RAILWAYS IN THE STATE OF: THE RISE AND FALL, 1860-1990.

Abstract

The article discusses the development of a historiography of the State of Sao Paulo with the arrival of the railroad, and how this fits into the national context, as an economic engine in the early twentieth century, based on earlier mules to transport coffee, passing industrialization came the railroad car.The desire of the Republic in connecting the highlands to the coast of São Paulo were clear, the need to transport mainly coffee, as an agricultural product that extended westward from São Paulo, and the difficulties of transport based on animal traction, fed the intention of the Republic as the Sao Paulo province to build the first Railway in Brazil that won the Mountains to the Sea. Knowing that the export product "coffee" was well received in Europe was the concern of transporting large quantities to the Port of Santos, the precious grain. This economic rise based on a single product later, has its price, high cost and the arrival of the automobile, it all together, and the lack of territorial planning, makes the rail lines coming into decline due to the modeling of capitalism to revamp their production bases.