Territory occupation and creation of municipalities during the brazilian republican period

In 1980 there were, the total of 3.974 municipalities in Brazil. In 2001, this number raised to 5.563 local governments. In a short period of time, the Brazilian territory suffered an intense process of compartmentation, emancipating 40% of today’s municipalities. Such phenomenon called the attention of the media and society, having the causes and consequences analyzed for countless researchers. However, the local governments’ creation occurred during the whole republican period, showing this is not a recent fact. Thus, the municipalities’ creation, throughout all the republican time, was discussed in the present text, as a phenomenon that results from the relation between the society and space, which the theoretical reflections propose the compartmentantion as an structural part in the territory formation.