Impressos, correspondentes e a opinião pública: circulação e sociabilidade nos espaços públicos entre Minas Gerais e a Corte (1820-1833)

Abstract

The present research aims to investigate the network of moderate liberal sociability within the province of Minas Gerais and the Court. We seek to comprehend how the phases of the communication circuit facilitated the maintenance, creation, and redefinition of connections among the agents responsible for the production and circulation of the main moderate periodicals between 1826 and 1836, namely: Astréa and Aurora Fluminense, published in Rio de Janeiro; O Universal and Astro de Minas, printed, respectively, in Ouro Preto and São João del-Rei. We start from the hypothesis that mutual and regular correspondences among the periodicals stimulated the emergence and affirmation of public spaces between the regions. Thus, they served as a strategy to achieve both individual and collective interests of various individuals who, through the elaboration of multiple interactions between formal and informal spaces of political discussion, disseminated a pedagogy that consolidated itself as an institutional project after the abdication of Dom Pedro I. Therefore, we will analyze how the material forms, provided by the postal services and commercial networks, and immaterial forms of idea circulation, enabled a territorial integration elaborated through printed matter, which propelled the action and political ascension of moderates in the context of structuring the foundations of the newly independent Brazilian national State.