Portuguese Contemporary History

This course aims to provide an overview of the history of twentieth-century Portugal.

The main teaching objective thus includes the presentation of fact-based and chronologically grounded knowledge on events in the Portuguese twentieth-century, encompassing a longer time-span that begins with an introductory survey on the demise of the Constitutional Monarchy, and ends with an open reflection on the problems and perspectives of present-day Portugal in light of its recent past.

The course shall privilege sequential topical issues, their respective political, institutional, cultural and social/economic dynamics, seeking to establish comparative approaches with wider European and global history. At the end of the course, students should be able to: Identify the most relevant dates, events and figures in contemporary Portuguese history and situate them in both national and international contexts; Identify and synthesize the main historiographic interpretations about the major themes and concepts of Portuguese contemporary times; Develop a critically based reflection on historical phenomena, assessing their impact upon contemporary discourses and national identity; Explore and assimilate information through the reading of key bibliography and the interpretation of visual knowledge sources.