Sertão and Desierto: Approximations Between the Brazilian Empire and the Republic of Argentina in the Early 19th Century

Abstract

Based on an initial literature review, the paper presents an investigation aiming to address issues regarding the creation of national identities in America’s Southern Cone, during and right after the emancipation of the Iberian ex-colonies, in the beginning of the 19^thcentury, especially in Brazil and Argentina. From a point of view not constricted by national borders, we seek to converge debates about remaining indigenous populations, particularly those inhabiting areas that were not considerably penetrated or well known in colonial times. In both independent nations, written documents and maps described these regions as “vazios” (or “empty spaces”), lacking material and immaterial aspects belonging to civilized societies, as defined by French intellectuals, since the 18^thcentury. In the provinces of São Paulo and Buenos Aires, those “vazios” were named respectively “sertão” and “desierto”. Our hypothesis is that these images correspond not just to local interpretations, but also to matters discussed by intellectuals of both States, as corroborated by the exchanging of people and researches between the National Historical and Geographical Institutes.