Raça, ciência e imigração: o Conde de Gobineau e o futuro do Brasil mestiço na obra l’émigration au Brésil: l’empire du Brésil à l’exposition Universelle de Vienne (1869 – 1874)

Abstract

The following article intends to analyze Arthur de Gobineau’s discourse perpetrated by one of his works L’Émigration au Brésil: L’Empire du Brésil à l’Exposition Universelle de Vienne (1873). Count Gobineau, responsible for manufacturing one of the greatest theoretical pillars of the so-called scientific racism (Essai sur l’inégalites des races humaines 1853-1855), lived in Brazil for fourteen months in 1869, serving the French diplomacy. Here, he puts his theory into practice when observing a massively miscegenated population which, according to his data, was certainly condemn by the ethnical barbarity and soon would disappear. Because of his close relations with Dom Pedro II, in 1873 Gobineau writes an article where the purpose was to encourage European immigrant to come live in Brazil and therefore contribute to the project of whitening the nation. We intended to analyze Gobineau’s propositions presented on the article, considering his own scientifical theories and in alignment with the premises that the European 5 migration was the only way to save Brazil. Therefore, we shall draw a relation between Gobineau, his racial discourse and the imperative of the migration to build the nation