INTRODUCTION

In Brazil, the building of a nation-state, as an exogenous process, began as a result of the emergence of European states, capitalist world expansion and colonial conquest after the great discoveries. The two constitutive elements of the modern state, territory and people, were constructed from outside until its independence. Brazil's demographic growth as a Portuguese colony followed the occupation process and the settlement and exploration of its territory. Production of sugar was the raison d'être of the economy leading to the growth of population in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the north and north-east regions. The discovery of gold and other precious metals was the main factor promoting population growth in the central hinterlands towards the west during the eighteenth century.

Mineral exploitation was an important factor in building Brazilian unity as a continental state. The rush for gold and other precious metals in Minas Gerais (1690 to 1760) and Goiás and Mato Grosso made these the economic powerhouse in the hinterland of Brazil.