Courses

Fall 2018

POPULAR REVOLTS IN 19TH CENTURY BRAZIL

, 4 pts, GU4684

REVOLTS IN 19TH C BRAZIL

For long scholars have been studying the rebellious movements that rattled Brazil after its Independence and during the so-called Regency period. The majority, though, devoted themselves to the understanding of the political and economical elites’ whom either took the lead in such occasions or whose interests were at stake, either by joining or fighting the rebels. Thus, no particular attention was generally paid to those who actually fought those battles, the poor free (native Americans included) and freed people that amassed the majority of the country’s population. Men and women that had their own demands and expectations, a population that not only took up arms, but occasionally also ended up leading the upheavals. If that is the case concerning rebellions that broke out during the First Reign and the Regency, historical accounts regarding upheavals that occurred from the 1850s on are even scarcer.


In the past decades, though, impressive new interpretations on popular revolts during the Empire have totally changed that scenario, enabling scholars in general to reappraise how the free and freed poor (either of Portuguese, African or Native American descent) and, of course, slaves (were they born in Africa or in Brazil) experienced changes, or continuities, brought by the country’s independence and the long process of State building.


In order to do so, multiple readings – whose authors address questions regarding the last decades of the 18th century or the final years of the Brazilian Empire (remembering that slavery was only abolished in 1888, roughly 18 months before the Republican coup) – shall enable students to further their knowledge regarding not only Brazilian History, but also specificities and interpretations (in time, space and social composition) of an array of different movements, were they insurrections, rebellions, seditions, riots and so on.

Section Number
001
Call Number
86647
Day, Time & Location
R 2:10pm-4:00pm 802 International Affairs Building
Instructor
Monica Duarte Dantas