AMAZON FRONTIER AND PLANNING DURING THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP IN BRAZIL: FLOODING THE CIVILIZATION HYLEA?

Abstract

This article has as a goal to examine the meaning of the old geopolitical project, based on the rhetoric of the territorial occupation during the dictatorship time in Brazil (1964-1985). This project acquires a new character from the use of theories and concepts in vogue n period, case of Francois Perroux’s thesis on development poles. At the same time, as part of a larger expansion of the state of Brazil, the Amazon becomes the focus of politics for the period. Through this work, we intend to highlight how the state economic projection toward of the North state of the country was not only one of the arguments most pervasive during the developmental period, but also contributed - in logic geopolitics – to the predatory occupation of the region. We believe that the debate on the issue discussed here results in a contribution to think about the past and the present of those territories considered “empty” in Latin America, such as the hinterland in the case of Brazil or the “desert” in the case of Argentina.