THE URBAN GENESIS IN THE WEST OF BAHIA, BRAZIL: CLUSTERS AND THE TOWN’S NETWORK IN NINETEENTH CENTURY

Abstract

This article analysis the process that defined the urban network’s spatial form in the west of Bahia, Brazil, in the past, demonstrating the function the center’s Barra, like a main center of commercial’s interchangeable in the region, from the colonial time. To understand the initial process of development any urban network, it’s necessary to verify elements like the genesis, geographic position, size and urban functions of the centers, beyond spatial interactions caused by these urban functions, like a interchangeable of the people, goods, capital and information, and urban network’s spatial form (CORRÊA, 2000). The discussion starts about the occupation on the left side of river São Francisco, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, occurred from second part sixteenth century (IBGE, 1958), and ends identifying the urban network genesis in the end nineteenth century (SANTOS FILHO, 1989).