................................
Issues related to the scientific knowledge of the past centuries took shape and translated into publications presenting the formulation of essential problems. Efforts to interpret and problematise also emerged in these early decades of the century: António Sérgio is worthy of mention with his "A conquista de Ceuta" [“The Conquest of Ceuta”] (1920), which triggered numerous controversies, in particular the conciliatory positions of Jaime Cortesão (1925) and David Lopes (1924) and the radical stance of Mário de Albuquerque (1930). The work of Damião Peres, who did not get involved in controversy and sought to pave the way for erudition to be used in an attempt to ascertain the relevant facts of the matter, is also worthy of note. Beginning his research on the island of Madeira, he then proceeded to produce scholarly, enlightening articles (1926).
However, a discipline entitled "History of the Discoveries, Expansion, and Colonisation" had not yet been formed. This was because the subject was still taking its first steps in a construction that might be considered autonomous from the other fields of history and appeared to already have designs on its own goals and methods. This documental research may account for the official creation of a chair of "History of the Discoveries" in the Faculties of Arts, which only occurred in 1918, the teaching of which may be safely said to have begun in 1920. It was a well-known fact that Manuel Maria d' Oliveira Ramos wrote the introduction: "he created and illustrated the chair of "History of the Portuguese Discoveries and Colonisation" - according to Orlando Ribeiro (Aspectos e problemas [Issues and problems] 1955). And so, it followed that in Lisbon, Manuel d' Oliveira Ramos would oversee this chair, while in Coimbra the Faculty of Arts looked to a Professor of Medicine, João Serras e Silva, for support. In Oporto, the chair was offered to Damião Peres. A history of the discoveries and expansion or colonisation had yet to be written and published. But the path had been opened.
It was around that time, in 1922-1924, that the monumental História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil [History of the Portuguese Colonisation of Brazil] directed by Carlos Malheiro Dias was published. This was the first attempt at a general history, albeit limited only to the American territory of Portuguese colonisation (sadly, incomplete). It was, however, a very ambitious attempt, with the remarkable collaboration of Portuguese historians, especially Jaime Cortesão and Duarte Leite.
Around the same time, the Marquis of Jácome Correia also published Historia da descoberta das Ilhas [History of the Discovery of the Islands] (1926), where he sought to present an overview of the discoveries prior to the colonisation of the Azores islands - unfortunately without mentioning the bibliography he had used.
