À sombra do sucesso: dinâmica social numa colônia alemã no sul do Brasil (Colônia do Pinhal - Itaara/RS, 1857-1894)

Abstract

The present research aims to understand the process of german colonization of the Pinhal Colony, a particular private colony, in the province of Rio Grande do Sul in the 19th century, the current county of Itaara, RS. The research period begins in 1857, alludes to the foundation, and ends in 1894 when the railway line arrives in the locality by changing the landscape and the population's objectives. The objective is to discuss a different perspective of economic development of the agricultural colonies within the framework of german colonization, since the german colonies are always regarded as prosperous economically otherwise they are reduced to failure. Thus, colonies and immigrants who do not fit this pattern are marginalized by the ethnic group. The research focuses on the Pinhal region, from the construction of the road to attempts of colonization agent in colony promotion. As well as investigating the first spontaneous settlements in the region, emphasizing the peasant model of colonization in forest areas. Analyzing the form of land clearing, family labor, agrarian and land issues involving the Land’s Law of 1850. Without losing sight of the initial agricultural production as a decisive aspect for the development of private german colonies which did not receive an incentive from the State to consolidate. In this sense, the structure that permeates the study is the concept of peasant family as an organizational form of space in which there is no external management, as a colony director. Linked to the peasant situation the emphasis on the approximation and distancing of families in subsistence mode in the small farm with the family or slave labor. And, in short, to what extent they articulated the permanence or exit of the peasant situation were the ways of interpreting the experiences in a German colony in the forests of southern Brazil where constant internal migration functions as the social dynamics of families always in search of the best lands for the crops.