Economic nationalism underpinned the Second Postwar Era of nationalizations
of electrical sectors. Then, peripheral countries enjoyed an industrial surge along
with electrification progress. This paper examines what had happened in the
Portuguese electrification before the first step to “domestication” and
nationalization in 1944. Then, cooperation between foreign and domestic
operators with the Government made a great leap forward to the country’s
electrification. This intervention was based on the assumption that foreign
companies had not been willing to fully foster the electrification of this poor
country during the interwar period. The Portuguese case confirms that
international holding-groups eventually determined the pace of adoption of this
public intervention, but also claims that the responsibility for this state of affairs
partly rested with the nationalistic policies on behalf of the Government
