A society without a political life or a public opinion, it did not need a press. Not even a vernacular language was necessary. Portuguese became the national language only in the 19th century, to which event one of the contributing factors was the arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family in 1808, with their bureaucrats and a printing press - up to then a forbidden item. They have almost always been manovered by the burgeoisie that holds on to political power. In a State which has been centralized, centralizer and authoritarian from its colonial craddle, it is to be expected that among politicians, public documents should prevail.
History is a systematization of versions, which are mostly unilateral.
Documental research aims at decreasing the weight of versions in historical records, since accepted history is nearly always a new version, re-written by new authors, based on old texts by old authors, several of them being limited to recording facts and few of them dedicated to analysing facts. The near 96 years of the Republic's life are unquestionably richer from the viewpoint of their documental collection, vaster than the one stemming from the longer period that goes from the fight for independence to the second Emperor. The country's social life itself, the amount of graphic production and document storage explain this, as it explains the greater number of private documents that are made available to the analyst of our Republic's history. To this is added the historical proximity that facilitates a greater concern for the production and conservation of documents and the organization of private files, a great concern of modern statesmen. But the main explanation is found in the development of social life, the broadening of education and the formation of literate masses, and in the new role that social development will afford new historic agents.