Conceptually, Cortesão aimed to systematise what was already an autonomous discipline, establishing it as a distinct area of study with its own content and structure. In 1966, in the entry “História da Cartografia” [History of Cartography] in the Verbo Enciclopédia [Verbo Encyclopedia], he highlighted the development of cartographic studies from antiquity to the 19th century, distinguishing three perspectives in historical cartographic studies: the Cartography of History, Historical Cartography and History of Cartography. In this approach "which deals with the origin and development of the technique of geographical maps, their enumeration and systematic study over the centuries", four major development periods can be found: Classical Cartography, Medieval Cartography, Modern Cartography and Contemporary Cartography. Focusing on the history of Portuguese cartography, and using a periodization approach, he identified five distinct phases: First period: Infancy; Second period: Splendour; Third period: Stagnation; Fourth period: Renewal; and Fifth period: Contemporary.

For Cortesão, the third period in the general history of cartography, known as Modern Cartography, aligns with the first three phases of Portuguese cartography — from its emergence and peak to its stagnation. Cortesão attributed this stagnation to the period during and after the Philippine rule, when the decline of the Portuguese Empire led to a diminishing role for Portuguese cartography, relegating it to a secondary status by the turn of the 17th century. In this general overview of Portuguese cartography, Cortesão dedicated his studies to the most significant phase, providing only brief and summarised notes on cartographic production after the 18th century. Francisco Roque de Oliveira's observation is insightful, describing Cortesão's perspective on the history of cartography as “[…] entirely aligned with the mimicry of the positivist tradition […]”, concluding that, as a sign of the times, “[…] the world that Armando Cortesão questioned remained indifferent to the impossible and anachronistic equation to which it clung until the end” ( Leitores de Mapas…, 2012, p. 18).

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