The formation of municipalities in the state of Amazonas during the period after the Federal Constitution of 1946: fragments of an interrupted, forgotten story

Abstract

The period between the Federal Constitution of 1946 and the military coup of 1964 marked profoundly the Brazilian municipalism. This moment corresponded to an intense territorial division from which several States multiplied their municipalities. In Amazonas, this tendency was reversed and forgotten. In this article, the acts that reveal how this moment of intense creation of municipalities were given are analyzed and analyzed, even in localities where up to the present one does not observe the intensification of territorial dynamics typical of urban densification. During a busy decade (between 1955 and 1964), Amazonas multiplied its total of municipalities by almost 1,200%. The local historiography did not record the reasons for the annulment of the acts of creation, just as there are no references to basic studies on economic viability, environmental impacts and socioeconomic demands for the creation of new municipalities, sine qua non conditions to the territorial division and the emancipation of municipalities.

Keywords:
municipalism; Amazon; territorial division; local government; federalism