This thesis focuses on a period which saw the beginning of the planned transformation and expansion of the Macao urban landscape, from the 1850s to the early twentieth century. More specifically, it analyses public works and other government-sponsored urban interventions under the influence of the Portuguese overseas administration, with the purpose of filling a gap in the current knowledge of the history of this former Portuguese province’s transition into a modern urban landscape.
It is set in the broader context of the long-nineteenth-century’s so-called ‘age of imperialism’ and its bourgeoning ‘world urban system’, where the major cities of the world became increasingly interconnected, trading not only in people, knowledge, images and ideas, but also in capital, labour and goods.
It is as if the world had become, through the influence of the Western network of empires, one large, interdependent city, mainly fostered by the progress of transport and communications. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to present a globally aware case study which may contribute to nurturing a better-informed, more locally aware, global narrative of urban modernisation.
It also hopes to contribute to strengthening the ties between primary-source-based historical research on the long-nineteenth-century Western urban modernity and the reassessment of its heritage value. This is a more operational ambition, which sees in the history of modern urban planning a valuable resource for devising better-informed, more integrated strategies of urban landscape conservation and management. This regards the Historic Centre of Macao UNESCO-classified property, as well as any other similar context throughout the European world, where the under-researched modern urban landscape may fall prey to several irreversible pressures with significant loss of cultural assets.