A construção da rede ferroviária do Minho : (1845-1892)

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century, after 30 years of political turmoil, Portugal was finally able to build transport infrastructures on a large scale. The first rails were deployed in 1852, but it was not until 1867 that railways in Minho were decreed, even though this idea had been proposed to the government since the 1850s. However, only in the 1870s did construction actually begin. Based on the debates that took place in both houses of the Portuguese parliament (as well as the Dicionário Biográfico Parlamentar to identify the congressmen) and on the reports of the Portuguese engineers, to which content analysis was applied, this study aims to explain the development of the Minho railway network between the 1850s and the 1890s, a period of great investments in public works.

Keywords

• Railways
• transports
• Minho
• «Fontismo» (period of the government of Fontes Pereira de Melo)