History and regional integration: intellectuals, agreements and books in Brazil and Argentina in the first decades of the 20th century

Abstract

This article analyses the reinterpretation of history that emerged in Brazil and in Argentina in the first decades of the 20^th century, especially starting with the activities of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (IHGB) and of the Junta de Historia y Numismática Americana. Its aim is to examine the regional integration projects resulting from these dialogues, their ideological characteristics, the rapprochement with the old colonial powers, and the pragmatic-political role assumed by history at the time. The work links the fields of intellectual history, history of political ideas, and history of historiography, based on an extensive research in Brazilian and Argentine archives, which gathered diplomatic documents, correspondences and the annals of history congresses, among other source materials. In conclusion, it affirms the existence of a joint reconsideration of the view about the past, which enabled a rupture with the historical isolation that existed in the relations between Brazil and its neighboring countries. Here, one finds the reconstruction of an identity and the search for peaceful alternatives in view of the European conflicts.