The life of the António de Vasconcelos Institute of Historical Studies would be shaped in the late 50s-60s by the contributions of the young assistants Luís Ferrand de Almeida and António de Oliveira. The former was a member of the RPH board as Secretary from tome VIII (1959); the latter from tome IX (1960). The secretariat, made up of medievalists Torquato de Sousa Soares, Avelino de Jesus da Costa, and Salvador Dias Arnaut, now had the collaboration of two modernist historians who were sensitive to new themes and chronologies.

Between 1959 and 1968 (tomes VIII, IX, X, and XI) the RPH opened up to the History of Expansion and Empire, which was the subject of most of the articles. The opening up of this new historiographical field can be explained by the convergence of several factors, namely: the Prince Henry the Navigator Commemorations (1960), the publication of a volume in honour of Damião Peres (volume X— 1962) and the international recognition that Luís Ferrand de Almeida had won thanks to his bachelor's degree thesis, dedicated to Portuguese Diplomacy and the Southern Limits of Brazil (1493-1700). This circumstance gave him the credit to request texts from historians who would come to be recognised as great specialists in the History of Modern Empires, such as the British Charles Boxer, the French Frédéric Mauro, the Brazilians José Pinheiro da Silva, Max Justo Guedes, and Guilhermino César or the Portuguese Luís de Albuquerque and Avelino Teixeira da Mota. In a decade devoted mainly to modernist themes, the RPH also welcomed works by António de Oliveira, Albert Silbert, António Eiras Roel, and Antonio Dominguez Ortiz.

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