Rio Becomes Civilized: Engineers and the organization of urban culture in Rio de Janeiro (1875 – 1906)

Abstract

We analyze the process of specialization and political capillarization of the nascent field of civil engineering in Brazil from the mid-19th century onwards. As an expression of the “modernity” demanded by the economic and political conditions of the period, Brazilian engineers played a fundamental role in technical debates and in the formulation of public policies for railways and urban “improvements”, organically related to dominant factions – whose interests were more immediately in line with their own from the beginning of the 20th century. Based on the study of the Improvements Commission of 1875, we observe the process of strengthening the field of civil engineering as witnessed by the foundation of the Engineering Club, in 1880, and the organization of the First Congress of Engineering and Industry, in 1900. This growth of the engineering profession is one of the fundamental aspects for a discussion of the enlargement of the state in Brazil.