Cearense Retirantes in the province of Amazonas: colonization, work, and conflicts (1877-1879)

ABSTRACT

This article examines migration from Ceará to the province of Amazonas due to the heavy drought which afflicted Ceará between 1877 and 1879. Looked at will be efforts to reform agricultural colonies originally intended for European immigrants, which ended up incorporating waves of migrants (retirantes) who sought to maintain similar activities to those in their places of origin, notably agriculture. Also focused on is the second attempt to construct the Madeira-Mamoré Railway, where, as well as Cearenses, US, Irish, and Italians immigrants were also involved. Environmental questions, the exhaustion of money, resistance actions, and the misuse of funds undermined both the agricultural colonies and railway, causing the departure of foreign workers and generalized dissatisfaction among the natives. The Amazonian elites began to direct the migrations to the distant regions where rubber was extracted, isolating and pulverizing new agglomerations and insubordinations.

Keywords: colonization; labor; migrants