The formation of the Brazilian Postal System

disputes over sovereignty and control of communications (1820-1829)

Abstract

This article is dedicated to analyzing the formation of the Brazilian postal service between 1820 and 1829. It examines the political uses of postal services by the General Intendency of the Police of Portugal, the Courts of Lisbon, the Court of Rio de Janeiro and Provisional Government that, added to the meanings attributed to the mail by the press, the Constituent Assembly, the Constitution, the Parliament, provincial governments and international diplomatic agreements, points to how the control of communications was part of the dispute over territorial sovereignty during this period. In this way, a political communication experience is characterized and demonstrates the transformation of the colonial post offices of Portuguese America, disputed by competing governments during the deepening crisis of the monarchy, into the national post offices of the Empire of Brazil inserted in an international system. Based on official letters, orders, reports, decrees, laws, projects, parliamentary debates and newspapers, it is argued that, as a communications structure, the postal network served to articulate multiple scales and dimensions of the political bodies with which it was associated and that, due to their lack of definition, its geography was the subject of competition between political actors.