URBAN NORMATIVES IN IMPERIAL BRAZIL: THE CITY AND URBAN LIFE IN THE BRAZILIAN LEGISLATION (1822 – 1850)

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12957/geouerj.2014.14407

The Brazilian Legislation, where the treatment towards its cities and urban life is concerned over the imperial period, reveals inspirations in the movements for the construction of the Liberal States or the New Regime, which took place in the European countries and in the United States. In this period, despite the municipal resolutions, these were mostly determined by the national legislation. The main purpose of this article is to show how the city and urban life were regulated by laws and decrees of which the Brazilian Legislation was made up, especially in the first half of the 19^th century as of the establishment of the so-called Imperial Brazil. Thus, the temporal interval corresponds to the period from 1822 to 1850. The option to bring up this issue was due to the concern to show how the Brazilian legislation has been redefining regulations, norms, and even the treatment towards the city and the citizen as of the settlement of a new form of government and the construction of the Brazilian State. Taking the definition of the final mark into consideration -1850- , it is legitimized owing to the approval of the Law of Lands which will since then lead to great alterations in the treatment of both rural and urban land, and, as a consequence, of the urban soil due to the establishment of private properties. Firstly, we expose the methodological option by analyzing the official documents, and secondly, we choose, for analysis, the main legislations that deal administratively with city space, and particularly with documents which refer to the attributions of the City Councils, and, consequently, with Municipal Postures.