An idea of Empire in the end of the Constitutional Monarchy

the photographs of the voyage of D. Luís Filipe to the colonies in 1907

Abstract

In 1907, Luís Filipe, heir apparent of Portugal, visited the Portuguese colonies in Africa. The voyage was covered by the Portuguese illustrated press that, together with news about the journey, published several photographs of the locations visited by the prince. In this paper, I analyse a set of pictures published in the journals O Occidente and Illustração Portugueza and I show how they contributed to a visual narrative of progress and modernity of the Portuguese imperial project that illustrated the civilising mission of the Portuguese Empire. I show how the colonies were presented as Europeanised places, with tokens of the technoscientific presence of the mainland (that, however, did not hide a romantic view of the exoticness of the African landscape), including the imposition of European mores over the natives. I aim to add to the debate about the importance of photography to colonial projects, as a tool of Empire.