Network Analysis of the "Confederation of the Equator": Origins of Federalism in Brazil Based on Frei Caneca's O Typhis

Abstract

This article analyzes the federalist network that culminated in the Confederation of the Equator (1824) through Social Network Analysis (SNA) applied to the magazine O Typhis Pernambucano, edited by Frei Caneca (1823-1824). The article reconstructs the movement with metrics that reveal a bipolar network — federalist community versus imperial — with high internal cohesion in the northeastern bloc, but low capacity to build external bridges. Triangulation with contemporary publications, O Spectador Brasileiro and Diário Fluminense, confirms that the collapse of the federalist core resulted from the network's structural vulnerabilities. The research establishes O Typhis as both a record and infrastructure of federalist mobilization, revealing the press as a mechanism for creating resistance networks and disseminating new ideologies.