There are places that exist because of geography, and there are places that become history because they understand their geography. The Azores belong to the latter. They have never been merely nine islands suspended in the Atlantic; they have been a conversation between continents, a place where winds, currents, peoples, empires, and ideas have crossed paths for more than five centuries. Yet history, generous as it may sometimes appear, has never rewarded geography automatically. A privileged location is only an opportunity. Whether it becomes prosperity depends upon vision.
It is this distinction that historian Avelino de Freitas de Meneses explores in a thoughtful and deeply reflective essay developed from his testimony before the General Policy Committee of the Azorean Parliament, during discussions on the strategic centrality of the archipelago in the Atlantic. His argument is both historical and profoundly contemporary. The strategic relevance of the Azores, he contends, will produce meaningful benefits for the Region only if it is accompanied by deliberate investment, an ambitious maritime policy, and a long-term strategy capable of transforming geographic centrality into economic development. Geography alone does not create destiny; political imagination does.
For Meneses, the sea surrounding the Azores is today Portugal’s greatest strategic inheritance. Unlike the maritime spaces adjacent to mainland Portugal or Madeira, constrained by maritime boundaries with Spain and Morocco, the Azorean Exclusive Economic Zone represents an immense oceanic territory that remains, in his words, “completely free.” It is here, and nowhere else, that Portugal’s ambitions for extending its continental shelf truly find their future. It is here, too, that the European Union projects much of its Atlantic dimension. The ocean that embraces the islands is therefore not peripheral to Europe. It is Europe reaching westward.
Yet the historian cautions against confusing preservation with paralysis. Environmental protection, he argues, is indispensable, but conservation cannot become an ideology that freezes the sea into immobility. Marine Protected Areas serve an essential purpose, but they cannot transform the Atlantic into what he memorably describes as “a great museum.” Oceans have always been spaces of life, movement, commerce, science, and discovery. The challenge lies not in choosing between protection and development but in pursuing an intelligent stewardship capable of generating prosperity without sacrificing ecological integrity. Otherwise, Portugal risks diminishing its own strategic influence precisely by refusing to engage responsibly with one of its greatest natural assets.
The essay gains additional depth as Meneses places today’s debates within the long arc of Atlantic history. Since the fifteenth century, the Azores have occupied a position that few territories in the world have ever enjoyed. The islands became indispensable crossroads of maritime navigation between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Centuries later, aviation merely reaffirmed what sailing had already demonstrated: the Atlantic’s geography continually returns the Azores to the center of global movement. Fortifications overlooking the sea, underwater archaeological treasures scattered beneath its waves, and centuries of military and commercial navigation all testify that the archipelago’s importance has never been accidental. History repeatedly chose these islands because geography first had.
And yet, as Meneses soberly reminds us, strategic importance has rarely translated into proportional economic benefit for the people who actually inhabit the islands. During the age of empire, maritime traffic remained tightly controlled by the Portuguese Crown, limiting local opportunities despite the immense flow of ships passing nearby. More recently, while the American presence at Lajes Air Base transformed Terceira into one of the Atlantic’s most significant military locations, the financial returns associated with that strategic role gradually diminished, replaced over time by less direct forms of cooperation. Once again, geography benefited larger powers more consistently than it benefited the islands themselves.
That historical lesson explains the urgency of the author’s recommendations for the future. He advocates prioritizing investment in Terceira by fully leveraging both Lajes Air Base and the commercial potential of the Port of Praia da Vitória, while insisting that any meaningful Atlantic strategy must necessarily embrace all nine islands rather than concentrating development within a single geography. The Atlantic, after all, has never belonged to one island alone.
His reflections extend equally to São Miguel, where he identifies structural weaknesses that deserve careful attention. Stronger port infrastructure, improved airport capacity, and modern healthcare facilities are not simply regional aspirations but strategic necessities if the Azores wish to fulfill a larger Atlantic role. The limitations exposed by the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo during recent international demands serve, in his analysis, as reminders that strategic relevance ultimately depends upon practical readiness. Grand geopolitical narratives cannot substitute for resilient public infrastructure.
Underlying the entire essay is a quiet but persistent warning. The historian expresses skepticism regarding the capacity of regional governments, the Portuguese state, or even European institutions to fully realize the strategic opportunities before them. Bureaucracy often moves more slowly than history itself. Opportunities emerge, evolve, and sometimes disappear while governments deliberate. Yet his conclusion is far from pessimistic. Instead, it is a call for initiative.
The future of the Azores cannot be built upon waiting for others to recognize their value. It must be built by the islands recognizing it first.
For centuries, maps placed the Azores somewhere between Europe and America, as though the archipelago occupied only an intermediate space. Meneses invites us to abandon that old cartographic illusion. The Atlantic is no longer the empty distance separating continents. It has become one of the world’s principal strategic, environmental, technological, and economic frontiers. In such a world, the Azores are not situated at the edge of Europe.
They stand at its Atlantic center. The challenge now is not to convince geography of that truth. Geography settled the question long ago. The challenge is to ensure that policy, infrastructure, investment, and imagination finally catch up with history.
Based on a story from Diário Insular, José Lourenço-director-Photo from DI.