The Farroupilha rebellion is yet another demonstration that Brazil has many different histories. The extreme south had been incorporated into the colony relatively late and shared a border with a territory that was strategically essential and changed hands many times: the region that gave access to the River Plate basin. The territory had been initially occupied in 1626 by Jesuits from Paraguay who claimed it for Spain and set about establishing missions and villages for the indigenous peoples. With the arrival of the bandeirantes, the Jesuits left, leaving behind them a special breed of cattle known as chimarrão. In 1680 the Portuguese Crown took over the territory and founded the colony of Sacramento in what was later to become the independent state of Uruguay.
The Spanish frequently invaded the area, only for the Portuguese to take it back. After all, they considered it an extension of their territory in the south. At the end of the seventeenth century the Jesuits returned, took over the area once again, and founded the Missions of the Seven Peoples.40 But the Jesuits and the Guarani Indians were defeated by Portuguese and Spanish troops in the Guerra Guaranítica, which was waged between 1753 and 1756 after the Jesuits and Guarani refused to be relocated to Spanish territory on the western side of the Uruguay river. An agreement was then signed granting the Missions of the Seven Peoples to Portugal and the colony of Sacramento to Spain. Meanwhile, many of the treaty’s articles were annulled, leading to frequent skirmishes and direct conflicts between the two countries over the ownership of cattle and land. The Portuguese Crown officially incorporated the territory into its domains due to the vital importance of the River Plate for Brazilian commerce, the need to prevent the smuggling of silver from Potosí and, above all, for its strategic military importance.
The discovery of gold in Minas Gerais in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had created a considerable demand for draft-animals and beef. As a result the situation in the south began to change with the arrival of muleteers and cattle dealers who drove herds of cattle and mules back to Minas Gerais. Many of the muleteers settled in the south and became cattle breeders, petitioning the Crown to be granted ownership of the land. It was in the Crown’s interest to settle farmers in the region along Brazil’s southern border. In 1737 the government officially established the Southern Department due to the need to stave off the frequent attacks from the Spanish on the colony of Sacramento. The Crown also granted land to military officers, as well as distributing sesmarias41 to the cattle breeders, providing incentive for the creation of large ranches, which acted as a further deterrent to the Spanish.
At the end of the eighteenth century the region began to produce jerked beef – salted and dried meat – which soon became the national diet for slaves. As has been seen, in 1820, with the help of the ranchers, Dom João VI defeated the Spanish and incorporated the eastern region – the Banda Oriental – into Portuguese America, naming it the Province of Cisplatina. Due to its distance from the capital and its strategic military importance, the province enjoyed a relative degree of autonomy.
But things changed after independence and the concentration of power in the hands of the Carioca elite. The landowners in the south resented the high taxes levied on cattle, on land and, above all, on dried meat.42 On the other hand, the loss of the province of Cisplatina, in 1828, after the creation of the independent state of Uruguay, came as a severe blow. When General Bento Gonçalves complained that ‘they have transformed Rio Grande into a hostelry for the empire’, he was expressing the general resentment of a people who felt their role had been reduced to supplying meat for the empire and defending its southern borders.
Farroupilhas (or farrapos) was the name of the groups from Rio Grande who rebelled against the imperial government. The term had been used pejoratively for at least ten years in reference to supporters of the Rio Grande liberal party, which opposed the central government. The nickname caught on and became a badge of pride, so much so that in 1832 the farroupilha party was founded whose manifesto declared its opposition to all the Portuguese who held high ranks in government and in the army. Many believed the only way of achieving autonomy was to create an independent state. The movement drew in a wide range of the population, including ranch-owners, military officers, abolitionists and even slaves, who saw in it a chance for their liberation. At the beginning not all the farroupilhas were republicans and federalists, but the chain of events eventually made them set their differences aside and adopt those views. Many of the leaders of the movement were Masons, including Bento Gonçalves, who adopted the improbable codename ‘Sucre’.43
The general feeling in the extreme south of the country was one of impotence and injured pride. The time had come to take up arms again, and this time against the imperial government. The long war against the central government to create a separate republic in the south began on 20 September 1835, and was to last for almost ten years, until 1 March 1845, five years into the reign of Dom Pedro II. The movement was so important that it influenced liberal movements in São Paulo, as well as the Sabinada, in Bahia. It was an integral part of the history of the Brazilian Empire.
‘The Centre exploits the South’ became the slogan of the farroupilhas. And while preparing to go to war with the rest of Brazil, relations with the neighbouring newly created state of Uruguay oscillated between friendly and hostile. There were close family links between the inhabitants of the two regions. Bento Gonçalves, for example, was married to a Uruguayan. At times friendly overtures were made in an attempt to increase trade; at others, hostility towards the Spanish reigned. After all, the Spaniards had never ceased in their efforts to change the frontiers in the region.44
The contradictions were such that when the revolt broke out in September, Bento Gonçalves made a declaration to the periodical Recopilador Liberal45 explaining that the war was to defend the province’s freedoms, which were under threat. At the same time, he reaffirmed his loyalty to the monarchy, to the ‘maintenance of the throne of our young emperor and the integrity of the empire’.46
During the ten-year war, the farroupilhas won and lost innumerable battles. On 11 September 1836 they proclaimed the foundation of the Rio-Grandense Republic. The act was ratified by the Municipal Chamber of Piratini,47 which declared the independence of the province of Rio Grande do Sul and appointed Bento Gonçalves as president. Piratini would be the new capital. The government was to be republican, with federative ties to all other Brazilian states, which would in turn commit to the same form of government. This was a dramatic about-turn for the movement, which had until then declared its loyalty to the Crown. Nevertheless, the newly created state maintained two fundamental features of the empire: restricted franchise and slave labour.
During this long war a few participants acquired near mythical status. One of them was Bento Gonçalves, who on two occasions made spectacular attempts to escape from jail. In one of them, he dug a tunnel from the cell with the other prisoners, but when his fellow-fighter Pedro Boticário proved to be too fat to get through, he stayed behind in solidarity. On another occasion, when he was imprisoned in the Forte do Mar, in Bahia, he escaped by sea, swimming out to a boat where his comrades were waiting for him. Another legendary revolutionary was the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi – later one of the heroes of Italian unification – who, during the conquest of Santa Catarina (the province to the north of Rio Grande), managed to transport two ships overland, drawn by oxen, all the way to the estuary of the Capivari river. It was there that he met the beautiful – and equally legendary – Anita, his partner in love and war.
But the war dragged on for too long and the cost in energy, money and men was very high. Towards the end of the conflict slaves were enlisted to fight on the battlefields alongside their owners, in exchange for their freedom. By 1840 the imperial government had managed to contain all the other rebellions that had broken out in the country, and was now able to concentrate its forces on fighting against the farroupilhas, although peace was still a long time coming. The Baron of Caxias finally put an end t
o the war. He was to become a central figure during Pedro II’s reign, when he became known by the well-earned but somewhat ironic soubriquet ‘the Pacifier’. The ceasefire was declared on 28 February 1845, with the signing of the treaty of Poncho Verde. The revolutionaries in the south called the treaty an ‘honourable peace’ as it met a number of their demands: the debt accumulated by the province during the conflict would be paid by the empire; the officers of the farroupilha army were incorporated into the imperial army, maintaining their rank; the slaves who had fought in the war were granted their freedom; the safety of individuals and their property was guaranteed; all prisoners of war were released; and, above all, the rebels were allowed to freely elect the president of the province.
The farroupilha was the last of the revolts to be suppressed during the regency period. The war and its leaders were to become fundamental elements in the construction of the identity of Brazil’s southern provinces and, later on, states.48 But the regency period was to witness yet another revolt, which started after the farroupilha revolution had begun. This time the revolt broke out in the extreme north of the country, in the distant province of Maranhão, which had once been a part of the state of Grão-Pará. The Balaiada rebellion began in 1838 and, once again, galvanized the lower rungs of the socioeconomic hierarchy.
THE BALAIADA: THE MARGINALIZED OF THE NORTH UNITE AGAINST THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
In the past Maranhão had had a direct link to Portugal. This special relationship was to significantly influence its politics and its relationship with the rest of the empire. During the entire colonial period, with the exception of the years 1652–4, Maranhão, along with the captaincies of Ceará, Grão-Pará and Amazonas, had formed the colonial state of Maranhão and Grão-Pará, which had its own administration.49 The seat of government was in São Luís do Maranhão and all administrative, financial and political questions were broached directly with Lisbon. Although the region had much in common with the rest of Brazil, this vast area maintained its own identity. They shared the official language, had large estates run on slave labour (mostly located along the coast), and were considered Roman Catholic – along with widespread practice of other religions among the slaves and indigenous populations – but their loyalty was to only one sovereign: the King of Portugal. The region had much closer ties to Africa and Europe than it did to the other Brazilian captaincies.
During the reign of Dom José I (1750–77), the Marquis of Pombal introduced major changes. The 1750 Treaty of Madrid redrew the borders between the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. In the south, Uruguay was incorporated into Castile, and in the north, the whole of what is today the Brazilian Amazon was given to Portugal. The capital of the state was moved from São Luís to Belém and the state itself was renamed Grão-Pará e Maranhão. After the Marquis of Pombal’s government outlawed the enslavement of ‘natives’, the region became a centre for the Atlantic slave traffic. At the height of its wealth in the nineteenth century, Belém would be the capital of the whole region, which stretched from the west of Brazil’s northeast to the Amazon basin.
Between 1772 and 1774 the state was divided into two states, but continued to be subordinate to the court in Lisbon.50 They were the state of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro51 in the extreme north and the state of Maranhão and Piauí in the mid-north. The two states were only integrated into Brazil in 1811. It was no coincidence, then, that the provinces of Pará and Maranhão were the last to accept independence and the new Brazilian Empire, which they only did in 1823. They had no desire to become ‘Brazilians’.
To complicate matters even further, after Brazilian independence in 1822, Maranhão began to suffer from the same ailment that plagued the other provinces in the country: heavy taxation from the court in Rio de Janeiro with very little return. However, the revolt had its own characteristics: most of the participants were peasants protesting against the owners of local estates. The province was undergoing a period of crisis, since the price of its main product, cotton, had fallen due to increasing competition on the international market. Still, there was no reduction in the taxes levied by the central government and the poverty was becoming unsustainable.
The group that suffered most were the workers – farmhands, cowherds and slaves – and they were the first to mobilize in protest against the injustices that plagued the region. But they were not the only segment of the social hierarchy that was dissatisfied. The liberal professionals began to demand changes in the rules for local elections. To this end they founded a newspaper – the Bem-te-vi52 – to broadcast republican and federative principles. Mutual dissatisfaction brought the urban middle classes and rural labourers together in a common cause.53
The revolt, which began in 1838 with neither a large amount of followers nor any clearly established goals, took its name from its leader: Manuel Francisco dos Anjos Ferreira, who was nicknamed Balaio (basket). He was a basket-maker and had been a victim of police brutality. Local police had raped two of his daughters and had gone unpunished. He reacted by gathering a small group of men and began to take his vengeance, terrorizing the interior of Maranhão.
But what sparked off the revolt was the arrest of José Egito, a local politician with ties to the cabanos in Pará. On 13 December 1838 his brother, Raimundo Gomes, stormed the prison where José Egito was held, the Vila de Manga, and set him free. Raimundo Gomes then asked Balaio for his support, which he readily gave, and the rebels set about destroying and sacking estates. In 1839 they seized the city of Caxias.54 They proceeded to organize a provisional government and adopt two emergency measures: the deactivation of the National Guard, which was seen as representing the military arm of the rural landowners, and the expulsion of all Portuguese residents from the city. From then on the movement became more radical. Cosme Bento, who was the head of a local quilombo and had a following of three thousand Africans, was the new leader.
To confront the rebels the regency government sent Colonel Luís Alves de Lima e Silva55 to Maranhão. The colonel had considerable experience; he had fought in the war of independence in Bahia, in 1823, and in the war in Cisplatina, between 1825 and 1828. Many middle-class people who had supported the rebels were now frightened at the radical direction the revolt was taking. They began to support the imperial forces. The insurrection was finally suppressed in 1841, with an appalling death toll: 12,000 rural peasants and slaves were killed in combat. The young emperor granted amnesty for the prisoners of war and Luís Alves de Lima e Silva was awarded with the title of Baron of Caxias in recognition of his victory.
Although shaken to its very foundations by the revolts occurring all over the country, the empire did not fall. But the fear of further insurrections and separatist movements loomed like a spectre. None of Brazil’s former neighbours – the Spanish viceroyalties of New Spain, New Granada, Peru and Rio da Plata – had survived the popular uprisings of the early nineteenth century. They had been split into a number of different countries, none of which could now be compared in size to Brazil.
During the regency, the vacant throne created an atmosphere of uncertainty in many cities of the empire. This was the fertile backdrop against which new political societies and protests for civil rights emerged. One of the best known of these was the Society for the Defence of Freedom and Independence of the Nation, founded on 10 May 1831. It was formed by politicians who were opposed to Dom Pedro I, the so-called exalted liberals, military officers from the moderate liberal party, and by a few of the former monarch’s collaborators, including José Bonifácio de Andrada. The Defence of Freedom Society stood for the maintenance of the social hierarchy and status quo. Although they professed to defend the public interest, their first activities were aimed at controlling the ‘rabble’. They were also interested in creating a ‘high Society’ in Rio de Janeiro, to which end they organized parties and civic events. Another political movement that emerged was the short-lived Federal Society, which was founded on 31 December 1831 and whose aim was to put pressure on the Senate to pass consti
tutional reforms. A conservative party also emerged – the Society for the Conservation of the Brazilian Constitution – which defended the emperor and was made up of military officers faithful to the monarchy.56
In the words of the anthropologist Gilberto Freyre, the regency was ‘a period of such frequent social and cultural conflicts between groups of the population – conflicts that were complex but appeared to be simply political – that the whole period was characterized by restlessness and trepidation’.57 In addition to the revolts that have been described in this chapter, there were an additional seven that occurred in 1831 alone – five in Rio de Janeiro, one in Ceará and one in Pernambuco – as well as a number of conflicts of lesser proportions in other provinces. The revolts reflected how large and diverse the country was and how the government’s policy of centralization was unconvincing.
It was no coincidence that during Araújo Lima’s second government the political disputes in the Congress increased. Opinions were bitterly divided, except on one important point. There was consensus that the only possible solution to the unrest was to anticipate young Pedro II’s ascension to the throne. He was fourteen years old. A king’s age does not count, or if it does, it is disguised by the ritual of his position. In the eyes of the politicians, it was only by crowning the boy as Emperor Pedro II, the first monarch to be born in Brazil, that the fragile unity of the country could be guaranteed. Although most of the rebellions had been suppressed, there was nothing to suggest that new ones would not occur. So the stage was prepared, the emperor’s age manipulated, and he was crowned at the greatest public ceremony that Brazil had ever seen.
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