Book contents
- Hydropower in Authoritarian Brazil
- Studies in Environment and History
- Hydropower in Authoritarian Brazil
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on the Text
- Introduction
- 1 Setting the Scene
- 2 Building “the Big Dam”
- 3 Pharaonic Environmentalism
- 4 Negotiating with Floodwaters
- 5 Environmental Transformations
- 6 The Notorious Balbina Dam
- 7 Aftermath
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: aN Invalid Date NaN
- Hydropower in Authoritarian Brazil
- Studies in Environment and History
- Hydropower in Authoritarian Brazil
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on the Text
- Introduction
- 1 Setting the Scene
- 2 Building “the Big Dam”
- 3 Pharaonic Environmentalism
- 4 Negotiating with Floodwaters
- 5 Environmental Transformations
- 6 The Notorious Balbina Dam
- 7 Aftermath
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
Summary
In 1968, the floodwaters of the recently completed Cocorobó Dam submerged the remnants of the site of the Canudos Massacre, one of the most traumatic and infamous episodes in Brazilian history. In the 1880s, a local preacher, Antônio Conselheiro, had amassed a large following and built a small settlement – which he named Belo Monte [Beautiful Hill] – near an area known as Canudos, an impoverished part of the semiarid interior of the northeastern state of Bahia. In 1889, military officers overthrew the monarchy that had ruled Brazil since independence (1822) and installed a republic. The new government soon came into conflict with the preacher and his followers, seeing them as a potential source of opposition.
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- Hydropower in Authoritarian BrazilAn Environmental History of Low-Carbon Energy, 1960s–90s, pp. 1 - 14Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024