguese institutions, such as West Africa, or in regions with a strong tradition of urban culture, such as India.3 In China and Japan, where the Portuguese were in a position of political subordination, practices identified with cosmopolitanism increased.4 The Portuguese presence in Angola and Mozambique was defined by violence but also by permanent negotiation with hinterland powers until the late nineteenth century.5 Even in Brazil, where a colonial society was imposed from scratch via the forced integration of natives and the importing of African slaves, manifestations of cosmopolitanism from below can be identified.6
In Portugal, there was a court society eager to receive news from diplomats abroad, even if such politicians, some of them extremely influential (for example, D. Luis da Cunha or the future Marquis of Pombal) were labelled
This volume is intentionally interdisciplinary, spanning from the early modern to the modern period, in a quest to find seminal new angles and approaches. Its contribution to reflection on cosmopolitanism in history starts with an essay on changing semantics of the word from the sixteenth century to the present day, coupled with a study of the conditions that favoured the emergence of cosmopolitan ideas and practices.
The volume is structured in four parts. The first part concerns expansion and empire, and deals with violent occupation, but also with loose insertion and negotiation with local political entities. Local constraints concerning the conditions under which the Jewish community was allowed to settle in Amsterdam confronted New Christians of Portuguese origin with a religious choice, and this is explored here by Cátia Antunes. This author raises the crucial issue of economic practices that were defined by the extent to which they featured involvement with other businessmen, and she thus challenges the vision of cosmopolitanism as being associated with trade. Toby Green addresses another important issue concerning the same social and religious group: the presence of New Christians in the Atlantic, in this case in West Africa, where they intermarried with native women and engaged with local traditions and institutions. However, he rightly highlights the violent context of the imperial Portuguese presence in this area, which calls into question the cosmopolitan stance of these traders. Philip Havik studies gendered experience in the early modern Western African ports that had a Portuguese presence. He shows the importance there of widows and other women acting as heads of households, who had enormous economic and political power, and who were involved in the slave trade, plantations and commercial exchange. Francisco
The second part is organised around early modern civility, which involved the creation of levelled fields for exchanging ideas, conviviality, polite behaviour and tastes. David Irving addresses the fascinating musical culture of the early modern Lusophone world, mainly in Asia, where both elites and subaltern groups engaged with local aesthetic features and blended them with forms brought from other parts of the world. Vanda Anastácio engages with the cosmopolitanism of the Republic of Letters through the figure of the Marchioness of Alorna, who lived at the end of the Ancien Regime, observing how conservative politics could exist alongside up-to-date and committed literary practices, as the Marchioness networked with correspondents in different parts of Europe and reflected on her own condition as a woman and the wife of a diplomat. The importance of freemasonry in shaping the life and work of the Portuguese and Brazilian liberal Hipólito José da Costa (1774–1823) is underlined here by Paulo Arruda. He studies the itinerary of this author, who joined the Freemasons in Philadelphia, was detained by the Inquisition in Lisbon, escaped to become an active high member of the London Freemasons, and transcended the spatial and cultural boundaries of Portuguese influence.
Modern cultural practices inspire the third part of the volume. Giovanni Leoni offers a refreshing view of the Portuguese architects Távora, Siza and Souto Moura, two of them laureates of the Pritzker Prize, the equivalent of a Nobel prize in architecture. The focus here is on the contrast between internationalism and cosmopolitanism, the critical assimilation of tradition based on the importance of location, and the tension between regional forms and postmodernism, local and universal meanings. Phillip Rothwell questions the crucial tension between cosmopolitanism from above and cosmopolitanism from below through the literary work of Pepetela. The international standing of the Luandan elite, portrayed as rich citizens of the world, is contrasted with their country’s hinterland, a metaphorical landscape, while a cosmopolitanism in between is presented through the urban petite bourgeoisie. João Leal addresses the importance of the Holy Ghost feasts that are performed in the United States by a significant number of migrants of Azorean origin. A sense of double belonging and cultural distinctiveness are highlighted here through the innovative feature of the Queens, non-existent in the Azorean tradition.
The fourth part deals with political practices which in principle should be alien to our subject, but which in fact call attention to fundamental constraints on, and possibilities for the exchange of ideas. The tension between cosmopolitanism from above and cosmopolitanism from below is again addressed here. Reactionary cosmopolitanism is the engaging topic chosen by António Costa Pinto, who studies the international connections between integralist movements in Portugal and Brazil, which established close links with the far right and fascist parties in Europe in order to put pressure on the more traditionalist and Catholic authoritarian, Salazar. And Ricardo Soares de Oliveira presents a sharp analysis of the cosmopolitan Angolan elite, whose power is based on control of the state and oil revenues. The lives of this elite demonstrate a whole set of ambiguities, with contrasts between urban and rural areas, coastal ports and the hinterland, strategies for development and regional backwardness, and an international stance opposed to local Africanness.
The links between the different chapters in each section are obvious, but the cross-reading of, for example, Philip Rothwell and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Giovanni Leoni and David Irving, Philip Havik and Vanda Anastácio, or Paulo Arruda and António Costa Pinto may reveal unexpected connections that have generally failed to occur to the historian, literary researcher, political scientist or anthropologist.