Propostas de colonização em Mato Grosso: o núcleo colonial de Terenos

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the speeches that constituted the idea of the needs for installation of agricultural colonies in the state of Mato Grosso, between the final decades of the nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries. Our final point is the agricultural colony of Terenos, located in Campo Grande. The formation of the colony took place in 1920, after a contract between the state government and the Sociedade Territorial Sul Brasileira Henrique Hacker & Companhia. That company was responsible for colonizing a total area of 500,000 hectares of land, and introduced preferably European settlers. After a disagreement that led into the breaking of the contract between the government and the private colonization, the state of Mato Grosso and the stewardship of Campo Grande took over the running of the colonial core. The focus of the analysis are the arguments that characterize Mato Grosso as territory in which - predominate the "demographic gaps", "lack of manpower", "agricultural production low" - used by the government to legitimize the discourse of colonization. The dissertation is divided into three chapters. At first, the configuration process of the border south of Mato Grosso after Guerra do Paraguai, demonstrating how was thought a border strengthening plan and integration of Mato Grosso state to the rest of the nation in the early decades of the republican regime. The second chapter deals with the first laws of immigration / colonization of Mato Grosso and the construction of the discourse of the needs to form agricultural colonial settlements in the state. The third and final chapter, historicizes the installation process of the agricultural colony of Terenos, analyzing their colonization plan, its structure, ways of attracting settlers and agricultural production during the particular public administration