Contributions of Gilberto Freyre to the construction of a Brazilian foreign policy in defense of Portuguese colonialism (1950-1960)

Abstract

Gilberto Freyre defended the positive nature of miscegenation in the ethnic formation of Brazil, a process which, in his view, was a result of the Portuguese colonists’ capability for adaptation and integration with other cultures in tropical regions. As is known, the theoretical development of Freyre’s lusotropicology was appropriated by ideologues of the Salazar regime to use against the pressure to decolonize coming from the US, the USSR and the UN. Thus, it is our goal to measure how the sociologist from Recife helped to develop a Brazilian foreign policy capable to validate the self-defense strategies of the Portuguese Empire.