Joaquim Pedro de Oliveira Martins
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Joaquim Pedro de Oliveira Martins (30 April 1845 – 24 August 1894) was a
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
politician and
social scientist Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of socie ...
. He was a writer, a
deputy Deputy or depute may refer to: * Steward (office) * Khalifa, an Arabic title that can signify "deputy" * Deputy (legislator), a legislator in many countries and regions, including: ** A member of a Chamber of Deputies, for example in Italy, Spai ...
, a minister; he became the 47th Minister for Treasury Affairs on 17 January 1892. Martins was born and died in
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
. He was the son of Francisco Cândido Gonçalves Martins (born Lisbon, Mercês, bap. 16 June 1812) and wife Maria Henriqueta de Morais Gomes de Oliveira (born
Setúbal Setúbal (, , ; cel-x-proto, Caetobrix) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies within the Lisbon metropolitan area. In the ti ...
, São Lourenço (Vila Nogueira de Azeitão), bap. 26 August 1817). Oliveira Martins is considered one of the key figures in the contemporary
history of Portugal The history of Portugal can be traced from circa 400,000 years ago, when the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Homo heidelbergensis. The Roman invasion in the 3rd century BC lasted several centuries, and developed the Roman provinc ...
. His works influenced many generations of writers, such as
António Sérgio António Sérgio de Sousa (September 3, 1883 – February 12, 1969) was an influential educationist, philosopher, journalist, sociologist and essayist from Portugal. Background He was the only son and representative of António Sérgio de Sous ...
(1883–1969),
António Sardinha António Sardinha (9 September 1887 in Monforte, Portalegre – 10 January 1925 in Elvas Municipality, Elvas) was a Portugal, Portuguese writer and the main intellectual behind the ''Integralismo Lusitano'' movement. He espoused a strongly conserva ...
(1887–1925) or the philosopher Eduardo Lourenço (1923– ). He married on 10 March 1865 Vitória Mascarenhas Barbosa, without issue. His great-nephew is former
Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
Guilherme de Oliveira Martins.


Life

An orphan, Oliveira Martins did not have an easy adolescence; he did not finish high school, which would lead him to Polytechnic School to be a military engineer. He was a businessman between 1858 and 1870, but because his firm went bankrupt, he later became manager of a mine in
Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...
. In 1874 Martins returned to
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
to coordinate the construction of the railway between
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...
, Póvoa do Varzim and
Vila Nova de Famalicão Vila Nova de Famalicão () is a Portuguese town with a population of approximately 133,048 inhabitants () in an area of 201,59 km2, subdivided into 49 parishes (Administrative Division of 11 Unions of Parishes and 23 Parish Councils,). Insert ...
. In 1880 he was elected president of the Sociedade de Geografia Comercial of Porto and, four years later, manager of the Museum of Industry of Commerce in the same city. Later, he was also manager of the Company of Mozambique and member of the executive commission of the Portuguese Industrial Exhibition. Oliveira Martins became a deputy elected by
Viana do Castelo Viana do Castelo () is a municipality and seat of the district of Viana do Castelo in the Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 88,725, in an area of 319.02 km². The urbanized area of the municipality, comprising the city, ...
in 1883, and in 1889 by Porto. In 1893 he was nominated vice-president of the Junta de Crédito Público. One of the leading figures of the "
70s generation 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...
" (formed by writers like
Antero de Quental Antero Tarquínio do Quental (; old spelling ''Anthero'') (18 April 184211 September 1891) was a Portuguese poet, philosopher, and writer. Do Quental is regarded as one of the greatest poets of his generation and is recognized as one of the most i ...
, Eça de Queirós,
Ramalho Ortigão José Duarte Ramalho Ortigão () (24 October 1836 – 27 September 1915) was a Portuguese writer of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Biography Ortigão spent his early years with his maternal grandmother in Porto. He studied law in ...
and
Guerra Junqueiro Abílio Manuel Guerra Junqueiro (, 17 September 1850 – 7 July 1923) was a Portuguese top civil servant, member of the Portuguese House of Representatives, journalist, author, and poet. His work helped inspire the creation of the Portuguese First ...
), Martins was influenced by many
schools of thought A school of thought, or intellectual tradition, is the perspective of a group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, economics, cultural movement, or art movement. H ...
of the nineteenth century.


Main works

Oliveira Martins worked for the major literary, scientific, political and socialist Portuguese journals. His vast work began with the romance ''
Febo Moniz Febo (or Febos) Moniz (1515 – aft. 1580) was a Portuguese nobleman who distinguished himself during the 1580 Portuguese succession crisis. Life He was the second son of Jerónimo Moniz and wife Violante da Silva. Fidalgo, he fulfilled offices ...
'' (1867). In the area of social sciences, his major works include ''Elementos de Antropologia'' (1880), ''Regime das Riquezas'' (1883) and ''Tábua de Cronologia'' (1884). His historiographical works include ''História da Civilização Ibérica'' and ''História de Portugal'' (1879), ''O Brasil e as Colónias Portuguesas'' (1880), ''História da República Romana'' (1885), ''Os Filhos de D. João I'' (1891) and ''A Vida de Nuno Álvares'' (1893). His works influenced Portuguese political life, historiography, critic and literature during his life and the twentieth century, but also generated large controversy:
integralist In politics, integralism, integrationism or integrism (french: intégrisme) is an interpretation of Catholic social teaching that argues for an Authoritarianism, authoritarian and anti-Pluralism (political philosophy), pluralist Christian sta ...
authors, for instance, accused him of extreme pessimism and even anti-patriotism.


Martins' historiography

According to historian Sérgio Campos Matos, in Oliveira Martins'
historiographical Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians hav ...
works "the single event is always related with the totality, with a principle of unity". Martins vacillated between
social determinism Social determinism is the theory that social interactions alone determine individual behavior (as opposed to biological or objective factors). A social determinist would only consider social dynamics like customs, cultural expectations, educatio ...
and individual affirmation, considering that collective reason and individual reason could not be separated. For him, the historical course of the
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
was a "succession of voluntary acts, of plans of statesmen"; however, the action of these men was subordinated to an ideal system of determinant
principle A principle is a proposition or value that is a guide for behavior or evaluation. In law, it is a Legal rule, rule that has to be or usually is to be followed. It can be desirably followed, or it can be an inevitable consequence of something, suc ...
s and
laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...
, sharing the idea that human action was an instrument of
destiny Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often ...
. Oliveira Martins was both skeptic towards a "science of
universal history A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...
" (denying the existence of laws in history and preferring the teaching of
chronology Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , '' -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. I ...
and of the
philosophy of history Philosophy of history is the philosophical study of history and its discipline. The term was coined by French philosopher Voltaire. In contemporary philosophy a distinction has developed between ''speculative'' philosophy of history and ''crit ...
) and the
historical romance Historical romance is a broad category of mass-market fiction focusing on romantic relationships in historical periods, which Walter Scott helped popularize in the early 19th century. Varieties Viking These books feature Vikings during the Da ...
(which he considered a "hybrid and false genre"), therefore, he preferred
narrative history Narrative history is the practice of writing history in a story-based form. It tends to entail history-writing based on reconstructing series of short-term events, and ever since the influential work of Leopold von Ranke on professionalising histo ...
. Martins's thesis proved to be controversial in the context of the second half of the nineteenth century, a time when fields like
archeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
,
ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...
,
philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
and geography shared great development and when there was tendency to view
History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
as a discipline based on
natural laws Natural law ( la, ius naturale, ''lex naturalis'') is a system of law based on a close observation of human nature, and based on values intrinsic to human nature that can be deduced and applied independently of positive law (the express enacted ...
. Oliveira Martins was greatly influenced by authors like the German historian
Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...
, namely the importance given to the
hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...
as the man who better incarnates the
nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
's soul, the collective psychology of the
nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
in a given historical moment, corresponding to its demands and ambitions. In Martins' last works the individual's function in history grows, as a sign of his skepticism towards an immediate national regeneration.Matos, 1992: 502–504


References


Bibliography

* MATOS, Sérgio Campos (1992). "Na génese da teoria do herói em Oliveira Martins" in ''Estudos de homenagem a Jorge Borges de Macedo''. Lisboa: INIC. * MAURÍCIO, Carlos Maurício (2000). “O falso Portugal de Oliveira Martins” in ''Ler História'', nº38, pp. 57–86.
J. P. de Oliveira Martins, ''Portugal nos Mares: Ensaios de Critica, Historia e Geographia,'' Lisboa, Bertrand, 1889 (repr. Parceria Antonio Maria Pereira, 1924).


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliveira Martins, Joaquim Pedro De 1845 births 1894 deaths Portuguese social scientists People from Lisbon 19th-century Portuguese people Finance ministers of Portugal