The incomplete ruptures in the Brazilian civilization process

Characters, institutions and the role of Freemasonry in the history of the country

Abstract

The article presents a long-term vision on the Brazilian history aiming to understand its main ruptures and civilizing advances, completes or incompletes, between Independence, in 1822, and its bicentennial, in 2022. It analyzes the rise and fall of Freemasonry’s influence on national politics and how public institutions and characters contributed to this process. From 1500 onwards, the formation of the Brazilian people and a new type of occupation of what would become the territory of the future country began. Independence, whose core articulation took place within the scope of Freemasonry in the crisis of the colonial system, brought up themes about the economic model and the political regime in the debates on a country project between José Bonifácio and Gonçalves Ledo. In the 19th century, this was the keynote of the disputes that resulted in the abolition of slavery, in 1888, and the proclamation of the Republic, in 1889. The primary-export model would only be overcome with industrialization since 1930. In the 20th century, Brazil lived two dictatorships but was redemocratized in 1985 and promulgated the “Citizen Constitution” of 1988. Many of these historical achievements have been reversed or are under threatening. The bicentennial is being under-celebrated and therefore it is necessary to take a historical balance to understand what needs to be resumed and/or completed. The Brazil dreamed of by José Bonifácio and Gonçalves Ledo is still a viable project, but the country needs to regain its historical and civilizational sense.