Oliveira Marques’s academic background was, indeed, brilliant, unique, and unprecedented. He displayed wholehearted commitment, in part to be on a par with his high school classmates and to compensate for the two-year delay caused by having changed courses.   

 In 1957 he began his teaching career as a lecturer for three months at the University of Würzburg and then in November he was hired as Segundo Assistente [Second Assistant Professor] by the Faculdade de Letras where, in October 1960, he was promoted to Primeiro Assistente [First Assistant Professor] by reason of his doctorate. That very same year, he married Maria Fernanda Espinosa Gomes da Silva (until her premature death in 1971) and immediately set to work on his research in England, France, and Italy in preparation for the professor extraordinário [non- permanent position] tender procedure.  His internationalisation, quite innovative in the historiographic context of the time, was further boosted by his conferences at the Universities of Würzburg (1957), Koln, Bonn, Freiburg (1962) and submission of papers in seminars (Lille, 1958). Concomitantly, he organised and took part in congresses held in Portugal (Lisbon, Braga). He taught Palaeography and collaborated initially in two subjects, História de Portugal [History of Portugal] and História Medieval [Medieval History], supervised by Virginia Rau who encouraged him in this early stage of his academic career; he would eventually come to fully supervise História Medieval; occasionally, he also taught Teoria da História [Theory of History]. In May 1962, he submitted a printed copy of his dissertation of the tender for professor extraordinário with the title Introdução à História da Agricultura em Portugal [Introduction to the History of Agriculture in Portugal], which he never defended since the public examinations were successively suspended and the tender itself revoked due to his siding with the students in the March-May strike of 1962. In view of such hindrances, Oliveira Marques resigned from his post as assistant professor on 17 November 1964, thus closing the first cycle of his life for another to open as a university professor living far away from his country in the United States of America.

He was bold enough to apply for a job at foreign universities and was eventually recruited in 1965-1966 as associate professor by the University of Auburn (Alabama, United States of America) and between 1966 to 1969 as full professor by the University of Florida (Gainesville).  He taught courses on the História de Bizâncio e Civilização Muçulmana [History of Byzantium and Muslim Civilization], História da Idade Média [History of the Middle Ages], História da Península Ibérica [History of the Iberian Peninsula], Cidades Medievais e Comércio no Norte da Europa [Medieval Cities and Commerce in Northern Europe], Cortes [Courts], Origens da Expansão Europeia [Origins of the European Expansion] and História de Portugal. 1890-1940 [History of Portugal 1890-1940].

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