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Interest in geography among Portuguese historians emerged in the mid-19th century, particularly in relation to the study of overseas expansion, which was consistently referred to as a geographical discovery. Thus, the Viscount of Santarém gave prominence to geography in his works published between 1842 and 1849, in particular in his Atlas, a collection of reproductions of ancient maps, central to the study of the expansion of geographical knowledge during the medieval and early modern periods. In his view, this expansion was due to the Portuguese discoveries, which he defended with well-documented arguments. However, as far as historians were concerned, the support in geographical works was lacking and, in fact, did not yet exist. Therefore, in the absence of a science with its own methods and language, geography as a scientific discipline appeared only later, alongside history. Consequently, in historical works, the search for scattered elements where authors attempt to understand the natural environment is frequently observed (Silva, Memoria...).
The chorographies and descriptions produced since the 15th century (such as the Livro dos Arautos [Book of the Heralds], circa 1416) should be considered pre-geographical. These texts either emerged as independent works or were incorporated into other narratives. The first text that may be considered a (descriptive) geography of Portugal is by Gerardo A. Pery, dated 1875, containing brief historical references, limited to the context of overseas discoveries and conquests. These sparse elements are included in chapters referred to as statistical sections. At the time, history was not considered a relevant field to enhance (or improve) what descriptive geography was able to achieve. Nonetheless, Pery's Geographia, being unique, was used by some historians, such as Oliveira Martins and Alberto Sampaio, who each in their own way attempted to establish a relationship between the two disciplines. This relationship aimed to aid their interpretation of the historical process they sought to master. However, the description of the land was still highly rudimentary, as demonstrated by the insufficient use of geographical concepts and knowledge in historical explanations. While historians felt a strong need to understand the territory, they were not equipped to use geographical knowledge in a satisfactory manner, ev en if still embryonic in its concept s .
