On the one hand, aware of Portugal's technical, scientific, economic, and institutional shortcomings compared to its colonial competitors in Africa—who were increasingly engaged in decisions of a European scale—and, on the other, of the need to assert Portugal’s historical rights to regions disputed at the time by other nations, the SGL structured its intense activities up to the late 19th century around three major objectives: securing Portugal’s position in the European movement of heightened international competition for the partition and imperialist redrawing of the African continent; assessing national resources available for investment in the international competition; and concentrating efforts on the direction of colonial policy and management across the Portuguese Empire, with a particular focus on Mozambique. Science and patriotism became two sides of the same coin within a geopolitical context shaped by the mapping of new international policies on colonial matters. Entangled in this web of conflicts and interests, Portugal saw its overseas possessions contested by foreign powers, with its historically legitimised rights increasingly challenged. It was within this context of the scramble for Africa that the major challenge facing the country, as Luciano Cordeiro noted, should be understood: the “civilisation” of Africa, its commercial exploitation, and its colonisation under a model of political and scientific coordination. Thus, through geographical science and its various branches at the time (physical, human/anthropological, political, comparative), the SGL committed itself to developing scientific knowledge and promoting a patriotic understanding of overseas issues to support deeper and more effective colonisation of African territories. In doing so, it sought to position itself among the political elites of the era as a key driver of colonial policy development, aimed at safeguarding and securing recognition of Portuguese overseas territories, which, in the view of SGL members, were integral to the Portuguese homeland and the identity of its people. Between 1876 and 1880, the SGL demonstrated tireless energy in seeking to impose its expansionist vision politically and ideologically, both domestically and internationally, launching its institutional action programme through the following initiatives: i) pressure on the government to take a firm stance with international competitors—this included internationalising Portuguese colonial policy, promoting effective colonisation, and organising explorations to assert Portuguese rights in Central Africa; ii) diplomatic efforts (with the International African Association, established in the context of the Brussels Conference of 1876), scientific engagement (participation in numerous scientific and political meetings internationally), and editorial work (collecting and publishing documents and historical studies supporting Portugal’s historical rights, disseminated both nationally and abroad); iii) intervention in domestic policy—developing and spreading a colonial ideological programme, concentrating resources and knowledge for its sustainability; iv) structuring colonial policy—studying and defining a colonial policy programme, proposing the establishment of a colonial training course for officials, and formulating a colonisation plan based, like the strategy of the International African Association, on the establishment of civilising stations.

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