The Activities of the CNCDP: A preliminary assessment

1. The Discoveries Commission for the Commemoration of the Portuguese Discoveries (Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses - CNCDP) was created at the end of 1986 (Decree-Law No. 391, 22 November 1986). After initially operating with an apparent lack of any really clear definition (Programme, 1988), it underwent a number of “profound changes in its structure and working methods” in September 1988 (Plan, 9; Cruz, 2001, 20). Vasco Graça Moura was then appointed Commissioner-General and, in April of the following year, he was also appointed coordinator of the Executive Committee, remaining in both positions until the end of 1995. António Manuel Hespanha, who succeeded him, was appointed Commissioner-General on 28 November of that same year, later being replaced by Joaquim Romero Magalhães, who was appointed in February 1999 and remained in this position until the Discoveries Commission was abolished at the end of 2002.