Businessmen Association: a way for the European inmigrants's organization in the agricultural colonies in the South of Brazil

Abstract

The Businessmen Association of Caxias (1901-2001), in Rio Grande do Sul reflects the situation of the European immigrants during the installation of the agricultural colonies in the South of Brazil, in the 19th century. The path of that association allows through an historical analysis, to evaluate the conditions that the immigrants faced in the structuring of the trade and the sociopolitical conditions that created to enter in the regional and national markets. Like a class community entity and demanding character, they marked the presence in the state's economy, with their own characteristics, looking for an ethnic identity. The interference of Second World War forced a new direction to the Association.