State-building, coloniality and territory in the periphery: The case of central Brazil

Theories of state-building usually highlight the centralization of state power within a delimited territory as a previous condition for the exercise of modern authority. These theories, however, leave aside postcolonial contexts such as Latin America, where the shaping of state authority was affected by coloniality. This historical/epistemic condition contributed to turn the process of expanding authority over the territory into a geopolitical conquest that continues until today. 

This paper discusses a case-study focused on the Central Brazil region during the 1940 and 1950s in order to address the problems of state-building in postcolonial contexts. The discussion is based on data (official archives, travel accounts and bureaucratic reports) from the research I conducted on the activities of Fundação Brasil Central (1943-1967), a public bureau created by Estado Novo dictatorship (1937-1945), but I also bring concepts from other Latin American experiences. I analyze bureaucratic discourses by FBC to argue that state agencies created by Brazilian government promoted internal colonialism through practices of spatialization of authority. Therefore, the imposition of state power over the territory should not be seen as a previous historical condition for the legitimization of power, but as an ongoing process marked by a “geopolitical eye”. The main theoretical goal of the paper is to discuss state-building theory from the perspective of Latin American coloniality.