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«Double Century» Celebrations
Propaganda poster for the Estado Novo, celebrating the ‘double centenary’ - the founding of Portugal (1139) and the restoration of the Portuguese Monarchy (1960).
1940 was a year of great importance in terms of the efforts to maintain the Portuguese colonial narrative through the propaganda of the Salazar regime. In this poster, the ideas of religiosity and power are reaffirmed, despite the end of the monarchy. Through the image and the inscriptions in the text, it is possible to understand the importance that the instrumentalisation of faith continues to have in justifying the actions of the state.
The idea that God not only protects but also supports the Portuguese onslaught, ‘five centuries on’, goes back to the beginning of the colonial invasions, where the Christian faith was also invoked as one of the main reasons for navigations, invasions and the enslavement of African and indigenous peoples. In 1940, when the poster was made, this ‘divine protection and support’ served to justify the maintenance of colonised territories in Africa.