Defining the Internal Borders of the Empire: Conceptions of Territory during the Process of Independence. Brazil, 1820 Decade

Abstract

The process of construction and consolidation 1 of any modern national State necessarily involves the definition of its territory. That does not end with the geographical aspects of the issue, which are in themselves endowed with the complexity inherent to the delimitation of borders designed to separate "us" (presented as civilized and desirable), from "they" (often associated with barbarism). A national sovereignty's exclusive space, the territory of the 19th century posed a series of practical and theoretical problems that directly influenced the creation of variated governmental apparatus, offering unique opportunities for understanding them. Federation or centralized regime? How were provinces or states divided? What forms of government were adopted in the various parts of the national State? Just some of the central choices that needed to be made throughout the process of constitution of modern States that say a lot about the idea societies had of themselves and of others in the moment they decided to constitute an autonomous national community, in some way, unique.