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Amid preparations for the IV Centenary of the City of São Paulo (1952–1954), Holanda sparked an intense debate in the pages of the Diário Carioca (6 April, 13 April, 15 June 1952) in response to arguments by Jaime Cortesão published in the Diário de Notícias in Rio de Janeiro (4 May 1952). The controversy centred on the role of the bandeirantes (São Paulo frontiersmen) in territorial expansion. Holanda argued that the expeditions of São Paulo’s sertanistas (backwoodsmen) into the interior of the continent were unlikely part of a policy to expand Portuguese domains in the Americas, as these ventures often countered the Crown’s interests. In his view, the indigenous enslavement expedition led by Raposo Tavares was never a " bandeira (expedition) aimed at territorial expansion " , as nationalistic and regionalist Paulista historiography—particularly during the 1940s—had claimed. Instead, Holanda sought to expose the ideology behind bandeirismo , which justified the occupation of indigenous lands in the Midwest (Mato Grosso) and Amazon regions, a process referred to at the time by the government as the “March to the West.”
Within this historiographical context, Jaime Cortesão argued that Portuguese expansion was guided by geographical reasoning ( Alexandre de Gusmão e o Tratado de Madrid [Alexandre de Gusmão and the Treaty of Madrid], 1952). While exiled in Brazil, Cortesão relied on historical maps that depicted a lacustrine formation connecting the Prata and Amazon basins. In his view, this geographical evidence was sufficient to delineate the territorial boundaries between the Portuguese and Spanish empires. The debate between Cortesão and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda involved multiple exchanges, but in essence, Holanda accused Cortesão of glorifying the actions of the mamelucos (mixed-race Paulista sertanistas ) to romanticise the coloniser’s role. According to Holanda, this intellectual manoeuvre fused two nationalisms: the Lusitanian and that of Brazilian Modernists.
This work is financed by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P, in the scope of the projects UIDB/04311/2020 and UIDP/04311/2020.
