Região, população e transportes em Minas Gerais na Era Vargas. As contradições da 'era ferroviária' e as correlações entre infraestrutura viária, território heterogêneo e distribuição e mobilidade populacionais

ABSTRACT

This article consolidates the results of a research based on a significant set of new data about the Minas Gerais transportation system during the Vargas Era, and was guided by two main objectives: i. demonstrate the contradictions of the rail era in heterogeneous regional formation, and the resulting implications for intra- and inter-regional integration processes; ii. establish connections between the character and range of the first modernization of transportation, and aspects of the demographic structure and dynamics. It found the persistence of traditional Minas Gerais’ road infrastructure in the late 1930s. The processes of industrialization, urbanization, expansion of capitalism in the countryside, social change, and intra- and inter-regional migration, undergone in Brazil since the early decades of the twentieth century, have been conditioned in Minas Gerais by the degree of transportation development or by the non disruption of traditional patterns of circulation in general, and population mobility in particular.

Keywords:
Minas Gerais; Vargas Era; region; population; transportation.