New owners and old struggles on the appropriation of public lands in the First Republic

Fazenda Nacional de Santa Cruz, 1891-1933

Abstract

This article is in the debate about the rights of land property in Brazil. We chose the first republic as temporal clipping because we understand that it was a historical moment in which landowners were invented and the property rights were changed. We also understand that these processes had important consequences for the national agrarian structure. As the object of our research, we chose the property rights of Fazenda Nacional de Santa Cruz, a farm placed in western Rio de Janeiro and nearby towns. In this case, we try to understand how the federal government has invented and managed the social relation we call propriedade, since, from 1891 on, it had the direct ownership of the so-called public lands or national particulars (including this farm), taking the responsibility to concede and earn wealth through these goods. In the theoretical field, we are close to national and foreign authors who have been dedicated to make a land property’s social history. Methodologically, we do not believe that only laws create, transform or eliminate property rights. That is why we will make an effort to operationalize the social character of this property, connecting various sources, uncovering social agents and their different interests towards those goods.