Transportes, modernização e formação regional: subsídios a história da era ferroviária em Minas Gerais

This study examines the process of railway modernization in Minas Gerais. It uses theoretical classification that combines external variables, especially the expansion of the capital into the periphery, with internal variables, above all the hegemony of the raw material exporting model, marked by strong regional diversity. It was noted that the inappropriateness of the dominant standard of railway modernization in Brazil in relation to the structure of the economy of Minas did not prevent expansion of the tracks from reaching their greatest length in the territory of Minas Gerais. Political and financial factors presided over the Minas railway fever, which, in spite of being contemporary, underlined the irrational, onerous and dysfunctional nature of the system of concession, public subsidies and maintenance by the State of the regional network. On the ideological level, a supposedly legitimating association was mobilized between railways and modernity. On the substantive level, elements of the history of railway companies with activities in Minas Gerais were covered, were covered, and a time period is proposed for the Minas railway age, accompanied by systematization of the expansion process of the railway network based on.