Summary

A major aspect of Brazilian history is the ongoing significance of regionalism and regional identities. To explore this history, one needs to consider how a particular space becomes a region in the first place, and how certain attributes, human and natural, become associated with that space. Regionalism emerged as a major feature of the political sphere in Brazil during the immediate postcolonial decades as liberal and conservative elites struggled over the degree of provincial autonomy under the empire. This was followed by a period of republican-federalist rule that in some ways increased political autonomy for the individual states, but also allowed certain regions to consolidate their political and economic dominance, which led to an entrenched pattern of highly uneven development. Regionalism becomes the basis for competition over political and material resources, and regional identities were increasingly implicated in debates about tradition and modernity. Regional disparities also become racialized, as prosperity in the southern states became linked with European immigration and whiteness. And even as internal migration accelerated in the period following World War II, migrants continued to bear the “attributes” of the originating region, and in some cases, such as the northeasterners in São Paulo, the experience of migration intensifies the connection with the Nordeste. These disparities produce regional resentments that have fueled regionally based political divisions in national elections in the early 21st century.