From colonialism to global health: Frameworks for the history of medicine in Portugal's empire

Abstract

Portugal's empire brought together peoples and pathogens, along with wide-ranging forms of medical expertise and curative practice, into multiethnic and polyglot colonial settlements around the globe. Many aspects of Portuguese imperial policy and much of the work of colonial institutions were fundamentally linked to the challenges of disease, population loss, and the preservation of health. Only in the last half-century have these dynamics become an area of intensive archival research. The present essay surveys major developments in the history of medicine in Portugal's empire. It links historiographical shifts to the intellectual currents that accompanied colonialism, decolonization, postcolonialism, and the emergence of global health—identifying key interventions and noting significant opportunities for future research.