A "VERY SKILLED ARCHITECT" FOR THE EMPIRE: POLITICS, STATE AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE NATION IN VARNHAGENIAN THOUGHT

In this paper, we elaborated some comments about the political conjuncture of the Brazilian Empire in the mid-nineteenth-century, the political positions and the role of the State in Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen's work. A self-recognized monarchist and in tune with the ideas of conservation of the order and centralization of the government, for the historian of Salo Paulo, the State was the main instrument of construction of the nation. At a moment of consolidation of imperial power in the Second Reign, Varnhagen, like other scholars and statesmen, wrote for a promising future for Brazil.