Ciência e história no Relatório da Comissão Exploradora do Planalto Central na Primeira República

Abstract

The idea of moving Brazil's capital to the Central Plateau reappeared in the early days of the Republic, having been defended one century earlier by the Viscount of Porto Seguro. Headed by Luiz Cruls, director of Brazil's National Observatory, a commission was formed in 1892 to stake out the area where the new capital would stand. The expedition's 1896 report found space in Brazil's main vehicles of public opinion; it was reviewed in newspapers and also in articles published in Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, the Brazilian Institute for History and Geography's journal. A number of issues then of concern to certain sectors of Brazilian society converge in the body of the report, including the healthiness of Brazil's climate for European immigrants, the definition of the country's borders, and territorial integration.

Expedições Científicas e Colecionismo: dois exemplos no Brasil-Século XX

“…Comissão Geológica do Império (1875 -1878); Comissão Exploradora do Planalto Central do Brasil (1892-1893; 1894-1896). Ver Freitas (2001); Figueirôa (1994); Vergara (2006).…”

Science and Territory in Brazil: The Brazilian army and the case of the Strategic Telegraph Commission of Mato Grosso to Amazonas (1907-1915)

“…Appointed when Floriano Peixoto was president of the Republic, the Cruls Commission was charged with demarcating lands for the construction of a new federal capital, as provided for in the 1891 Republican Constitution. The idea was to move the capital from the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, then the country's main port and commercial, political, population, and intellectual hub, to a territorially central spot, so ‗progress' would spread throughout interior regions (Vergara, 2006).…”

Uma interpretação do Brasil como doença e rotina: a repercussão do relatório médico de Arthur Neiva e Belisário Penna (1917-1935)

“…Não se limitou, no entanto, à demarcação geográfica da futura capital do Brasil; realizou também estudos geológicos, além de ter produzido um 'diagnóstico médico' para toda a região do Planalto Central (Rosas, 1996;Lima, 1999;Vergara, 2006). Esse item foi especialmente desenvolvido no anexo IV do relatório final da Comissão, redigido pelo médico Antônio Azevedo Pimentel.…”