THE PROVINCES OF THE EMPIRE: the Minas Gerais Legislative Assembly and the conservative “return” (1835-1842)

Abstract

Abstract: The Constitution of 1824 recognized the organization of the Brazilian territory in provinces and guaranteed the citizens’ right to intervene in its "business", through the General Councils. The creation of this intermediary authority between the City Councils and the General Assembly turned the provinces into something more than territorial districts: it made them administrative units of the newly founded Brazilian State, sanctioning an experience of political decentralization. In 1834, the Additional Act turned these Councils into Legislative Assemblies. The purpose of this article is to discuss how the project that aimed at granting greater prerogatives to the Provincial Assemblies, making them political bodies, was defeated at the Minas Gerais Assembly, despite the support that it gathered in the initial years of the institution’s operations. The revolution that broke out in July 1842 in the city of Barbacena, Minas Gerais, was, in this sense, a failed attempt to reverse the conservative “regress” (return) which eventually strengthened it.

Keywords: Provincial Assembly of Minas Gerais. Conservative Return. Liberal Revolution.