A talk by Peter Kingdon Booker

Challenged to name famous Portuguese, the average expatriate might nominate Cristiano Ronaldo, or José Mourinho or perhaps Luís Figo. In fact the football world is awash with Portuguese. But names from Portugal´s history? Vasco da Gama and Henry the Navigator spring to mind from the period of the discoveries, and perhaps António de Oliveira Salazar from recent twentieth century history. But the Marquês de Pombal might be a little too recondite for the average immigrant and ex-patriate. Pombal was a politician of the eighteenth century who became the virtual dictator of Portugal (1755 - 1777). It was he who managed the national response to the disaster of the earthquake; who strove to modernise Portugal according to the modern ideas of the enlightenment; who effectively ended British domination of Portugal´s trade; and who banished the Jesuits from the Kingdom. At first sight, his dictatorial methods might seem similar to those adopted by the dictator Salazar (1933 - 1968) in the twentieth century, and with a similar purpose. Are there any similarities between these two giants of modern history in Portugal? Peter Booker analyses the two dictatorships, and exposes the differences and similarities within a proper historical context.