Along the Paths of Modernization

Urbanization, Society and Territory at Britany Farm – 1907 to 1970

Abstract

Isolated on the banks of the Paraná River, on the border with Paraguay and Argentina, Fazenda Britânia was the last colonized area in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Its occupation and urbanization process was closely linked to local and global modernization processes, including extractive and productive arrangements, colonization and the emergence of new cities, which were reflected in mobility, circulation of goods and people. This article approaches this region from the obrages to the planned colonization undertaken by Industrial Madeireira Colonizadora Rio Paraná S/A (Maripá) and subsequent developments, from the point of view of the development of communication routes. Based on bibliographical and documental research, part of the transport network was created for the extraction of yerba mate and later expanded to logging with transportation through Argentina. This process addresses episodes of political and economic transformations from the 1920s to the 1930s and their repercussions on state actions and policies in the area. It also reconstitutes Maripá's urbanization plans, establishing relationships of continuity with pre-existing internal networks and their connections with networks implemented until the 1970s, observed in the context of Brazilian modernization, which combined the archaic and the modern, the agrarian and the industrial, through the development of transport lines.