MINING AS A PURPOSE FOR THE HISTORICAL OCCUPATION OF CERRADO IN GOIÁS STATE-BRAZIL

Abstract

Mining is part of the history of current occupation in Goiás State and the formation of the first urban networks. Portugal had an interest in the region and, together with the need to expand its territory, sought the Eldorado. The garimpos, scattered throughout the province, became cities which, with the decline of mineral activities in the eighteenth century, had few conditions to develop. The adventurous character of the explorers and the fact that they were little interested in the occupation of space, ended up making the State of Goiás an inhospitable place during the period of decline of the mining. Goiás has today a history of more than two hundred years of mineral exploration and as a form of occupation of the Cerrado of Goiás, mining effectively made possible this consolidation.