Global Territorialization and Mining Frontiers in Nineteenth-Century Brazil: Capitalist Anxieties and the Circulation of Knowledge between British and Habsburgian Imperial Spaces, ca. 1820–1850

Abstract The rumors of Brazil’s mineral riches reaching London and Vienna in the first half nineteenth century, started by enslaved Africans mining clandestinely unexplored regions later through geological surveys engineers from Habsburg Empire, prompted aspirations to wealth which circulated fluidly transatlantic context. This article examines distinct but convergent agencies garimpeiros , miners prospectors, Habsburgian territorialization process Minas Gerais during nineteenth-century expansion global capitalism. It analyses degree connectivity cooperation across British imperial spaces Brazilian ventures, focusing on case engineer Virgil von Helmreichen, who arrived 1836, under contract British-financed Imperial Mining Association. expert elite Helmreichen was a part played crucial role commodity frontier this region, providing proficient knowledge geology. community collaborated with logistics networks free-trade imperialism slave system inherited colonial period. shows dynamics at play between interests discovery new mines, need produce local level, government’s desire control hinterland region profit its wealth.