THE HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF BRAZIL IN THE TEXTBOOKS OF THE 19TH CENTURY (1843-1898)

Abstract

The discovery of Brazil and the first explorations are basic contents found in every textbook aimed at primary education, the order in which they show up in the summaries depending a lot on the organization of each author, which does not interfere with the construction of historical knowledge. It is known that, since the 16th century, the first books narrating the events of Brazil in the Colonial period start to circulate, such as the History of Brazil (1500-1627), by Friar Vicente do Salvador, written in 1627. It is from the 19th century onwards, however, with the creation of the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute (IHGB) and the Colégio Pedro II, that history becomes a school subject and the first book on the History of Brazil is published under the aegis of the IHGB, that being General History of Brazil, by Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, the first two volumes of this work were published while this historian was still alive, in the years 1854 and 1857. This work was considered the landmark of Brazilian national historiography and influenced the writing of several textbooks on Brazilian History. For the construction of this article, we analyzed six textbooks, published between 1843 and 1898, with the objective of presenting the history of the discovery of Brazil in the light of textbooks written in the 19th century, reflecting on the knowledge disseminated by the authors and their intentions. in terms of the context of the time. From the content analysis, it was possible to perceive that the books followed the same nationalist historiography produced by Varnhagen, added little information to the knowledge already produced, in addition there was no criticism regarding the production by peers, at most there were disagreements on some points based on other readings.