Results from investigations on Amazonian cities are presented in five articles
which appear in this number. Taken together we try to demonstrate the crucial role of cities in frontier regional planning over time. Even if not always explicit in my research, the articulation of Amazonian cities to regional development has been a constant theme in my studies. Recent research applies the theory of growth surges of cities to specific empirical studies of six Amazonian cities: Manaus, Belém, Rio Branco, Santarém, Parintins e Imperatriz. The study of each of these cities was undertaken by different researchers of the Laboratório de Gestão do Território of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, who participated in a CNPq project. Except for Belém economic and growth surges of the other major historical cities of the Amazon are treated separately in the articles which follow. This introduction provides the theoretical basis of the studies and the rise of cities in the colonial period.