Tenentism and mining:

structuring the mineral sector by the state

Abstract

Tenentism was a social movement that emerged in the 1920s, bringing together low-ranking military officers in opposition to the oligarchic structure of Brazilian politics, the way in which the country's armed forces were treated (low salaries), as well as criticizing the national economic situation of devaluation of coffee and inflation, defending the implantation of an industrialization process. During the Provisional Government of Getúlio Vargas, several members of this movement occupied prominent positions in the federal and state public administration, acting in defense of nationalist policies, such as the nationalization of mineral resources in Brazil. The lieutenants were instrumental in building a national mineral policy aimed at the industrialization process, with the publication of the Mining Code (1937), Water Code (1935), as well as being responsible for the reorganization of the Brazilian Geological and Mineralogical Service, and its eventual transformation into the DNPM (National Department of Mineral Production - 1934), responsible for state incentives in prospecting, production, regulation and export of mineral products. Thus, we will depart from the concept of “conservative modernization”, according to Gambini (1977), directed or controlled by the power then established, with industrial modernization driven by the needs of central markets. More recent studies (BASTOS; FONSECA; 2012) point to the rise of a national-developmentalist project, having three fundamental pillars (nationalism, laborism, and populism), under the idea of ​​developing industrially to reduce dependence on imported inputs.