According to Agostinho da Silva, some of the most relevant aspects that shaped the nature of the Portuguese people and influenced the culture of Portuguese-speaking nations are: its popular religiousness, with strong elements of millenarism and mysticism; a tradition of participatory democracy and autonomy based on small local communities; a tendency towards cultural miscegenation and cosmopolitanism in balance with a nostalgia for the homeland and its cultural heritage; a slow and difficult adaptation to modernity, namely to illuminist ideas and capitalist economy.