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Perspectives on Landscape Change in Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

The country is so well-favoured that if it were rightly cultivated it would yield everything. (Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha, 1 May 1500.)

It is a vast region with favoured terrain. On its soil grow all fruits; On its subsoil exist all treasures… Its fields give the most useful food; its mines the finest gold… It is an admirable country, rich in every respect, where prodigiously profuse nature sacrifices herself in fertile produce for the opulence of the monarchy and the benefit of the world. (J. da Rocha Pitta, 1724.)

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 Sources of quotations are as follows. Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha 1500, Burns, E. B., A documentary history of Brazil (New York, Knopf, 1966), p. 28;Google Scholar J. da Rocha Pitta, ibid. p. 167; Wallace, A. R., A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (New York, Dover, 1972) p. 5;Google ScholarBurle Marx, R. quoted in Davis, S. H., Victims of the Miracle (London, Cambridge University Press, 1977), p. 147.Google Scholar

2 This was the opinion of Cabral's scribe, Pero Vaz de Caminha, as cited in Bradford Burns, E., Nationalism in Brazil: A Historical Survey (New York, Praeger, 1968), p. 12.Google Scholar

3 From an early Jesuit letter, cited in Burns, op. cit, p. 13.

4 Alceo, Magnananiet al. Atlas de elementos ambientais do Estado do Rio Ambiental II (Fortaleza/Rio de Janeiro, FEEMA, 1981), p. 2.Google Scholar That many other trees were cut for commercial purposes is confirmed in Helio de Almeida, Brum, ‘A Madeira no Brasil–Esboço Histórico Geográfico e Econômico’, Carta Mensal, Ano 27, no. 3 (Junho, 1981), pp. 45. This paper suggests that lumbering provided the material for fuel for mills, for boxes of sugar and for construction of buildings.Google Scholar

5 da Cunha Azeredo Coutinho, J. J., Obras Económicas (17941804), reprinted in Roteiro do Brasil, vol. I (São Paulo, Companhia Editora Nacional, 1966). In his writings, Coutinho argues for the creation of a shipbuilding industry in Brazil, utilizing local timber sources, which he suggests will endure for years, and prevent the unnecessary continual cutting of the forest (see p. 131).Google Scholar

6 The creation of this bureau is discussed in Fraga, M. V. G., ‘A Questão florestal ao tempo do Brasil-colonia’, Anuário Brasileiro Econômico Florestal, no. 3 (3), pp. 796.Google Scholar

7 The forias (charters) given to the donatarios was considered in Delson, R. M., ‘Town Planning in Colonial Brazil’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Ann Arbor, University Microfilms, 1975), p. 65.Google Scholar

8 Cf. Delson, op. cit. and Smith, R. C., ‘Colonial Towns of Spanish and Portuguese America’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 14, no. 4 (1956), p. 7.Google Scholar

9 Indeed, the Portuguese had already constructed some ‘drawingboard cities’ in the eastern portion of the realm (for example, Damao in India). See Mario, T. Chico, ‘A “Cidade Ideal” do Renascimento e as cidades portugues as da India’, Revista da Junta das Missöes Geograficas e das Investigações do Ultramar, Numero Especial (1956), pp. 321–8.Google Scholar

10 The destruction of the forest of the Northeast to accomodate the advance of sugar is discussed in Helmut, Sick e Dante Martins Teixeira, ‘Notas sobre ayes brasileiras raras ou ameacadas de extinção’, in Publicaçöes Avulsas do Muscu Nacional, no. 6 (1979), p. 4.Google Scholar For references on the continuing destruction of the forest in the Northeast, see Scot, A. Mon and Brian, M. Boom, ‘Botanical Survey of the Endangered Moist Forests of Eastern Brasil’ (New York, New York Botanical Garden, 1981).Google Scholar Notwithstanding the advance of sugar and other cultivation, Mori and Boom find (p1. 53) that in southern Bahia and north of Salvador there are still some significant forest remnants (as of 1980). According to Kempton, Webb, The Changing Face of Northeast Brazil (New York, Columbia University Press, 1974), p. 21, the changes which have occurred in the forest cover of the region are primarily late nineteenth-century phenomena. In his evolutionary landscape timeline, Webb suggests that in the baseline 1700 ‘much original forest remains’ with most sugar cultivation centered in the valleys. Not until the end of the last century did cane push out to ‘bottom lands and adjacent lower slopes’.Google Scholar

11 The role of the tower in early Northeastern sugar plantations is outlined in Francisco, Ruas Santos, ‘O Conceito de Torre e Casa Forte entre 1548–1648’, Revista do Instituto Histórico Geográfico Brasileiro, Vol. 323 (Abril–Junho 1979), pp. 30–7.Google Scholar

12 See Caio, Prado Jr,. The Colonial Background of Modern Brazil (trans. Suzette Macedo, Berkeley, University of California, 1967), p. 216.Google Scholar

13 The hamlet of Sumidouro in Minas Gerais was an excellent example of a dispersed prospector camp. For a description of this camp see Delson, R. M., ‘New Towns for Colonial Brazil: Spatial and Social Planning of the 18th Century’ (hereafter referred to as New Towns), vol. II, Department of Geography, Syracuse University, Dellplain Latin American Studies (Ann Arbor, University Microfilms, 1979), pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

14 Montesquieu typifies the philosopher imbued in this viewpoint. The implications of ‘good government’ and eighteenth-century mores are considered in Eugen, Weber, A Modern History of Europe: Men, Cultures and Societies from the Renaissance to the Present (New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 1971), pp. 673–4.Google Scholar

15 Alexandre, Rodrigues Ferreira, Viagem Filosófica pelas capitanias do Grão Pará, Rio Negro, Mato Grosso e Cuiabá, 1783–1792. (Reprinted Rio de Janeiro, Conselho Federal de Cultura, 1971).Google Scholar

16 See New Towns, chapters VI and VII.

17 This is reported in Artur, Cesar Ferreira Reis, ‘Aspectos da Amazonia na sexta década do seculo XVIII’, Revista do Servico do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional, vol. 8 (1944), p. 68.Google Scholar

18 Posturas da Câmara Municipal de Sabará Artigos 102 e 103 (n.d.) Reprinted in Augusto de Lima, , As Primeiras vilas de Ouro (Belo Horizonte, 1962).Google Scholar

19 For example, the Horto Botânico de Belém (1781), the Jardins Botânicos of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (created after 1808) and the Passeio Público (Rio de Janeiro, c. 1780). For a description of the latter see Jose, Mariano, O Passeio Publico do Rio di Janeiro, 1779–1783 (Rio de Janeiro, C. Mendes, Jr. 1903).Google Scholar

20 Cf. New Towns, p. 94.

21 Acting on a request from the town fathers of Cuiabá, the Lisbon Council ordered a realignment for the town of Cuiabá. Parecer do Conselbo, 25 September 1758, Arquivo Historico Ultramarino (Lisbon), Codice 239. A 1777 map of the community (found in the Portuguese archives of the Casa da Insua) confirms the changes.

22 Law of 1 October 1828, Colecção as Leis do Brasil. The implications of this law are discussed in Delson, R. M., ‘Land and Urban Planning: Aspects of Modernization in Early Nineteenth Century Brazil’, Luso-Brazilian Review, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 191214.Google Scholar

23 See Delson, ‘Land and Urban Planning…’, p. 204.

24 ibid. pp. 194–5.

25 ibid. p. 204.

26 The ‘patrimonio’ as a settlement form was first identified by the French geographer Pierre, Deffontaines, in ‘The Origins and Growth of the Brazilian Network of Towns’, Geographical Review, vol. 28 (07 1938), pp. 340–91.Google Scholar

27 For example, the population of Rio de Janeiro soared from 43,376 in 1799 to 181,158 in 1856. Similar growth patterns are observed in other urban centres. These statistics are drawn from the chapter ‘Brazil’ in Richard, E. Boyer and Keith, A. Davies, Urbanization in in 19th Century Latin America: Statistics and Sources (Los Angeles, University of California, Latin America Center, 1973), pp. 1129.Google Scholar

28 For an overview of this formative stage see Haring, C. H., Empire in Brai1: New World Experiment with Monarcby (Boston, Harvard University Press, 1938).Google Scholar

29 The plans of these recruited engineers are considered in Delson, ‘Land and Urban Planning…’.

30 Gilberto, Freyre, The Mansions and the Shanties: The Making of Modern Brazil (trans. Harriet, de Onis, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1966), pp. 241–3. The image of the city figures largely in the literary efforts of the last century, ranging from the portraits of the upper and middle classes in Machado de Assis to the Zolaesque descriptions of urban decay in Alusio Azevedo (O Cortico).Google Scholar The urban theme is explored in Elizabeth, Lowe, The City in Brazilian Literature (New Jersey, Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1981).Google Scholar

31 For example, the municipality of Valença in the Province of Rio de Janeiro showed an expenditure of more than 1,000$000 in excess of revenue for 1841. Cf. Delson, ‘Land and Urban Planning…’, p. 196.

32 Roche, J., La colonisation allemande et le Rio Grande do Sul (Paris, Institut des Hautes Etudes de l'Amérique Latine), pp. 74–6.Google Scholar

33 The military colonies project was outlined in the Law of 30 January 1854 (see article 1318). Reprinted in Jose, Marcellino Pereira de Vasconcellos, Livro das Terras on Colleçâo dat Leis, Regulamentos e Ordens (Rio de Janeiro, Edward e Henrique Laemmert, 1860).Google Scholar

34 Dickenson, J. P., ‘Innovation for regional development in Northeast Brazil: a century of failures’. Third World Planning Review, vol. 2 (1980), pp. 5774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 For an outline of the evolution of development planning in Brazil, see Daland, R. T., Brazilian Planning (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press), 1967.Google Scholar

36 Dickenson, J. P., ‘Industrial estates in Brazil’, Geograpy, vol. 55, pp. 316–9.Google Scholar

37 Cunningham, S., ‘Industrial estates as a planning tool: recent experience in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states, Brazil’. Third World Planning Review, vol. 4 (1982), pp. 4460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 Ministry of Transport, Transamazonian Highways (Montreal, Ministry of Transport, Federative Republic of Brazil, 1970).

39 Beaujeu-Garnier, J. & Chabot, G., Urban geography (London, Longmans, 1967), p. 82.Google Scholar

40 Government recognition of these problems is outlined in Federative Republic of Brazil, Second National Development Plan (1975–79) (Rio de Janeiro, Fundação IBGE, 1974).Google Scholar

41 For details of the planning of Brasilia, see Evenson, N., Two Brazilian Capitals (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1973).Google Scholar

42 Examples of Niemeyer's work are illustrated in Spade, R., Oscar Niemeyer (London, Thames and Hudson, 1971).Google Scholar

43 Comprehensive surveys of modern trends in the arts in Brazil are to be found in Mindlin, H. E., Modern architecture in Brazil (London, Architectural Press, 1956)Google Scholar and Bardi, P. M., Profile of the new Brazilian art (Rio de Janeiro, Livraria Kosmos, 1970).Google Scholar

44 Data from Sinopse preliminar do censo agro-pecuário. Censos econômicos de 1971, vol. 14 (Rio de Janeiro, Fundação IBGE, 1977).Google Scholar

45 Dozier, C., ‘North Paraná: an example of organized regional development’, Geographical Review, vol. 46 (1956), pp. 381–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 Moran, E. F., Developing the Amazon (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1981), pp. 122.Google Scholar For a wide range of perspectives on the development of Amazonia, see Barbira-Scazzochio, F. (ed.), Land, people and planning in contemporary Amazonia (Cambridge, Centre of Latin American Studies Occasional Publication, no. 2, 1980)Google Scholar and Smith, N., Rain Forest Corridors (Berkeley, University of California, 1982).Google Scholar

47 R. H. Brown records concern about the need for forest conservation, the control of fires and creation of forest reserves in late eighteenth-century New England. They, and views of the aesthetic value of the forest, show close affinity with opinions expressed about late twentieth-century Brazil. Brown, , Historical geography of the United States (New York, Harcourt, Brace and World, 1948), p. 109.Google Scholar

48 Carta do governador e capitão geral de capitania de São Paulo, Antonio Manuel de Melo Castro e Mendonça para D. Maria I, São Paulo, 15 Nov. 1798, in Cataloago de documentos sobre a historia de São Paulo existentes no Arquivo Historico Ultramarino de Lisboa, vol. 10, pp. 61–65.

49 Minas do Brazil discurso sobre o estado atual das minas do Brasil, dividas em duas partses, in Biblioteca Publica Municipal do Porto, codice 464, folha 5.

50 See, for example, Ellis, M., O café –literatura e história (São Paulo, ed. Melhoramentos, , 1977), pp. 67104.Google Scholar

51 Such views are expressed, for example, in Teixeira Guerra, A., Recursos naturals do Brasil (conservacionismo) (Rio de Janeiro, Fundação IBGE, 1969)Google Scholar and Valverde, O., Recursos naturais e o equilibrio das estruturas regionais (Rio de Janeiro, Fundação IBGE, 1977).Google Scholar

52 A conservação da natureza e recursos naturais da Amazonia brasileira (Edição especial Revista CVRD), vol. 2 (1981).

53 Such conditions are outlined in the Royal letters granting Pernambuco to Duarte Coelho 1534. See E. B. Burns, op. cit., pp. 33–50.

54 Third National Development Plan 1980–83. Brazilian Gazette, Special issue, Year 7, issue 40/41 (Dec. 1979/Jan., Feb. 1980).