Salvador uma capital de engenhos 1823-1862

Abstract

This thesis investigates the centrality of sugar mills in the configuration of Salvador between 1823 and 1862, problematizing the determining role of these production units in the territorial, economic, and sociopolitical structuring of the Bahian capital throughout the 19th century. The research challenges the historiographical silence concerning the capital’s agrarian landscape, revealing a territory where sugar production not only coexisted with the city's urbanization but was a crucial vector for its logic of occupation and development. Through the analysis of primary sources, the study unveils the mechanisms of continuity and the complex adaptation strategies of these sugar institutions in the face of the period’s structural transformations. Finally, it concludes that the Soteropolitan sugar mills transcended their strictly productive function, consolidating themselves as nodal points of sociability, the exercise of power, and the maintenance of economic hegemonies within Brazil's main metropolis.