The conquest of Central Brazil: borders and frontiers in the XIX century

Abstract

The formation process of the Brazilian territory is examined in this paper in order to build an appropriate analytical tool to understand the Lusitanian settlement actions in South American lands in a geo-historic view. In doing so, it is our goal to recover some important aspects of this process, such as the importance of the colonial territorial nexuses in the construction and maintenance of the material substrate on which the new politically independent state would claim jurisdiction after 1822. By examining the so-called Western frontier, articulated through the contacts held between the cities of Goias and the fortresses, prisons, villages and planned towns in Mato Grosso, we intend to outline an interpretation of the regional dynamics side by side with the Brazilian political emancipation process.