IMPERATRIZ DO MARANHÃO: PROPOSITION FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROCESS OF OCCUPATION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE CITY

This work highlights important aspects of the formative process of the city of Imperatriz, considered the second largest city in the state of Maranhão, located in the northeast region of Brazil. A central objective is the discussion and analysis of the process of occupation of the city, in the elaboration of a theoretical model that allows to agglutinate this understanding. Thus, it is proposed that this process be understood through the approach of occupation fronts, evolutionary stages and succession of economic activities. As a result, the approach allowed to identify that in the history of formation of the city, there were three important stages and distinguished, respectively by the characteristics: “exploratory”, “developmental” and now “consolidation”, all composed by distinct commercial activities, economic conditions