Originally published 1822 | ||
Corografia Açórica was Azorean political document produced in 1822. Its full title was Corographia Açorica, ou Descripção Phísica, Política e Histórica dos Açores, por um cidadão açorense, M. da Sociedade Patriótica Phylantropya n'os Açores, literally Azorean Corography or Physical, Political and Historic Descriptions of the Azores for the Azorean Citizen by the Patriotic Philanthropic Society in the Azores. It was written in 1822 by João Soares de Albergaria de Sousa and is considered the first political manifestation of sovereignty or autonomy associated with the peoples of the Portuguese archipelago. The manifesto first appeared in Lisbon in 1822, where it was published by the João Nunes Esteves (a document of 133 pages). In 1975, during the separatist crisis instigated by the Frente de Libertação dos Açores, 500 copies of the document were duplicated by Rainer Daehnhardt. A more recent edition, by the Jornal de Cultura in Ponta Delgada was produced in 1995, prefaced by José Guilherme Reis Leite (note references).
Themes
Apart from its descriptions of history and geographical contexts, the document is a political manifesto. Generally, it proposes solutions for what was wrong with Azorean society, and reflects a testament to understand the origins of the regionalist position that emerged in the 19th Century. The author, d’Albergaria de Sousa, demonstrated a liberal conviction that was politically radical, who manifested a political ideology that was against absolutism and despotism. The social groups most referenced by the author, without a doubt, were the traditionally dominant classes:
...the stupid, tepid, and above all incapable, the noble class and especially the military class.He extended his criticisms to the intellectual class, in particular to lawyers, public magistrates and businessmen, but spared the working class.
The middle class is the depository of principal virtues: moderate by habit, very laborious, the propensity for all professional arts, in particular as seamen.The farmer or rural class is eulogized for his excellent qualities. These people, also, had many attributes and three deficiencies:
[they´re] little patriotic, and very superstitious, because they live still in ignorance.To the historian Maria Isabel João, it was evident that for d'Albergaria de Sousa it was caused by despotism and lack of education. Public education, in the form practiced in the Azores of the time, was miserable: there were no secondary schools and few services were provided by the educational institutions. The idea of the Fatherland in d'Albergaria de Sousa's Corographia Açorica is that which was most common during the epoch: a person's birthplace, and in the context of the Azores, the island from which they are born. The patriot, therefore, is a person who demonstrates the capacity to defend their territory. The text also refers in various times about the general interest of the Fatherland, referring to the Azores, and designates the Government of the Fatherland to refer to the island government. Maria Isabel João writes that the ideas of Nation and Nationality permeate the Corographia Açorica, that uses the ancestral ideals of Fatherland, the Republic or the State to define the territory, delimiting its political borders, subject to one power. The idea of Portugal as Nation, where the Azores is integrated, is not present in the document.
The author refers to colonies and metropoles to express the idea of slavery or servitude of Azoreans to the Kingdom (at that time Portugal was a monarchy), and the lack of patriotism that had made them passive. It is clear that the Corographia articulates three basic concepts: Fatherland, colony and metropole, but it does not presume the modern concepts of a separatist manifesto. First, because the concept of Fatherland is limited to tradition, and not to the connotation of opposition to Portuguese nationalism. Second, the terms metropole and colony, although common during the era, had different meanings. On February 26, 1771, the Azores was designated a Province of Portugal, but the administration continued to be exercised like other colonial possessions, by the State.