In his work, Maxwell highlights Carvalho e Melo’s role in Brazil. Inspired by mercantilist models, Pombal established monopoly companies such as the Companhia Geral de Comércio do Grão-Pará e Maranhão [General Company of Grão-Pará and Maranhão] and the Companhia Geral de Comércio de Pernambuco e Paraíba [General Company of Pernambuco and Paraíba] to strengthen Portugal’s position in Atlantic trade. While also noting the administrative reforms that Pombal carried out in the empire, especially in Brazil, the author of O Marquês de Pombal points out the secretary of state's perception of his inability to control a territory as vast as Brazil's, without flexibility and compromise with the local elites. Managing Portuguese America would be easier the more these elites fostered good relations with government bodies. In other words, flexibility in the face of resistance was key to relieve internal tensions and allowed the focus to be directed to external threats. According to Maxwell, Pombal's policies helped keep Brazil within the empire during a time of Atlantic upheaval and revolutions. However, these reforms also laid the groundwork for Brazil to assume a leading role within the Portuguese monarchy, to the extent that, by the end of the century, it was seen as the potential head of the monarchy.

Maxwell interprets Brazil’s independence in 1822 as a consequence of the political, economic, and social developments of the 1700s, while also emphasising the central role of the French Revolution (1789–1799) and the Napoleonic project (1799–1815) in the process. The European political circumstances that led to the transfer of the Portuguese court to Rio de Janeiro, elevating Brazil to the status of a kingdom and granting it greater autonomy, set an irreversible process in motion.

Maxwell also explored the creation of democracy in Portugal and the dissolution of its colonial empire in The Making of Portuguese Democracy (1995) and O Império Derrotado: Revolução e Democracia em Portugal [The Defeated Empire: Revolution and Democracy in Portugal] (2006). In these two works on the country's more recent history, Maxwell examines its political development. Even with the Atlantic in the way, he paid special attention to the Revolution of 25 April 1974. Having encountered a repressive Portugal under Salazar in the 1960s, engaged in a brutal war to preserve its African empire, Maxwell was deeply interested in the country’s post-revolution period. With the perspective of an outsider, Maxwell provides a measured account of Portugal’s democratisation and decolonisation processes. He attributes symbolic significance to the Carnation Revolution, highlighting its link to colonial issues and noting that the international context of the 1970s was increasingly unfavourable to continuing the war.

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