“Educar o público, adoçar os costumes”: A escrita de uma história para forma(t)ar o povo polido e comercial (Visconde de Cairu, 1826–1830)

Abstract

As the bicentennial of Brazil's Independence (1822-2022) approaches, social, academic and political circles, among others, are making efforts to remember and give new meaning to this event. Believing that there is an important connection between the emancipation process that culminated with Brazil's independence in 1822 and the measures intended to form(t)ar the populations that resided here, this research seeks to think about how this process was approached and presented to future generations through the ways of making history and its uses as a tool to legitimize the established power. In this key, we seek to analyze the trajectory of José da Silva Lisboa, the Viscount of Cairu, a literate man, with several renowned publications on various subjects and, mainly, because he was closely linked to the emperors' figures and had an effective participation in the public administration procedures of the period. The objective of this research was to analyze the creation of a polished and commercial nation building that used the writing of history as an instrument to that end. Subsequently, we approached the debate concerning the historiography of nations in that period and, finally, we analyzed the work História dos Principais Sucessos Políticos do Brasil (History of the Main Political Successes of Brazil), seeking to identify the intentions contained therein and how intended, through the writing of history, to realize his project of a polished and commercial nation for Brazil. We can identify as one of the results of the book, the concern to legitimize Brazil's independence before the internal and external public, exalting the figure of the Emperor, the constitutional monarchy, as well as highlighting the principles that would conduct and convert the new nation into a polished and commercial society. We conclude that the production of a national literature, of a historical character, is coated with a formative dimension. A formation in which the public offering of a history-truth would be a condition to sweeten the customs and educate the subjects. By fusing a certain representation of the State with religion and with the historical narrative supported by documentation and available historiography, the subject of the narrative of the general history of Brazil brings out the moral and political dimensions of what, according to the narrator, should be seen as an impartial knowledge, since it is ruled and submitted to the economy of truth.