O desenvolvimento da indústria siderúrgica no Brasil no início do século XX: contribuições de Minas Gerais

In the first decades of the twentieth century, Modern Architecture and its ideals started to spread and become strong in Brazil, especially from the 1930s. Anticipating this moment, there was a technological development of the civil construction, which was fundamental for its consolidation. Recent historiography has considered development almost as a synonym of the development of the reinforced concrete technology, with special attention to institutions of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. However, steel is also an essential component of the constructive systems which use this composite and an important material in the industrialization process. This work focuses on the Brazilian steel history, in three different moments. First, during the government of Arthur Bernardes, when the materials produced in the country suffered a major concurrency with imported products . Soon afterwards, in the 1930s, with the Vargas government incentives for industrialization, when companies found more favorable environment for development. And next, from the World War II, when builders feared concurrency with the international market, which increasingly demanded national products, especially iron. In this process, it is important to highlight the works developed in the Escola de Minas de Ouro Preto (School of Mines of Ouro Preto, nowadays, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto - UFOP), founded in 1876, and by its graduates on iron ore deposits of Brazil and the potential of the mineral reserves of the state of Minas Gerais. The consolidation of the Companhia Siderúrgica BelgoMineira (Belgo-Mineira Steel Company), founded in 1917, in Sabará (MG), was another important contribution. The methodology concentrates on literature review and research on the historical documents of the History collection of the UFOP and Fundação Belgo-Mineira (Belgo-Mineira Foundation).