SOCIOECONOMIC FORMATION AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF AQUIDAUANA-MS, 1892-1914

Abstract

This research is based on analyzing the population process and socioeconomic formation, in the period from 1892 to 1914, in the municipality of Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul. The region where the municipality of Aquidauana was formed was inhabited by native peoples and initially by the presence of Spaniards, in the Brazilian colonial period. With the advance of Brazilian borders beyond the line of the Treaty of Tordesilhas, the region began to be occupied by farmers, military, religious, craftsmen and foreign immigrants, who dedicated themselves to trade and farming. The time frame is justified by two important facts in the economic and political history of Aquidauana: in 1892 the village of Aquidauana was created and in 1914 the railroad began to operate, which marked the beginning of a new period in economic and political history. The sources used were based on bibliographical and documentary research, as well as interviews with descendants of the first residents. Geographical characteristics such as the presence of navigable rivers were fundamental for the occupation of the region, while the interiority and the long distances that separated the region from the main urban centers of the country, were factors that had to be overcome and this contingency influenced the local politics and economic formation. The organization of the geographic space in this initial phase of population in the municipality of Aquidauana has a more localized character, different from modern times, where the world becomes more globalized.