Endangered children and youth in the 18th and 19th centuries. The portuguese example in the european context

Abstract

This study analyses the risk situations of children and youth living in the 18th and 19th centuries, which were many and so different to what we see today. So was risk perception and problem management. The topic chosen is so broad and the period in history underwent so many changes that there is the need to apprehend much information and to be familiar with several fields of history. I did not aim an exhaustive study, although I did try to cover as broad a variety as possible of risks which children and youth endured at the time, the discourses of the elite on the matter and the institutional response Portugal found for the different situations. I sought to place Portuguese reality in the European context, and I realised that our country fitted perfectly into the models of the time, as far as the specific risks and the insights on them, as well as legislative and institutional solutions are concerned.