This book is the result of a project originally entitled Imperial Cities: local dynamics, global flows. This venture started as a cycle of seminars that has been taking place since November 2018 in Portugal and Brazil (http://www.cies.iscte-iul.pt/np4/219/). The main intention is to explore “imperial cities” (fundamentally, port cities relevant for the economic development of their respective colonial empires) by comparing them within a broader framework.
Essentially, the project was intended to observe the dynamics within the Portuguese Empire’s main entrepôts and their connections as maritime hubs, both inside and outside their respective empires. After some thoughts, we decided to rename it as Cities and Empires: local dynamics, global flows, and to explore new borders, comparing them with other imperial port cities (English/American, Spanish, French, and Dutch) of the New World. For this purpose, we invited renowned historians linked to different international institutions, who generously accepted to participate in our seminar series. The conferences covered a variety of topics with a focus on historical processes, and cultural, political and socioeconomic interactions, highlighting the networks of the Portuguese Atlantic cities as the common thread. Adopting a global and comparative perspective, they explored issues related to political and commercial networks in the urban economy of cities such as Lisbon, Goa, Luanda, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Belém, São Luís, as well as the structures beyond municipal councils in the formation of inland cities in Brazil and Africa.
Considering that every empire is a global system, along with the strategic importance of capital cities (cabeças or “head” of the kingdom, or of the conquered territories) as the seats of power for the Portuguese Overseas empire, we decided to start an editorial project to bring together studies on the colonial cities. We gathered a group of talented scholars, both experienced and young, to face up the challenge of updating the role of cities awarded the titles of “royal” and “imperial”, and of smaller towns and villages. Together they formed a complex urban network that often spanned local, imperial, and trans-imperial connections, shaping the global world of the modern era.
The historiography of this topic in English language is not so vast, which is why we challenged the authors to reassess, review, and update the concepts and approaches already used in Colonial Brazilian History. The purpose of this volume is to highlight the importance of local dynamics and flows within the multiple geographies and connections between hamlets (arraiais), villages and port cities in Brazil, Africa and India, integrally related to the global economic system of the early modern world.
Both the series of seminars and this book are a joint activity carried out by the research group Historical Dynamics and Global Integration of the World, of the CIES-Iscte (Center for Research and Studies of Sociology) from the Lisbon Institute University; Cities, Environment and Regional Development – Global Changes, Local Responses, of the CICS.NOVA.UMinho (Interdisciplinary Center of Social Sciences at the University of Minho); and Justices and Iberian Empires of the Old Regime, from the Federal Fluminense University (UFF/Brazil).
In this partnership, we counted on the invaluable support of highly experienced colleagues who discussed the original project in the panels presented at various conferences, offering us constructive criticism. In addition, they agreed to participate in the seminars we organized; some of them also acted as scientific advisors and referees for this book, also helping us to correct some English language errors. We are very grateful to the following colleagues: Adriana Romeiro, Agata Bloch, Ângela Domingues, Ângelo Carrara, Ana Silvia Volpi Scott, Almir Diniz de Carvalho Jr., Arlindo Caldeira, Arthur Curvelo, Beatriz Piccolotto Siqueira Bueno, Christopher Ebert, Cristina Nogueira da Silva, Cryslaine Alfagali, Danielle Sanches de Almeida, Fábio Kühn, Fabrício Prado, Francisco Javier Cervantes Bello, Francisco Azevedo Mendes, Guida Marques, Iris Kantor, Isabel dos Guimarães Sá, Jonis Freire, José Vicente Serrão, Kirsten Schultz, Lisbeth Rodrigues, Lucilene Reginaldo, Marcia Eliane Alves de Souza e Mello, Maria Antónia Pires de Almeida, Maria Luiza Ferreira de Oliveira, Mariana A. Dantas, Mariana L. R. Dantas, Miguel Dantas da Cruz, Mônica Ribeiro de Oliveira, Paulo T. Matos, Renata Malcher de Araujo, Pablo Ibáñez-Bonillo, Pedro Puntoni, Thiago Krause, and Thomas Haddad. We also thank the authors who accepted the challenge of writing in English to reach a wider audience outside the Luso-Brazilian world, and their patience with the referees’ requests.
Organizing this book during the Covid-19 global health crisis was definitely a challenge, and at times it drained our energy. We extend our sympathy to those colleagues who got sick or lost part of their family and friends. For this, special gratitude is due to our families.
Finally, we acknowledge the support of the FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology. The research by Sarita Mota and Rodrigo Dominguez was carried out under the contracts-program between FCT/Iscte (Ref. SFRH/BPD/80189/2011, DL57/2016-Edital 504/2018) and FCT/UM (Ref. SFRH/BPD/110798/2015, DL57/2016-Edital CTTI-70/18-CICS), respectively. Cláudia Atallah’s research has received support from FAPERJ (Ref. 211.274/2019).
MA students from UERJ and undergraduate students from UFF under the supervision of Prof. Atallah, namely Hiago Rangel, Fernanda Figueiredo, Alexandre Azeredo, Felipe Mathias, and José Marcos Freitas, contributed to the realization of the seminar series, not only regarding academic bureaucratic procedures and technical support but also with their active participation in the debates. Our thanks, meninos!
We also thank Editorial Teseo, which kindly and warmly embraced the project, and many thanks to Octavio Kulesz and Laura Díaz for guiding us diligently and professionally through the editorial process.
Lisboa, Niterói and Braga, May 2022.
Maria Sarita Mota
Cláudia C. Azeredo Atallah
Rodrigo da Costa Dominguez
