There are countries which measure themselves by the extent of their territory, others by the grandeur of their population, and others still by the passing strength of their riches. Portugal, however, belongs to a rarer category: that of countries whose historical influence admirably exceeds the limits of its own geography.
Small in appearance, Portugal was, for centuries, one of the great shaping forces of the modern world. It was so not by accident, nor by mere circumstance. It was so by vocation, by courage, by science, by faith, by discipline, and by an extraordinary capacity to look beyond the immediate horizon.
The Portuguese epic cannot, and must not, be reduced to a simple maritime adventure. It was, above all, an affirmation of national genius. When the Portuguese launched themselves upon the sea, they were not seeking only new trade routes. They sought pathways, brought civilizations closer together, built bridges between continents, and gave to the world a new consciousness of its own dimensions.
Before Portugal, the world was, to a large extent, fragmented. There existed empires, kingdoms, cultures, religions, and markets, but a true universal connection between them was lacking. With the Discoveries (os Descobrimentos), Portugal contributed decisively to transforming the known world into a connected world. From the African coast to the Indian Ocean, from Brazil to the Orient, from Goa to Macau, from Timor to Angola and Mozambique, the Portuguese presence left deep marks on language, on religion, on architecture, on gastronomy, on commerce, on diplomacy, and on the very organization of societies.
The Portuguese language is perhaps one of the greatest proofs of that impact. Today, millions of people, scattered across several continents, express their affections, their thoughts, their laws, their literature, their prayer, and their commerce in the language of Camões. Portuguese is not merely a European tongue. It is an Atlantic, African, American, and Asian language. It is a spiritual and cultural bridge that unites distinct peoples under a common heritage, without thereby necessarily erasing the particular identity of each.
On the spiritual and cultural plane, too, Portugal played a role of considerable significance. Portuguese expansion brought with it missionaries, schools, churches, hospitals, forms of administration, and instruments of contact between peoples who, until then, had lived apart, separated by oceans and by mutual ignorance.
Naturally, no human endeavor is exempt from errors, excesses, or contradictions. It would be intellectually dishonest to deny the shadows of History. But it would be equally unjust, and deeply impoverishing, to reduce the Portuguese presence in the world to the ideological lenses of the present, forgetting the grandeur, the audacity, and the endurance of its civilizational contribution.
Portugal was, in many respects, the forerunner of what is today called globalization. Long before other modern powers consolidated their empires, the Portuguese were already navigating, trading, translating, evangelizing, negotiating, and establishing diplomatic relations in places where Europe had scarcely arrived. Cartography, navigation, shipbuilding, and the knowledge of winds and currents were instruments of a national intelligence that placed Portugal at the center of universal History.
Brazil, by its continental dimension and by its human vitality, is one of the greatest expressions of that heritage. But Portuguese influence is not limited to Brazil. It is in Africa, in the Atlantic islands, in the Orient, in the Portuguese communities scattered across the world, in architecture, in the names of cities, in surnames, in religious traditions, in cuisines, in customs, and even in certain ways of standing before life itself.
Portuguese genius has always had a particular trait: the capacity for adaptation. Portugal seldom limited itself to imposing. Many times it survived and prospered through diplomacy, through coexistence, through negotiation, through cultural intermingling (miscigenação cultural), and through an extraordinary capacity to integrate without disappearing. That trait explains why the Portuguese presence, even centuries later, remains visible in so many places.
And yet, the great question that today imposes itself is another: whether contemporary Portuguese have full consciousness of the heritage they have received. A country that gave new worlds to the world cannot resign itself to mental smallness, to an inferiority complex, or to the cultural dependence of passing fashions. Portugal must look upon its History with serene pride, without arrogance, but also without the artificial shame that certain currents seek to impose upon the national memory.
To love Portugal is not to deny its mistakes. It is to understand the totality of its work. It is to recognize that a nation of reduced territorial dimension managed to influence continents, languages, religions, trade routes, cultures, and peoples. It is to perceive that Portuguese identity was not born of chance, but of the courage of men who looked upon the sea not as a border, but as a destiny.
In a time when so many nations seem to forget who they are, Portugal must remember what it was, in order better to understand what it can still be.
The greatness of a people does not reside solely in the economic power of the present, but in the depth of its historical soul. And in that domain, Portugal remains one of the most extraordinary nations of humanity.
Portugal was not merely a country that sailed across the world. It was a country that helped the world discover itself.
César DePaço
Businessman and Philanthropist
Consul ad honorem of Portugal from 2014 to 2020
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Summit Nutritionals International Inc.®
Founder and Chairman of the Board of The DePaço Foundation
Unwavering Defender of Law Enforcement and Conservative Principles