Quem de três milênios não é capaz de se dar conta, vive na ignorância, na sombra, a mercê dos dias, do tempo." Johann Goethe Resumo Este trabalho analisa as principais questões referentes à modernização do território brasileiro no início do século XX, a partir dos projetos idealizados por Francisco Bhering (1867-1924). Formado na Escola Politécnica do Rio de Janeiro, membro do Apostolado Positivista, professor das escolas politécnicas de São Paulo e do Rio de Janeiro e diretor da Repartição Geral dos Telégrafos, este engenheiro civil que completou seus estudos em Astronomia no Observatório de Paris atuou no sentido de promover o efetivo reconhecimento das áreas consideradas "incógnitas" do País. Para isto contou com o apoio de instituições como o Clube de Engenharia e a Sociedade de Geografia do Rio de Janeiro e de personalidades como o engenheiro militar Candido Rondon que tiveram efetiva participação na defesa da realização de seus dois grandes projetosa expansão da rede telegráfica até o Amazonas e a elaboração da Carta do Brasil ao milionésimo. Estes planos visavam atender à ânsia modernizadora do Estado republicano e das classes dominantes como parte do projeto de dominação e controle do território e de sua população.
This thesis analyzes the projects of the International Map of the World to 1:1,000,000 and of the Map of Brazil to 1:1,000,000 in commemoration of the centenary of independence. Elaborated and developed during the first decades of the twentieth century, these cartographic productions are linked to the process of standardization of weights and measures inserted in the context of material unification of the world given by the expansion of capitalist productions relations. In the case of the world project, conceived by the German geographer Albrecht Penck, at the 5th International Geographical Congress, held in the city of Bern in 1891, the main objective was to create a "new map" for that "new world" which was united under the aegis of scientism and liberalism. However, its realization only came from geopolitical and imperialist well defined contours, with the articulation of the cartographic institutions of the main powers, in a process of reasserting the centers and redesigning the peripheries. In Brazil, the Engineering Club would be responsible, with leaders of figures such as Paulo de Frontin and Francisco Bhering, for the preparation of the Map of Brazil to 1:1,000,000. The ways in which the country inserted itself with this Map in the International Map of the World project were connected to the modernizing discourse that associated technical progress, scientific advances and civilization evolution. This was a Eurocentric model of development that translated into several discourses and projects on the Brazilian territory in the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. These plans aimed to meet the modernizing eagerness of the republican state and the hegemonic classes as part of the project of domination and control of the territory and its population. In this sense, geographic knowledge of the territory translated into cartographic language and served the interests of those who wanted to advance "civilization in the Country". Hence the importance of actively participating in projects such as the International Map of the World, as a way of showing itself capable of mapping the most recondite points in the territory. The maps analyzed in this thesis are capital to understand how a cartography for capitalism had to be created and universalized.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.