Ways of improvement, areas of conflicts: rural property in the region of Alagoinhas during implementation of the Bahia and São Francisco Railway and the brench to Timbó (second half of the nineteenth century)
Improvement of agriculture; Rural property; Alagoinhas; railroad
This thesis intends to analyze the context of socioeconomic transformations that occurred in the region of Alagoinhas, Bahia, during the second half of the nineteenth century, mainly from the supposed improvement of agriculture provided by the implementation of the first railroad in the province and branch to Timbó. The main concern of the research is to understand conflicts motivated by the different understanding about property rights, specifically rural property, since many social agents (landowners and authorities) disputed land or believed in greater appreciation of rural properties and individual wealth from implementation of the railroad. Supposing that many conflicts over rural property would be related, directly or indirectly, to implementation of the railroad, it was necessary to investigate them with reference to the recurring idea of improving agriculture. The time delimitation comprise the last years of the 1850s to the end of the 1880s, and the main events of this period were transactions of parish land registers in the region that coincided with the beginning of the construction works of the railroad, with propositions of some local laws related to land uses for different economic activities, besides intensification of parliamentary debates on the need to build rail extensions to encourage an increase in agricultural production, individual or provincial wealth and value of rural property.