História da expulsão dos jesuítas da Capitania de Pernambuco e anexas (Ceará, Paraíba e Rio Grande do Norte) em 1759: a disputa política e os domínios da educação

Abstract

In the second half of the eighteenth century, the relationship between the Society of Jesus and the Portuguese Crown changed considerably, and as a consequence of this change, the apostolic and educational activities of agents of trust in the evangelizing action of the Church and the colonizing project of the Crown also changed. Accused of being responsible for the delay in education and of forming a State with a language and its own economy and self-government, within the colony, the ignatians were considered a threat both to Church and to the State, therefore enemies and passives of being expelled from the Portuguese domain. And it was from this change in the relationship of the Portuguese Crown with the Society of Jesus that it aroused our curiosity to develop the proposal of this research work, which resulted in this historical narrative, starting from the following thesis: The expulsion of the Jesuits is the result of a complex ideological movement, which signalizes a socio-political-cultural paradigm shift that includes religion and economy and is the definer of relations between Lusitanian State and Company of Jesus; And reinforcement in the search for consolidation of a novelty in the form of being of the State, absolutist illustrated, conceived under the influence of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, which implies in the rupture of the model of missionary and educational action of the Jesuits. This decision raises many questions to those who do historical research. It is interesting to know, as Pernambuco and annexed captaincies (CE, RN and PB) enter into the perspective of providers or contributors of Portuguese economic policy that assumed Brazil as the colony that would remedy the Portuguese deficit? And to what extent did the Society of Jesus interfere with this economic perspective? What is the relation between appropriation of the goods of the Jesuits of Pernambuco, Jesuit education system and economic interest of the crown? The contact with the documentary sources also raised the question of the politicaleconomic position of Great Britain as regards the relationship of the Kingdom of Portugal and the interests of Great Britain in the episode of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Brazil in 1759. The result of this research, as a doctoral thesis, seeks to analyze, above all, Jesuit Education in the relations of convergence and conflicts between the Portuguese State and the Society of Jesus, and contribute to the expansion of existing information on the state of education in the expulsion of the Jesuits of Brazil, offering new evidence on the history of this education in the Captaincy of Pernambuco and annexes (Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba and Ceará). The mid-eighteenth century outlines the time of this work. The twenty years prior to the expulsion of the Company of Jesus from the State of Brazil, 1740 to 1760, constitute, therefore, the temporal cut of the research. This time cut was made to include the conjuncture of the last decade of the Government of D. João V, fundamental to understand the reform administration of D. José I, the consolidation of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, as Minister, and the immediate changes in the Education in the colonial regime after 1759.