This book examines the marks of Portuguese colonisation on Brazilian society, comparing it with other historical experiences in Spanish America. In contrast to Gilberto Freyre’s approach, which emphasised the successful transplantation of European civilisation to tropical climates in Casa-Grande & Senzala (1933), Holanda highlighted the transformations of metropolitan institutions and culture in the New World. He considered not only the differences in geographical settings but, more importantly, the tensions, violence, and accommodations between the settlers (Portuguese colonisers) and the indigenous populations. While Freyre's interpretation placed the patriarchal family and miscegenation at the centre of his understanding of Brazil, Holanda sought to identify the continuities, transformations, and ways of overcoming the Iberian legacy in the formation of Brazilian political culture. In this respect, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda aligned more closely with Caio Prado Jr.’s interpretation, viewing agro-export mercantile colonisation as a key factor in the formation of Brazilian society.

Indeed, the divergence between Sérgio Buarque de Holanda and Gilberto Freyre’s perspectives became more pronounced with the second edition of Raízes do Brasil in 1948. In this edition, Holanda identified the class ambiguities structuring the imagination of Brazil’s elites: “ Bringing from distant countries our ways of life, our institutions, our ideas, and insisting on maintaining all of this in an often unfavourable and hostile environment, we remain, even today, exiles in our own land .” ( Raízes do Brasil , 1982, p. 3). His emphasis on this sense of exile reflected the dissonance between the lived experience in the colonial world and European civilisational models. At the time, Holanda directed his criticism toward Brazil’s ruling elites and intellectuals for adopting lifestyles disconnected from the daily realities of the majority of the Brazilian population.

In Raízes do Brasil , Sérgio Buarque de Holanda identified the archaic legacies of colonisation and envisioned ways to overcome the colonial condition, paving the way for political emancipation. In many respects, his interpretation aligned with António Sérgio's, as he saw mercantilist practices as one of the primary obstacles to the development of a fully capitalist economy in Portugal. Holanda attributed the expansion of the maritime empire to the hypertrophy of the monarchical state, which was unable to foster an autonomous bourgeoisie or establish a robust domestic market. In his view, Portuguese colonial presence resembled a string of trading posts along the Atlantic coast rather than a deliberate project of territorial occupation and planned urbanisation, in stark contrast to the imperial model implemented by Castile in the Indies during the 16th century. For Holanda, it was mineral exploitation, and particularly the relocation of the royal court to Rio de Janeiro, that ultimately consolidated metropolitan domination in South America.

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