The Influence of Military Fortifications on Urban Expansion in the City of Rio de Janeiro under the Perspective of Historical Cartography

Abstract

The present subject evaluates the participation of strategically positioning of forts which, since XVI century, were built
by the Portuguese and Frenchmen in order to protect Guanabara Bay, in the foundation and expansion of the initial
urban core of Rio de Janeiro city. By historical reconstruction of the initial moments of urban expansion and analysis
of geographical positioning occupied by the colonizers, this work seeks to identify in which ways and until when the
presence of these forts had influenced urban occupation and expansion. Other vectors acted secondarily in the expansion
of the initial nucleus of the city and also they had been pointed. The methodology was based on a historical parallel of
the installation of the forts and the gradual advance of the urban mesh in landward direction, through the elaboration of
thematic and synthesis maps, which used historical cartography and documents. The results show that the installation
of these forts had as objective the protection of Guanabara Bay, considered as an exit port, for the Europe, of the local
natural products and the gold that came from plateaus of Minas Gerais. This protection first occurred in the entrance
of the bay and, at a second moment, in century XVII, was turned to the urban core, in the neighborhoods of Praça XV.
The forts at this moment had been installed in positions with great vision and privileged possibility of defense, in the
quadrilateral formed by the mounts of Castelo, Conceição, São Bento and Santo Antonio, and conferred protection
to the city against the threats of the foreign invaders, usually the Frenchmen, who also recognized the great position
and the strategically format of the Guanabara bay. In general, this work concludes that the foundation of the city was
directly associated with the defense of the territory and this was the main strategy of the Portuguese colonizers to
guarantee the supremacy and the exploration of their colony. The influence on the foundation and the development of
the city occurred until the beginning of century XVIII when from now on, the expansion for west and southwest were
particularly made possible trough the increasing occupation of areas until then marshy and of difficult access.