Conflitos políticos e articulações sociais: a história dos limites entre São Paulo e Minas Gerais na formação do território nordeste paulista ”“ 1720 a 1935

Abstract

The historical development of a given context takes place over and with terrestrial space, hence every social formation is also territorial because the social element becomes spatialized. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze and discuss political conflicts caused by territorial boundaries between São Paulo and Minas Gerais, as well as the social articulations of incoming people from Minas Gerais, giving particular emphasis to the meanings of territory and of training, occupation, and transformation processes of what is now the occupied territory of northeastern São Paulo. Territorial disputes between paulistas and mineiros began in 1720, when the first official demarcation took place. Since then, numerous attempts have been made to bring an end to these disputes, a situation only resolved in 1935, when limits were effectively defined and agreed by the parties. Parallel to these political conflicts, the migration of mineiros to northeastern São Paulo established the social formation of that physical space. This territory’s formation history reveals, therefore, a particular society at a particular place, in a continuous exchange that enabled the humanization of the area, materializing sociability within a landscape and a territorial structure.