Counting Colonial Populations

What would the population of the Portuguese Empire have been in 1800 or 1850? How many Europeans were there in Angola, or in Goa? Where was the enslaved population percentage higher? This research aims to quantify and analyze the living conditions of the various ethnic, religious, free, and non-free groups that existed in the Portuguese Empire. The Counting Colonial Populations’ project goes far beyond numbers and quantification. It aims to uncover new

evidence for research, particularly in the area of social history, but also political and administrative history. What were these censuses used for? To what degree were population statistics used as a means by European states to control and secure sovereignty in their overseas possessions?

General objectives

To identify and analyse the demographic patterns in the Portuguese Empire between 1776 and 1875.
To explain how the population statistics had a significant role in the consolidation of the Portuguese colonies in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Specific objectives

To identify and reconstruct the main demographic indicators of the colonial populations.
To Identify and explain the demographic regimes.
To reconstruct the bureaucratic circuits used in the gathering and creation of statistical data and to identify the evolution of the population’s categories.
To assess how theses statistics met the needs of the colonial administration, militarily, fiscally and regarding territorial occupation.

Between 1776 and 1875, the Portuguese Empire shifts its main axis of intervention from Brazilian territories to Africa, aiming to strengthen territorial occupation and resolve the complicated issue of slavery. According to most historiography, with the Brazilian cycle closed and despite the successive reforms, the empire fell into a relative lethargy. However, it is precisely during this period that we find an increasing concern by the authorities in calculate and control the population. This effort came through and producedseveral hundreds of statistical maps covering irregularly the various territories. Population statistics were a key instrument in the construction of States and modern forms of colonialism. Knowledge and quantification reinforced the control over territories and populations and led to new policies. The long process of creating a legal framework and a bureaucratic apparatus, able to produce, collect and interpret the numbers, allowed a first quantification and classification of overseas populations. The statistics, its categories and production circuits demonstrate the intensity with which the State grasped its territories and began building a new order. On one hand, the acquired knowledge enabled the creation of models for occupation and classification of the territory. On the other, it shaped the way these territories were perceived and how people imagine themselves.

For the Portuguese, the existence of a significant corpus of population statistics available for the overseas empire, since mid-18th century has been generally disregarded by historians and demographers. This project represents the first attempt to gather, process and analyse the “statistical maps” enacted by royal order and to create reasonably reliable demographic series and indicators for each of the Empire’s territories.

For this purpose, we will study the demographic tendencies for each territory: Brazil (1776-1822), Azores and Madeira (1776-1834), Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese India, Macau (1776-1910) and Timor (1850-1875). Depending on the available information, we will quantify: i) annual growth rates, territorial division and urbanisation levels; ii) population structures (socio-professional, religious and ethnic distribution, active population and age composition); iii) demographic behaviours (fertility, mortality and migration balances).

In addition to the strictly demographic analysis, the project also encompasses the study of the reasons that led the Crown and the Liberal State to order this extensive set of maps. Thus, we may provide new data for the analysis of several policies tied to Empire: territorial occupation, population management, taxation, conscription and the use of labour force.