Paper short abstract:

The paper will look at how the inhabitants of the African fortress of Mazagão re-constructed their environment and their life in New Mazagão built in the Amazon in the eighteenth century, focusing on the negotiation between the plans drawn by the Portuguese crown and the city created by the settlers.

Paper long abstract:

Since the beginning of the fifteenth century, Portuguese soldiers housed in the fortress city of Mazagão, now El Jadida (Morocco), waited for the moment to fight against the infidel Muslims. The city, together with the fortress of Azamor, located eight miles north, was part of the efforts of the Portuguese crown to strengthen its presence in Muslim ground, effects of the Reconquista. In 1562, 2,600 men resisted the moors in what became known as "The Siege of Mazagão." The political interests of the Portuguese empire shifted as a result of its maritime expansion, dramatically altered after the possession of South American land. The new colony needed settlers; moreover, the Portuguese crown lost interest in the African fortress, which demanded resources without offering an increase of the Portuguese presence in the region. After centuries of expectation for further heroic feats, the Marquês de Pombal decided that the lives of Mazagão's inhabitants would unfold in a radically different frontier: the Amazon. In 1769, the Portuguese families left the fortress to Lisbon, where they waited for the arrangements for their transference to the forest. There, in a completely alien environment, they built a city from scratch. This paper will look at how these unwilling settlers constructed both their physical environment and their new life. Fundamental to the discussion is the negotiation between desire and resistance, heroism and resilience, and how this can be identified in the disconnections between the plans drawn by the Portuguese crown and the city created by these new Amazonians.