Archeology of old colonial cities and territorialization of the State: D. Luis de Sousa and the project to refound Vila Rica (1768-1773)

• Grant number: 24/13102-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2024
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Denise Aparecida Soares de Moura
• Grantee: Maria Gabriela Jacinto Soares
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to investigate the territorialization policy of the Portuguese monarchical State in the captaincy of São Paulo undertaken by the 4th Morgado de Mateus, D. Luis de Souza Botelho Mourão, between the years 1765 and 1775. The hypothesis of this project is the that reimbursing former colonial cities was one of the topics of this political agenda. It has already been established by historiography that founding new towns was part of this governor's expansionist policy. However, going through his correspondence, I noticed the interest and actions to recover ancient villages destroyed in the 17th century, as was the case of Vila Rica do Espírito Santo. By applying landscape archeology methodology to textual, bibliographic and period sources, preserved in public and private collections in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Portugal and understanding urbanization as historical-social characteristics, this project aims to investigate the foundations, the sources of basis, the actions, the social agents involved and the visual forms achieved by this geopolitical topic of restitution of Villa Rica del Espiritu Sancto.