A política faroleira na costa Norte-Atlântica do Brasil: sinalização, segurança e vigilância a partir dos faróis de Salinas e Bragança - Pará (1852-1890)

Abstract

This project aims to understand lighthouse policy on the Brazilian North-Atlantic Coast, based on the creation of the old lighthouse in Salinas, PA, and the Bragança lighthouse, analyzing the performance of lighthouses and, in a broader sense, the Navy during the decades from 1850 to 1880. The period is demarcated by issues that directly affected Brazilian navigation and society, such as the Eusébio de Queirós Law of 1850 and the opening of the Amazon River to foreign vessels in 1866. The research will seek to answer questions raised regarding surveillance on the North Atlantic Coast, in Grão-Pará, where the naval force played a fundamental role against the trafficking of Africans and unauthorized foreign entry, in addition to guaranteeing the safety of navigation. Therefore, the role of lighthouses in the Empire was extremely important, as it represented the Navy's vigilant eyes on the Atlantic coast and compliance with the measures taken by the Empire in relation to England's international anti-slavery pressure. In addition to the issue of trafficking, I will work on opening rivers in the Amazon to vessels from friendly nations, sizing up the lighthouse policy and the individuals who depended on signaling and the waters to survive. To understand how this mechanism worked, I will identify who were the subjects involved with lighthouses, signaling, and surveillance of the coast of Pará until the end of the 1880s, when slavery had been abolished and the impacts of steam navigation had already reached great expression in the movement of merchant and military ships in the region. The research in question will be based on two historiographical lines, respectively: trafficking and slavery in Brazil in the 19th century and military history.