The Sociedade Promotora da Colonização: International Conjunctures and Ideology-Driven Migrations, 1836–41

This paper will examine a fundamental precedent of planned migrations to Brazil with focus on the Azorean case. It will look at how the establishment of the Sociedade Promotora da Colonização (1836-1841) in Rio de Janeiro provided an institutional blueprint for the systematic tapping of international labor pools on the part of the Brazilian Empire. Although Azorean migrations to Brazil have been studied for the great migrations period (1880s-1910s), an understanding of the conveyance of Azoreans to Brazil right after its independence has remained elusive. This presentation will profile Azorean migration in the first half of the nineteenth century in terms of its numbers, conditions and dynamics. It will explain the immigrant recruitment practices put in motion by the Sociedade Promotora, a path-breaking commercial association undergirded by elite and business networks. More specifically, this presentation will refer to the association’s tensions in the 1830s with Azorean officials due to questionable recruitment practices on the part of Brazilian “agents.” As will be demonstrated, these fraudulent systematic practices foreshadowed the operations of Brazilian colonization companies responsible for orchestrating migration schemes in the following decades.