  "The Zenith of our National History!" National identity,
colonial empire, and the promotion of the Portuguese
Discoveries: Portugal 1930s  Paulo S. Polanah1   With the onset
of Salazarism in the 1930s, the cult of the Portuguese
Discoveries—itself a product of late nineteenth-century
Portuguese nationalism—again became a fulcrum of nationalist
attention, progressively occupying the very core of Portugal’s
national identity. This (re-)mobilization of the Discoveries and
their incorporation into the national profile remained tied to
regime legitimacy and consolidation, as well as to concerns over
Portugal and its colonial heritage. Drawing on representative
writings of the imperial discourse (of the 1930s), this article
examines some aspects of the ideological articulation of the
Discoveries with Portugal’s national identity and the defense of
Portuguese colonialism.   Portuguese Discoveries; colonial
empire; national identity; threat to empire; Salazarism   Com o
início do salazarismo em 1930, o culto dos De