In December 1806, Herbert Hill advised Southey to begin the History of Portugal with the History of Brazil, given the international crisis brought about by Napoleonic expansion. In line with Luso-Brazilian enlightened reformism, Southey recognised that a potential political separation between Brazil and Portugal could be a decisive factor in the fragmentation of American territory, potentially triggering revolutions. In this context, Southey's História do Brasil presents an ambivalent macronarrative of formation. On one hand, it critiques the actions of the "barbaric" and "fanatical" Portuguese colonisers; on the other hand, it emphasises the crucial role of the Portuguese in the civilisation of Brazil, which, in turn, preserved and perpetuated Portuguese cultural and linguistic heritage. Thus, his História do Brasil oscillates between valuing and criticising the colonising actions of the Portuguese. The work of the Jesuits, in particular, is highlighted as fundamental to the elevation of the indigenous populations from their presumed state of savagery. Southey argued that the colonising process undertaken by the Portuguese was, in many ways, more advantageous than that of the British in their territories, particularly due to the ethnic mix, which contributed to the preservation of territorial unity and chivalrous virtues imparted by the Portuguese (Cf. A. Ramos, Robert Southey e a experiência da história... [Robert Southey and the experience of history...], 2019; F. Varella, Um Brasil Medieval... [Mediaeval Brazil], 2021).

Southey was widely criticised among Portuguese, Portuguese-Brazilian, and British scholars for the excess of detail in his work, which often tired and confused the reader. In fact, the British scholar presented a synthesis of the meaning of Brazil's colonising process only in the last chapter of the final volume of his História do Brasil (1819), View of the State of Brazil . Although this work, which was meant to be part of the monumental História de Portugal , did not present arguments legitimising the political independence of the new Empire that emerged in 1822, Southey instead advocated for the defence of political unity. However, in 1829, he published an essay in the Quarterly Review , Political and Moral State of Portugal , in which he explained the causality between the historical "decadence" of Portugal and the inevitability of the political fragmentation of the Portuguese Empire.

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