The Portuguese Polytechnicians of the ‘long nineteenth century’: technical expertise, military aspirations, and political disenchantment. A preliminary study

Abstract

This article focuses on the career paths of students who completed the preparatory course addressed to future military officers and engineers offered by the Lisbon Polytechnic School. We show that, after completing their studies, the Lisbon polytechnicians held positions in the public service and carried out the policies of State modernization launched by the Liberals in the period known as the Regeneration (Regeneração: 1851 coup-d’état to 1868). The graduates became in this way part of the Portuguese “technoscientific aristocracy.” Yet, despite its key role in preparing this technoscientific bureaucracy, the Lisbon Polytechnic School did not turn into the alma mater of the Portuguese political elite, which continued to be the University of Coimbra. In effect, an overall study of the career paths of former students of the Lisbon Polytechnic points to a relatively low level of political formal engagement.