DO TELÉGRAFO AO TELEFONE: TRAJETÓRIA ESPAÇO-TEMPORAL DAS REDES DE TELECOMUNICAÇÕES EM GOIÁS

FROM TELEGRAPH TO TELEPHONE: SPACE-TIME TRAJECTORY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS IN THE STATE OF GOIÁS, BRAZIL

Abstract

While the telegraph reached the territory of the state of Goiás (Brazil) in 1890, the first records of the installation of telephones in the state refer to the year 1914. Unlike the telegraph network, with guidance initiated by military geostrategy, the first telephone circuits emerged through much more spontaneous and punctual initiatives. The on-screen study addresses the genesis of telecommunications networks in Goiás based on the emergence of telegraph and telephone in the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries, respectively. The methodological procedures were based on meticulous work of collecting secondary data in historical documents, official publications, such as statistical yearbooks and reports on IBGE telephone companies, Telebrás Management Reports and information contained in journals published between 1842 and 1940. The results reveal the economic and geostrategic determinations that led the internalization of telecommunications networks towards the corners of Central Brazil, within the scope of the establishment of these reticular devices as indispensable elements to the system of control, appropriation, and integration of Brazilian regional diversity.

Keywords: telecommunication networks; geostrategy; control; national integration.