Portuguese engineers, public works, and professional identity. The Portuguese Association of Civil Engineers (1869-1937)

This paper explores the link between the modernisation of Portugal and the emergence of a professional community embodying both technical knowledge and 'know-how', i.e., the society of engineers. After 1835 Portugal undertook a sustained, albeit slow, process of industrialization. The period following 1850, known as Regeneração (the Regeneration period), favoured an economic framework based on circulation, brought on by the development of a means of communication and, especially, by the establishment of a railway network. The close relationship between technology and progress is at the core of both the political agenda of António Maria Fontes Pereira de Melo (1819–1887), the leader of the Regeneration, and the strategy of Portuguese engineers to become a top influential professional group. Keywords: engineers, public works, professional identity, modernisation, Portuguese 19th century.