O processo de formação histórico-político e territorial do município de Visconde do Rio Branco

Abstract

The Brazilian State faced throughout the 19th century the challenge of ordering the territory in the interior of the provinces. The way in which the municipal limits were established was a problem and the growth in the number of municipalities, especially from the 1830s onwards, made it even more difficult to define the area of the municipalities. Along with this issue, the political-administrative constitution presented itself in a much more complex way as we know it today. If the municipalities are currently subdivided only into districts, previously political, judicial and ecclesiastical powers participated in the territorial ordering and different categories overlapped, generating a complex territorial ordering. The city of Visconde do Rio Branco, located in the southeast of Minas Gerais has its formation process within this context. When still inhabited, it was called Aldeia do Xopotó dos Coroados, the municipality was created only in 1839 after being separated from Pomba under the name of Vila de São João Batista do Presídio. The municipality of Presídio has an important role in consolidating the territoriality of the central portion of the area of the Minas Gerais forest, from its territory 49 municipalities originated. In this sense, the objective of this research is to discuss the political-administrative and territorial evolution from the Vila de São João Batista do Presídio, from 1839 to the present day. The methodology adopted was based on bibliographic research, geoprocessing applied to historical cartography and cartographic involution. The main results obtained consist of the cartographic representation of the territorial limit of Visconde do Rio Branco for different periods and a more detailed knowledge about the territorial ordering of the study area. In this way, it is hoped that the research can contribute with information and cartographic materials that enrich the historical geography of the municipalities of Visconde do Rio Branco and also of the municipalities that dismembered from ther original territory.