Método geográfico, cartografia e geopolítica: a propósito da reedição da História do Brasil nos velhos mapas de Jaime Cortesão

Abstract

Jaime Cortesão’s History of Brazil in Old Maps was published for the first time between 1957 and 1971 by the Instituto Rio Branco of Rio de Janeiro. This work is a major synthesis of the research carried out by Cortesão on the geopolitical grounds of the territorial formation of Brazil during the 17 years he lived in exile in Brazil (1940-1957). Its structure and contents were supported by the extensive inquiries made by this Portuguese historian while preparing an innovative series of courses on the history of cartography and the geography of the borders of Brazil lectured in the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations between 1944 and 1950.As a result of the unusual geographical background acquired by Cortesão, this work comes to be particularly informative when it discusses the main theoretical and methodologicalquestions that were in the core of the debate undertaken by geographers in the first half of the 20th century. On the other hand, his deep knowledge of cartographic and textual sources sustains a research which value and consistency were truly unique among those issued by that time on the matters of historical cartography and the complex outline of the Brazilian borders.