O poder local e a formação da nação: São João del-Rei no contexto do Brasil independente (1822-1842)

Abstract

From 1822, the dynamics undertaken by the political agents of independent Brazil contemplated the construction of a nation. In this context, individuals and groups that constituted local powers played important roles in carrying out a multiplicity of ways of exercising politics, with their specificities, but also with the resonances of central power. In São João del-Rei, headquarter of the Comarca do Rio das Mortes, were also very important the activities related to the construction of a political power, involving the provincial and central authorities, as well as the elaboration of own forms of action, in which many tensions were also observed. In this thesis, we intend to investigate the process of construction of political power in São João del-Rei carried out by the political agents of this town/city, with the objective of understanding the ways of exercising the politics worked by these agents between emancipation, in 1822, and the Liberal Revolt of 1842. The primary sources used are press documents, official records of institutions such as the Câmara of São João del-Rei, as well as register office documents such as post-mortem inventories, wills, and baptismal records.