Abstract
This paper aims at reviewing some aspects of the analysis about the Portuguese ways of governing and colonization in the early modern age to highlight the importance of the concept of reason of state for the debate. For that purpose, it is pointed out, in a first section, the difference between the reason of state - notion that refers to an important literature elaborated during the Renaissance and the Ancien Régime - and the reason of State, which is related to the discussion about the nation’s interests in the contemporary world. In a second section, the discussion is deepened through the analysis of an important text by Bartolomé Clavero on the subject.
Keywords
reason of state; Portuguese governing; colonization