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Abstract
This piece of work objectified a historical analysis on the introduction and the widespread of
coffee in the southern region of Minas Gerais. Considered as objects of historygraphic study were literary
works, documents, journalistic, memorialistic, biographic, documental and didactic oriented texts. Yet another
method used was the quantitative one, besides orally reported pieces of historical nature as well as life history
which completed the official documentation. Our empiric investigation object was the southern side of Minas
Gerais, the study’s theme being the historic development of coffee in such region. The widespread of coffee
in the region caused the arisal of a new landscape profile- the coffee landscape. Self-supporting farms arised
on sites formerly covered with untouched vegetation. It also caused many towns to expand, and railroads were
multiplied substituting for the trails on which jack-asses were predominant.The first coffee cultures in the
region were settled in Aiuruoca, Jacuí and Baependi, by the Sapucaí and Grande rivers valley in the late
1700’s, by the troopers which made the the limk between the south of Minas Gerais and the state of Rio de
Janeiro. We inferred that the greatest barrier against the expansion of coffee in the south of Minas was the
difficulties concerning transportation. The means of communication were then precarious and the distances to
be covered were too long. Up until the end of the 19th century both production and exportation were only
modest due to rival producing areas which were closer to the embarkation harbours.With the beginning of the
20th century came a new production dynamism, due to the railroads. It has been 200 years of coffee culture in
the south of Minas Gerais, the greatest justification for the denomination “traditional coffee producing
region.”