The purpose of this paper is to discuss the place of colonial Portuguese Amazonia in the empire and, in this sense, to reflect on how we can rewrite its history. For a long time, this region was considered isolated, withdrawn into its vast Amazon backwoods, because of its disconnection from the dynamics of the southern Atlantic. However, to understand the configuration of the Portuguese Amazon, it is necessary to understand other connections. On the one hand, this conquest was linked to continental dynamics, such as the trans-Amazonian slave trade and the sertanejo drug economy, which helped define (and often surpassed) the borders of Portuguese America. On the other hand, the Amazonian economy was based on the trade of goods, cultivated or extracted from the backlands, which reached several European markets from Lisbon and whose exploitation was mediated by other colonial experiences external to the American world and the Portuguese imperial world.

Lecturer: Rafael Chambouleyron

Associate Professor at the Federal University of Pará. His research focuses on the Social History of the Amazon (17th century and first half of the 18th century), working mainly on the following topics: 1) territory, occupation and settlement of the colonial Amazon; 2) nature, economy and labor in colonial Amazonia.

Venue: FLUP/ ROOM 101/

Time: 15.00h