Um Império de Papel: Geografias metropolitanas da África na retórica colonial portuguesa

In this article, we discuss how the Portuguese colonialrhetoric uses the example of colonial ideas of France and England in thelast quarter of the nineteenth century to legitimize its action in Africa,although it is a specific imperialism (“de outro gabarito” in the famousexpression of Eduardo Lourenço). The geography and cartography, notonly as scientific disciplines, but also as a rhetorical strategy, help tocreate and sustain the fantasies of the Empire. The Portuguese Empirebuilds a cultural imaginary that is based on a new conception of spaceand time that European modernity has imposed on the world.