HISTORICAL CARTOGRAPHY OF PIAUÍ-BRAZIL
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1Silva, T.C.F.
1UFPI Email: tcgeo@hotmail.com
Abstract
Historical Cartography examines the emergence and dynamics of the current configuration of the territories through their spatial representations over time. This article discourses about the possibilities and the limits of the use of historical cartography in studies about special dynamics which happened in the past in Piauí. This article aims to identify with historical cartography the earliest boundaries and limits of Piauí, through research into historical territorial representations, trying to recognize Piaui’s space in old files and cartographic collections of public institutions. Maps are among the oldest shapes of graphical representation of humanity. The historical context in which maps were included in the society and their importance, how they were used to spread ideas, domination, planning and development in different areas which topics for numerous research and collaborated to the meshing of Geography and Historical Cartography of Brazil and Piauí. This work presents results of documentary and literature, especially of the historical cartography contribution as a key tool for spatial analysis in the past in Piaui’s territory. The changes occurred in Piauí are related to the changes done in Brazil as they were conditioned by various historical processes and certain temporal clippings, we can synthesize in large periods of History. Historical maps communicate and present data on a space, but also show the space was designed as a given historical moment. Thus, the concept of historical geography is also essential to address preterit territorial configurations in geographical scale, highlighting studies on the history of the villages, towns, cities and captaincies. In the mid-eighteenth century, since the reforms undertaken by Pombal consulate until the early decades of the nineteenth century, the records of cartographic documents which were relevant, therefore through the process of affirmation of post-colonial imperial state. In the eighteenth century, the governors of the captaincies in the Northeast and Southeast hired cartographers and military engineers to do the survey of the areas under their administration. Piauí's occupation dates back to the seventeenth century. The territory was part of a broader policy of secularization of the colonial administration, occasioned by Pombal consulate. Correspondingly, João Pereira Caldas, the governor of Piauí's captaincy assured the Portuguese aspirations. We emphasize as a result of the advancement of consecutive historical cartography, the production of other maps, action deriving cartographic survey of the captaincy with the creation of new towns and thus filling gaps in cartographic records. The map assumes a universal language and the case of historical maps, which allow scholars to understand and analyze the geographical and historical changes that reflect the representation of space. Thus, it is important to present the spatial changes that occurred can be revisited through the historical cartography for a better understanding of the dynamics of the territory, thus enabling the broadest look at Piauí, besides, teaching, dissemination and valorization for a source of knowledge of historical cartography in Piauí.
Keywords
Historical Cartography; Piauí; representation of space