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Creating A Growth Pole: The Industrialization of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1897-19871

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Marshall C. Eakin
Marshall C. Eakin*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
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Extract

On a warm December day in 1897 the political leadership of Minas Gerais converged on the small hamlet of Belo Horizonte to inaugurate a new capital for Brazil's most populous state. Foreshadowing the construction of Brasília six decades later, politicians and planners had transformed a rustic village of some 8,000 inhabitants into an enormous construction project. As with Brasília, those who promoted the move saw the new capital as a symbol and a catalyst. This planned city would symbolize the modernizing forces that were transforming Brazil and Minas Gerais at the turn of the century. More important, the rationally designed political center would also serve as a catalyst in the economic growth and integration of the state. In short, a modern, planned city would provide Minas Gerais with the dynamic economic and political capital that it so badly needed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , April 1991 , pp. 383 - 410
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1991

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Footnotes

1

Research for this article was made possible by a Tinker Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.

References

2 The most complete survey of the city’s history in Portuguese is a chapter in Singer, Paul, Desenvolvimento econômico e evolução urbana (análise da evolução econômica de São Paulo, Blumenau, Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte e Recife) (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1968), pp. 199–269.Google Scholar There is no equivalent survey in English. Adelman’s, Jeffry “Urban Planning and Reality in Republican Brazil: Belo Horizonte, 1890–1930” (Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1974)Google Scholar is the only scholarly treatment of the city’s history in English. Dickenson, J.P., “Zona Metalúrgica: A Study of the Geography of Industrial Development in Minas Gerais” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Liverpool, 1970)Google Scholar analyzes the Belo Horizonte hinterland from the perspective of a geographer. For additional sources, see Gravatá, Hélio, “Contribuição bibliográfica sobre Belo Horizonte,” Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, XXXIII.Google Scholar

3 I use the term technocrat (técnicos) in this article to mean professional administrators in government agencies. For an analysis of technocrats on a national level, and which applies as well to Minas Gerais, see Leff, Nathaniel H., Economic Policy-Making and Development in Brazil, 1947–1964 (New York: John Wiley … Sons, 1968)Google Scholar, esp. chapter 8.

4 Throughout this article State (with a capital S) refers to the national state, while state (with a lower case s) refers to the state of Minas Gerais.

5 For a sample of the literature on state planning, technocrats, and the relationship of business interests to the State, see: Leff, Nathaniel H., Economic Policy-Making and Development in Brazil, 1947–1964 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1968);Google Scholar Daland, Robert T., Brazilian Planning: Development Politics and Administration (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1967);Google Scholar Ianni, Octavio, Estado e planejamento econômico no Brasil (1930–1970) (Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1971);Google Scholar Martins, Luciano, Estado capitalista e burocracia no Brasil pós-64 (Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1985);Google Scholar and, Boschi, Renato Raul, Elites industriais e democracia: hegemonia burguesa e mudança política no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Graal, 1979).Google Scholar

6 Furtado, Celso, Formação econômica do Brasil(São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1979)Google Scholar, esp. part five; Baer, Werner, The Brazilian Economy: Its Growth and Development (Columbus, Ohio: Grid Publishing, 1979), esp. pp. 31–56.Google Scholar

7 Dean, Warren, The Industrialization of São Paulo, 1880–1945 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969);Google Scholar Cano, Wilson, Desequílibrios regionais e concentração industrial no Brasil: 1930–1970 (São Paulo: Global, 1985);Google Scholar Suzigan, Wilson, Indústria brasileira: origem e desenvolvimento (São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1986);Google Scholar Taylor, Charles Lewis and Jodice, David A., eds., World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), p. 106.Google Scholar

8 Boxer, C.R., The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695–1750 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969).Google Scholar

9 Iglésias, Francisco, Política econômica do govêrno provincial mineiro (1835–1889) (Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, 1958);Google Scholar Libby, Douglas Cole, Transformação e trabalho em urna economia escravista: Minas Gerais no século XIX (São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1988);Google Scholar de Lima, João Heraldo, Café e indústria em Minas Gerais, 1870–1920 (Petrópolis: Vozes, 1981);Google Scholar Lanna, Ana Lucía Duarte, A transformação do trabalho: a passagem para o trabalho livre na Zona da Mata Mineira, 1870–1920 (Campinas: Editora da UNICAMP, 1988);Google Scholar Wirth, John D., Minas Gerais in the Brazilian Federation, 1889–1937 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1977), pp. 97–103;Google Scholar Blasenheim, Peter Louis, A Regional History of the Zona da Mata in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1870–1906, (Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1982);Google Scholar de Resende, Maria Efigênia Lage, “Manifestações oligárquicas na política mineira,” Revista Brasileira de Estudos Políticos, 49 (1979), 7–69.Google Scholar

10 Adelman, “Urban Planning,” chapter I; de Resende, Maria Efigênia Lage, “Urna interpretação sobre a mndação de Belo Horizonte,” Revista Brasileira de Esludos Políticos, 39 (1974), 129–161.Google Scholar

11 de Almeida Barbosa, Waldemar, A verdade sobre a história de Belo Horizonte (Belo Horizonte: FIMAC, 1985), p. 74.Google Scholar

12 Commissão D’Estudo das Localidades Indicadas para a Nova Capital, Relatório (Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, 1893); de Resende, Lage, “Urna interpretação,” pp. 7–69;Google Scholar and Adelman, “Urban Planning,” chapter I.

13 Commissão Constructora da Nova Capital, Revista geral dos trabalhos. I. Abril de 1895 and II. Fevereiro de 1896 (Rio de Janeiro: H. Lombaerts, 1895 and 1986). Good descriptions of the building of the capital are Adelman, “Urban Planning,” chapter II, and eyewitness accounts by Camarate, Alfredo reproduced in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, 36 (1985), 23–198.Google Scholar

14 The parish of Curral d’El Rei (founded 1748) became the district of Belo Horizonte in 1890. With the decision to move the capital, the state created the municipio of Belo Horizonte around the city. In 1901, the Cidade de Minas once again became the city of Belo Horizonte in the municipio of the same name. de Almeida Barbosa, Waldemar, Dicionário histórico-geográfico de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte: Promoçào-da-Família, 1971 ), pp. 67–68;Google Scholar Mourão, Paulo Krger Corrêa, História de Belo Horizonte de 1897 a 1930 (Belo Horizonte: Imprensa Oficial, 1970), pp. 9–11.Google Scholar

15 Annuario estatístico. anno 1—1921, volume IV, tomo I (Bello Horizonte: Imprensa Officiai, 1926), p. 407.

16 The figures are taken from Sinopse estatístico do município de Belo Horizonte (Rio de Janeiro: IBGE, 1948), p. 20. Calculations include only those with known occupations.

17 Anuário estatístico de Belo Horizonte, anno I—1937 (Belo Horizonte: Serviço de Estatístico Geral, 1937), p. 75. Prominent exceptions were the Belgo Mineira iron and steel works in Sabará, and the Morro Velho gold mine in Nova Lima.

18 During the past decade a debate has taken shape over the nature of the mineiro economy in the nineteenth century. This debate was initiated by Filho, Amilcar Martins and Martins, Roberto B., “Slavery in a Nonexport Economy: Nineteenth-Century Minas Gerais Revisited,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 63:3 (August 1983), 537–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For critiques of the article and the reply of the Martins brothers see the same issue, pp. 569–90. Sienes, Robert, “Os múltiplos de porcos e diamantes: a economia escravista de Minas Gerais no século XIX,” Cadernos IFCHIUNICAMP, 17 (1985)Google Scholar, is another important critique of the Martins. For the nineteenth-century origins of industry in Minas Gerais, see Libby, Transformação e trabalho em urna economia escravista: Minas Gerais no século XIX, and Duarte, A transformação do trabalho.

19 “50 annos da FIEMG,” Vida Industrial, 30:2 (February 1983), 8–13.

20 Recenseamento geral do Brasil [I de setembro de 1940]. série nacional, volume III. censos econômicos (Rio de Janeiro: IBGE, 1950), p. 185; and Ludwig, Armin K., Brazil: A Handbook of Historical Statistics (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1985), p. 55.Google Scholar

21 Topik, Steven, The Political Economy of the Brazilian State, 1889–1930 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987)Google Scholar and Fritsch, Winston, External Constraints on Economic Policy in Brazil, 1889–1930 (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1988)CrossRefGoogle Scholar analyze the economic policies of the Republic.

22 Wirth, Minas Gerais and the Brazilian Federation; Love, Joseph L., São Paulo and the Brazilian Federation, 1889–1937 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980)Google Scholar, esp. chapter 4 in both books; and Skidmore, Thomas E., Politics in Brazil, 1930–1964: An Experiment in Democracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 3–47.Google Scholar

23 de Assis Andrade, Francisco and Gravatá, Hélio, “Relação dos prefeitos de Belo Horizonte, 1897–1975,” Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, 30 (1979), 305–316.Google Scholar

24 Diniz, Clélio Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro na industrializaçào mineira (Belo Horizonte, UFMG/PROED, 1981)Google Scholar, chapter I.

25 Stein, Stanley J., The Brazilian Cotton Manufacture: Textile Enterprise in an Underdeveloped Area, 1850–1950 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), p. 104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 The annual accounts of these companies were published in the official state newspaper, Minas Gerais, normally in March and April.

27 Very little research has been done on banking in Minas Gerais. The most important study is da Costa, Fernando Nogueira, “Bancos em Minas Gerais (1889–1964)” (Ph.D. dissertation, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 1978).Google Scholar

28 Da Costa, 33–99.

29 Da Costa, 32–43. Da Costa argues that the banking “explosion” in Minas after 1920 was, in fact, partially fostered by the state government. See p. 144.

30 This point was first pointed out to me by Professor Mitiko Khedy, Faculdade de Ciências Econômicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.

31 See, for example, Balmori, Diana, Voss, Stuart F., and Wortman, Miles, Notable Family Networks in Latin America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).Google Scholar

32 The Mascarenhas family has been the subject of numerous studies (many by family members who went into academic or literary careers), and their Companhia Cedro e Cachoeira has one of the finest business archives in Brazil. See, for example, Vaz, Alisson Mascarenhas, “Cia. de Fiação e Tecidos Cedro e Cachoeira: L’évolution d’une affaire familiale, 1872–1972” (these de troisième cycle, Université de Paris X, 1973).Google Scholar

33 The literature on iron and steel is voluminous. Some key works are: Bastos, Humberto, A conquista siderúrgica no Brasil (São Paulo: Martins, 1959);Google Scholar Pimenta, Dermeval José, Implantação da grande siderurgia em Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte: UFMG, 1967);Google Scholar Callaghan, William Stuart, “Obstacles to Industrialization: The Iron and Steel Industry in Brazil During the Old Republic” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1981);Google Scholar Baer, Werner, The Development of the Brazilian Steel Industry (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1969);Google Scholar and, Wirth, John D., The Politics of Brazilian Development, 1930–1954 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970)Google Scholar, part II.

34 Gauld, Charles A., The Last Titán: Percival Farquhar, An American Entrepreneur in Latin America (Stanford: Institute of Hispanic American and Luso-Brazilian Studies, 1964), esp. pp. 281–336;Google Scholar Callaghan, “Obstacles to Industrialization,” chapters 5–6. Although Belgian in origin, the parent company of Belgo Mineira is Aciéres Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange (ARBED) based in Luxembourg. Baer, , Brazilian Steel Industry, pp. 58–68.Google Scholar

35 Diniz, Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro, p. 34.Google Scholar

36 Wirth, Politics of Brazilian Development, chapters 5–6; and, Baer, , Brazilian Steel Industry, pp. 68–76.Google Scholar

37 These technocrats (técnicos) were a group made up largely of economists and engineers who spent most of their professional lives as administrators in the government.

38 de Carvalho, José Murilo, A Escola de Minas de Ouro Preto: o peso da glória (São Paulo: FINEP/ Companhia Editora Nacional, 1978);Google Scholar de Andrade, Luis Aureliano Gama, “Technocracy and Development: The Case of Minas Gerais” (P.h.D. dissertation. University of Michigan, 1980), 298–300.Google Scholar

39 Andrade, , “Technocracy and Development,” 51;Google Scholar Albano, Celina, “The Making of a Brazilian Industrial City: The Experience of Contagem” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Manchester, 1980), 119–66;Google Scholar Dickenson, John P., “Industrial Estates in Brazil,” Geography, 55 (1970), 326–29.Google Scholar

40 Pimenta, Dermeval José, A vale do Rio Doce e sua historia (Belo Horizonte: Vega, 1981), pp. 107–126.Google Scholar Today the CVRD is the largest iron ore mining company in the world.

41 Plano de recuperação econômicae fomento da produção (Belo Horizonte: Imprensa Oficial, 1947).

42 Obituary, , Minas Gerais, 7 September 1954, p. 7.Google Scholar

43 Plano de recuperação, pp. 1–26; Andrade, , Technocracy and Development, p. 298.Google Scholar

44 Diniz, Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro, pp. 62–68.Google Scholar

45 Kubitschek, Juscelino, Meu caminho para Brasília, v. II. a escalada política (Rio de Janeiro: Bloch, 1976), esp. pp. 185–189.Google Scholar

46 Tendler, Judith, Electric Power in Brazil: Entrepreneurship in the Public Sector (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 36––37,CrossRefGoogle Scholar 120–122, and 175–176; Dickenson, John P., “Electric Power Development in Minas Gerais, Brazil,” Revista Geográfica, 70 (June 1969), 213–21.Google Scholar

47 Diniz, Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro, pp. 79–80;Google Scholar “As 200 maiores empresas do Brasil,” Visão, 2 September 1987, 59–67.

48 Kubitschek also was the driving force in the implantation of an automobile industry in Brazil in the late 1950s, although the state of São Paulo would be the great beneficiary of this move, and not Minas Gerais.

49 Andrade, , “Technocracy and Development,” 298–300.Google Scholar

50 See, for example, Evans, Peter, Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State, and Local Capital in Brazil (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979)Google Scholar, especially chapter 2.

51 Usiminas, 25 annos. Depoimento: Lucas Lopes; Depoimento: Gabriel A. Janot Pacheco; Depoimento: Luiz Verano (Belo Horizonte: Usiminas, 1987).

52 Diniz, Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro, pp. 87–90 Google Scholar; Baer, , Brazilian Steel Industry, pp. 80–83.Google Scholar

53 Evans, Peter, Dependent Development: The Alliance of Multinational, State, and Local Capital in Brazil, esp. pp. 3–13 Google Scholar and 274–326.

54 Diniz, Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro, p. 225;Google Scholar Andrade, , “Technocracy and Development,” p. 292.Google Scholar

55 Dean, Warren, The Industrialization of São Paulo, 1889–1940 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1969);Google Scholar Cano, Wilson, Raizes da concentração industrial em São Paulo (Rio de Janeiro: Difel, 1977).Google Scholar

56 Lima, João Heraldo, Café e indústria em Minas Gerais, 1870–1920 (Petrópolis: Vozes, 1981).Google Scholar

57 Diniz, Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro, pp. 183–204.Google Scholar

58 de Minas Gerais, Banco de Desenvolvimento, Diagnóstico da economia mineira, 6 v. (Belo Horizonte: BDMG, 1968).Google Scholar

59 Diagnòstico, v. 1; Andrade, , “Technocracy and Development,” 111.Google Scholar

60 Diniz, Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro, pp. 206–208;Google Scholar “Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, Projetos Decididos para Minas Gerais com Assistncia do INDI,” Archives of the Instituto de Desenvolvimento Industrial, Belo Horizonte.

61 Diniz, Campolina, Estado e capital estrangeiro, pp. 213–214;Google Scholar Vida Industrial (Belo Horizonte), special issue (1984), pp. 49–50.

62 Andrade, , “Technocracy and Development,” 158 and 165.Google Scholar

63 For an iconoclastic discussion of self-generating city growth see Jacobs, Jane, Cities and the Wealth of Nations (New York: Vintage, 1985).Google Scholar