THE NINETEENTH CENTURY PORTUGUESE HISTORIOGRAPHY ABOUT THE DECADENCE AND THE COURT STUDIES: REFLECTIONS FROM LIBERAL REPUBLICANISM AND SOCIALISM

In this article, I present the interpretation that the authors of the generation of 1870 in Portugal wrote about the court system and the decadence of the monarchies of Spain and Portugal during the Early Modern period. Firstly, I offer a revision of the context and the political and ideological problems that historians of the previous generation, such as Herculano, Vasconcelos and Almeida Garrett thought about their own era. Secondly, I propose a description and an analysis of the ideas that Antero de Quental and Oliveira Martins have shaped around the court and the decadence of Spain and Portugal. Finally, this work concludes with a brief summary of the recent historiographical studies that are focused on the court and the theme of decadence. This method has the purpose to be precise at understanding the scientific development that surrounded the philosophers of 1870. In this way, this project can present their original ideas to the Spanish-speaking readers.