“Colonialism on trial”: International and Transnational Organizations and the “Global South” Challenges to the Portuguese Empire (1949–1962)

June 9, 2022 by and
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Abstract: The United Nations was a dynamic “force field” for international and transnational cooperation and a forum for consequential, transformative interactions between the “West” and the “Global South.” This article focuses on the role played by alliances and solidarity networks, formed by a plurality of actors with diverse agendas, that systematically questioned the Portuguese empire-state’s legitimacy and mobilized the languages of self-determination, human rights, and non-discrimination. As the article concludes, these historical dynamics concurred for important legal and political changes within the Portuguese imperial formation but also shaped the procedures, norms, and languages employed within the UN system to address distinct imperial and colonial situations.

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  Issue13-1
Contributors
About Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo

Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo is Associate Professor of History at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. His research interests focus on the comparative and connected histories of imperialism, colonialism, and internationalism (nineteenth–twentieth centuries). Among other publications, he authored The “Civilizing Mission” of Portuguese Colonialism (c.1870–1930) (2015) and co-edited Internationalism, Imperialism and the Formation of the Contemporary World (2017), Resistance and Colonialism: Insurgent Peoples in World History (2017), and Education and Development in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa (2020). He coordinates the research project “The worlds of (under)development: processes and legacies of the Portuguese colonial empire in a comparative perspective (1945–1975),” funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

About José Pedro Monteiro

José Pedro Monteiro is a researcher at the Communication and Society Research Center—University of Minho. He is currently working on an individual research project focusing on the dynamics and politics of citizenship in Portuguese late colonialism. His main research interests are related to the histories of late colonialism and decolonization, international institutions, and the logics of late colonial “social citizenship.” In 2018 he published the book Portugal e a Questão do Trabalho Forçado: Um Império sob Escrutínio (Edições 70). He has authored several articles and book chapters on labor history and on the history of “social citizenship” in the Portuguese colonial empire. He is the Principal Investigator of the research project “Humanity Internationalized: cases, dynamics and comparisons (1945–1980),” funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.