The european migration in the 19th century: the Program of colonization of Rio Grande do Sul province

Abstract

This study aims to present the elements that have been part of the colonization process in the south of Brazil, due to the migratory police during both imperial and republican periods. Through that police, the Brazilian government intended to populate the unoccupied lands of Rio Grande do Sul, with the installation of the free work, the small property regime, the subsidiary agriculture, and the "white work", in order to assuring the hegemony on the border areas. That initiative have favored the economical development and the change the work regime, strengthened by the agricultural colonies, governed by the 1850's Law of Lands. The occupation of the land for the European emigrants and the migratories policies that had sustained the colonization process did that the installation of the agricultural establishments were successful. The structuring of the agricultural colonies in the south of Brazil reflects the organization of the land use.