Astros, órbitas e poderes: modernidade, desenvolvimentismo e modernização na Primeira República

Abstract

The passage from the Empire to the Republic brought along the promise of a new time: the grand entrance of Brazil into Modernity. However, during the its early years, such euphoria was replaced with a disillusion regarding the paths taken by the republican system. In Minas Gerais, the feeling which prevailed was of stagnation and decay. By taking on the Presidency of the State in 1906, João Pinheiro stood as an acceleration vector towards the inexorable course of Progress with an action program for the economic development of Minas. The interpretation commonly accepted in the scope of historiography is that João Pinheiros premature death, in 1908, would have interrupted the fulfilment of the project to be resumed only in the 1930s. This dissertation questions such version and proposes a new interpretation on the processes of elaboration (1876-1903) and implementation (1906-1908) of the economic modernization agenda by João Pinheiro in the scopes of forces in Minas Gerais. The intra-elite relationships in the state, analyzed according to the Mensagens aos Congressos Mineiro e Nacional (Messages to the National and state Congresses), Annals of the House of Representatives, Laws, Decrees and correspondences, configure our common thread through which it is possible to enlarge the perspectives of analysis as well as to map new characters whocontinued Pinheiros agenda. In general terms, we sustain the hypothesis that Arthur Bernardes, Nelson de Senna and Raul Soares worked together as key elements at the following stages of the project, which we named as execution (1908-1918), review (1919-1922), reordering (1922-1926), and dismantling. More than followers, the trio turned the (re)interpretation of Pinheiros ideas into a mean for the establishment of political capital necessary for them to reach important positions at both the state and federal Legislative and Executive branches. As an outcome, we support that the João Pinheiros expansionist project became a national political program during Arthur Bernardes government at the Republic Presidency between 1922 and 1926, regarding which we also propose a historical review.