The Concept of Region by Arnaldo Ourique

A Monumental Milestone of 1822

The year 1822 marked a moment of profound political reconfiguration, defined by the approval of Portugal’s first Liberal Constitution (and by the process leading to Brazil’s independence). Within this historical landscape, the concept of adjacency assumed a central place in the political vocabulary of the age, carrying simultaneously three fundamental meanings: proximity, as the immediate geographical position in relation to the political center; dependence, as an institutional orbit revolving around the mainland; and full integration within the national body.

The expression “Adjacent Islands” became the official designation for the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. They were recognized as territories contiguous to the Portuguese mainland and as integral parts of the Kingdom, although situated on its geographical margins, and were therefore administratively equated with the regions of continental Portugal.

This was, indeed, a landmark of enormous significance. During the Constituent Assembly, a fundamental question was debated: to which continent did the Azores belong? Had they been considered part of the American continent (Brazil) or the African continent (Angola and Mozambique), they would have been governed under the legal framework established for the overseas territories. If, however, they belonged to the European continent, they would be administered under the same legal and administrative regime as the rest of Portugal—and this is precisely what occurred through the establishment of the district administrative system that extended across the nation.

What prompted such a decision?

The deputies whose position ultimately prevailed relied upon two compelling arguments. First, the matter was fundamentally political rather than geographical. Second, the Azores—above all because of the special status of Angra, then regarded as the great bastion of Portuguese identity in the transatlantic world—possessed a historical legacy that brought immense honor to the nation.

Naturally, the adoption of this terminology was also shaped by the semantic evolution discussed in the previous essay: the events of one era inherit those of the one that came before. Thus, the concept of specific interest, abolished by the constitutional revision of 2004, had originally been incorporated into the 1976 Constitution by borrowing the same expression used to define the overseas territories in the constitutional revision of the Estado Novo in 1971, where legislative authority remained subject to the overriding powers of the Minister for Overseas Affairs. The same continuity may also be observed in the terminology surrounding the Council of State, among other examples.

Adjacency and Region

The word region has long existed in both the Portuguese language and the country’s vocabulary, carrying a wide range of meanings without any specialized political significance. Traditionally, it has been employed in its literal sense—the lumbar region, the stellar region, the mountainous region.

Quite different, however, is the concept of regionalism, which emerged after the First World War to designate an administrative or political space. In Portugal, the Regional Tourism Commissions and the Regional Planning Commissions established during the 1950s and 1960s still reflected the older meaning of the word. This usage remained visible in the academic gatherings known as the Weeks of Study throughout the last century, particularly on Terceira and São Miguel, where the political sense of the term remained tentative and understated.

The concept of adjacency, however, possessed an older and more complex historical dimension, as discussed previously. The modern understanding of a political region was fundamentally different. It only emerged in 1975 with the establishment of the Regional Junta and was fully consolidated following the Constitution of 1976.

Conclusion

To conclude this important discussion, a diachronic analysis reveals that the word “adjacent” served as the principal linguistic instrument through which Portugal managed the relationship between the center of political power and its peripheries.

Its evolution may be understood through three great philosophical transitions.

The first was from geography to law. Under the Philippine Ordinances, geographical proximity was transformed into a legal principle, establishing that physical contiguity generated proprietary rights for the Crown.

The second was from patrimonial sovereignty to constitutional sovereignty. In 1822, the concept moved from the Crown’s private legal domain into the realm of public constitutional law. The islands ceased to be regarded as the personal possessions of the monarch and became sovereign territory belonging to the Portuguese people.

The third transition was from adjacency to autonomy, a process brought to completion by the Constitution of 1976. The very nature of the term “adjacent” implied a structural relationship of subordination that had become incompatible with the democratic ideals emerging after the Revolution. Political decentralization—or, more accurately, the devolution of powers, since sovereignty belongs to the people—and the establishment of political autonomy required a decisive break with the previous terminology, replacing the notion of geographical dependence with the institutional recognition of Autonomous Regions.

Yet the essential truth has remained unchanged.

The Azores were Portugal in the fifteenth century, just as they were in the nineteenth century, and as they continue to be today. The different constitutional forms through which they have been governed are themselves the clearest testimony to that enduring reality, second only to the political identity of the Azoreans as an insular Portuguese people.

Translated by Diniz Borges