The Ideological Assumptions of the Pombaline Reforms (1750-1777)

The aim of this work is to investigate some ideological assumptions that are considered essential for understanding the reforms of the Portuguese state undertaken between 1750 and 1777 by Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (1699-1782), Count of Oeiras and Marquis of Pombal, who at the time was the prime minister of King José I of Portugal. Closely associated with the consolidation of Regalism, these assumptions are rooted both in Pombal’s diagnosis of the reality experienced by Portugal and in his project to build a new Portuguese identity. In the first case, they converge fundamentally on the idea of Portuguese ’backwardness’ or ’mismatch’ with the economic, cultural and intellectual level of the main European nations of the time - especially England. Obviously, this idea served as the basic justification for all the changes he called for and actually carried out. In the second case, the ideological presuppositions are basically the Lusitanian ideals of man and society that Pombal sought.