The fields that produce sweet sugar and the culture of forest extermination: Discourses on science and nature in the second half of the 19th century in three sugar agro-industrial landscapes: Joinville (SC, Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Tucumán (Argentina)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22456/1983-201X.138569Keywords:
agro-industrial sugar landscapes, environmental historyAbstract
The sugar agroindustry in Brazil and Argentina in the second half of the 19th century was marked
by the adoption of modern factories and new forms of cultivation designed by agronomic sciences. The large mills were part of the advance in the occupation of the territory in the newly created colonial centers and established in regions that were once consumers and in old areas of sugar tradition. The crystallization of the new Brazilian and Argentine sugar landscape, while marked by the discourse of progress, resulted in the
destruction of vast areas of forest. This is the case, for example, of the mills built in the different sugar areas of Campos dos Goytacazes (RJ), Joinville (SC), both in Brazil, and Tucumán, in Argentina. This article seeks to analyze the discourses that provide data on environmental issues and that still require further investigation in the fields of agrarian history, environmental history, and comparative history.
