Incompreensível Colosso. A Amazonia no início de Segundo Reinado (1840-1850)

Abstract

This thesis aims to demonstrate the policy designed by the imperial government for the province of Grão-Pará, which in the first half of the 19th century comprised the entire Brazilian Amazon region. It seeks to analyze measures set forward to promote the control of the Amazon region, historically and geographically, disarticulated from the economic and administrative center. The arguments developed along the thesis stem from the hypothesis that within the 1840 decade, the measures taken for the Amazon region by the imperial government aimed mainly to preserve the territorial integrity of northern Brazil. These steps articulated around five axis of action. The first axis relates to occupation and colonization measures. The second deals with indigenous policies and catholic missions settling. The third refers to political and diplomatic instructions that oriented the Brazilian frontier authorities relation with Hispanic-American republics. The fourth concerns to the procurement of navy equipment considering the predominance of fluvial transport in the province. Finally, the fifth axis relates to the section of Grão-Pará into two provinces and the consequent foundation of the province of Amazonas. "