Builders and heirs: a net of interests in the formation of a political unity

Abstract

In the period of its political emancipation, the understanding of the Brazilian Empire unity relates to the political action taken by both settlers and old colonists motivated, directly or not, by the events related to the "the establishment of Portuguese interests in Brazil and, above all, the reawakening of metropolitan interests in the central-southern region" or by those that took place in Portugal since 1820. Dealing with expectations, values and images referred all to a double heritage - of a territory and also of a name, "Brazilian Empire" -, those who presented themselves, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, as the "builders" of the nation forged a unity, by bringing out the importance of the State, that was not only a condition to deal with the cleavages that separated themselves, but also a precondition to enact an "inland expansion", a distinctive feature of the Brazilian Empire formation.