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Fontismo na Índia Portuguesa: o caminho-de-ferro de Mormugão

2015; University of Coimbra; Issue: 46 Linguagem: Inglês

2183-3796

Hugo Silveira Pereira,

Transport and Economic Policies

EnglishIn the 1870s Portugal tried to implement in its colonies the same public works programme that it had been practising in its mainland territory. Goa was one of the farthest domains of the Portuguese empire even though that distance was shortened with the opening of the Suez Canal (1869). In the late 1870s an array of causes brought together Portuguese and British negotiators to write down a treaty that settled the relations between both nations in the Indian peninsula. The treaty was signed in 1878 and it stated that a railway between the harbour of Mormugao (Goa) and the British rail network was to be built. In this paper we aim to analyse the decision making process, the construction and the consequences of the opening of that railroad in that Portuguese colony. To do so we will use the concepts of technopolitics and cross-borders and we will read on sources as diverse as the correspondence between Portuguese and British negotiators, the parliamentary debates, and the official statistics of the operation of overseas railways compiled by the ministry of Marine and Overseas. portuguesNa decada de 1870 Portugal procurou implementar nas colonias a mesma politica de obras publicas que vinha praticando na metropole. Goa era um dos dominios mais longinquos do imperio ultramarino mas cuja distância a Portugal Continental tinha diminuido com a abertura do canal do Suez (1869). Nos finais da decada de 1870 um conjunto de causas sentou negociadores portugueses e britânicos a mesma mesa para negociar um tratado que regulasse as relacoes entre os dois paises na peninsula indiana. O tratado foi assinado em 1878 e previa a construcao de um caminho-de-ferro entre o porto de Mormugao (Goa) e a rede ferrea britânica. Neste artigo iremos analisar o processo de decisao, a construcao e as consequencias da instalacao daquela infraestrutura naquela colonia portuguesa. Usaremos para tal os conceitos de technopolitics e cross-borders e recorreremos a fontes tao diversas como a correspondencia mantida entre os negociadores luso-britânicos, os debates parlamentares mantidos a epoca e as estatisticas oficiais da exploracao de caminhosde- ferro ultramarinos do ministerio da marinha e ultramar.