The project was focused on four specific, albeit complex and multifaceted, problems: violence, indigenous rights, religious differences and slavery. These were problems inherent to the early modern colonization processes that might be understood today in the scope of human rights. The research carried out demonstrated that decision-makers at all levels of colonial government (i.e. court, metropolises, colonial territories) were forced to consider most of these problems, and the inherent challenges, in their empire-building efforts. Although it might be considered that these discussions were more frequent in what regarded the Spanish colonial government - a vision that might be slightly influenced by the fact that historiography has been keener to study the Spanish cases -, the research has demonstrated that these were discussions that were also often in what regarded the Portuguese colonial government. Since the period under scrutiny is a period when the two Iberian empires were united under the Catholic Monarchy, one may tentatively assume that discussions of the kind regarding the Portuguese colonial government were intensified. On the other hand, discussions on violence, indigenous rights and religious differences were predominant, while discussions on slavery were often only when what was at stake was the enslavement of American native populations. At the decision-making level, it was hard to find discussions on the rights of African slaves, which is tight to the different coeval conceptions of the “other”, in this case, American native populations and African native populations. The research has, thus, concluded, that these problems were permanently equated in the Iberian decision-making processes regarding colonial government and empire-building efforts, something which effectively influenced the evolution of the different territories of the two empires.
The project EMPIREHURIGHTS, and the research that the researcher will carry out after its conclusion - and whose objectives and problems owe much to the research, results and findings carried out and achieved throughout the fellowship - was and will be deeply aligned with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, namely goals 8, 11 and 16. The project focused deeply on vulnerable social groups and how decision-makers incorporated their demands and dissatisfactions into their political strategies, thus shaping the development of early modern societies. Ultimately, the way in which political agents and decision-makers responded to colonial violence and resistance from below made early modern societies, both metropolitan and colonial, urban and rural, more just, inclusive, sustainable, peaceful, equal, and safer. These lessons from the past, albeit drawn from an imperial context that was violent and unrighteous per se, can make stakeholders of today aware of the power of underprivileged social groups to participate in the design of our global future. This project, and the way in which it will unfold into future research, sought to demonstrate how.
