Colonial Traditions, Provincial Demands: The Spatial Construction of the Province of Rio Grande do Sul during the Second Reign

• Grant number: 25/07560-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: November 27, 2025
• End date: July 26, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Iris Kantor
• Grantee: Amanda Chiamenti Both
• Supervisor: Pedro Cardim
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/17965-0 - Administrating the distance in a continental Empire: the cartographic matter and the governability of Rio Grande do Sul in the Second Reign (1850-1880)., BP.PD

Abstract

This BEPE application aims to develop the project "Colonial Traditions, Provincial Demands: The Spatial Construction of the Province of Rio Grande do Sul during the Second Reign." Linked to NOVA University Lisbon, the proposal will be supervised by Professor Dr. Pedro Cardim, a specialist in the study of Portuguese imperial rule in the Atlantic world and, more recently, in the forms of interaction between the Portuguese and Indigenous populations - a theme that has become increasingly central to our research.This stage of research in Portugal aims to investigate the colonial cartographic and administrative traditions that influenced the elaboration of the Topographic Map of the Province of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul. Although produced during the Second Reign, the map retains traces of a territorial memory expressed not only in its toponyms but also in specific ways of conceiving, representing, and administering the territory and its populations - practices forged under the logic of the Portuguese Empire and later mobilized to meet provincial government demands.In this sense, beyond fostering dialogue with foreign researchers, one of the main objectives of the research stay is to collect documents, maps, and personal and official correspondence that will help us understand the construction of these forms of knowledge and their persistence in nineteenth-century cartography. Thus, the results of this research will contribute directly to achieving one of the central aims of the project currently underway in Brazil (Grant 2023/17965-0): to deepen the discussion on the role of the colonial legacy in shaping the national territory and configuring the territorial unity of the empire - a fundamental dimension for understanding the nature of the Brazilian imperial state. (AU)