As condições de emergência da escola de engenharia do Pará (1870 – 1931)

Abstract

The School of Engineering of Para was founded in 1931 on the initiative of local engineers who worked in the region since the late 1870s, and the purpose of this work is to investigate the conditions that allowed the emergence of this institution of learning. To understand these conditions, we take the period from 1870 to 1930 and analyze how arose the demand for engineers in the region and how engineers have been gaining ground in local society. Furthermore, we analyze how was the work of the engineers founders of the School in the institutions of government. Finally we analyze the process of formation of these engineers, and taking into account that most of them studied in Rio de Janeiro we present an analysis of the contents in the curricula of the Polytechnic School of Rio de Janeiro. According to the discourses of the time, we observed that the demand for engineers had their moment of greatest intensity during the Belle-Époque, due to the large volume of public works undertaken in this period, however, this demand has occurred in the later periods. These were conditions that made possible the founding of the School. Since then, engineer’s school founders worked in various projects in the region, especially those developed by the Division of Public Works in order to promote the modernization of the region. This action enabled the recognition of engineer’s social class and contributed to the emergence of the School of Engineering that culminated in the creation of the Engineering Club (1919), which played an important role in creating and maintaining school. Finally, by analyzing the formation, we conclude that this enabled the performance of engineers as school teachers and strongly influenced the initial curriculum of the institution, becoming one of the emergency conditions of the School.