Contestado War
Encyclopedia
The Contestado War broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazil
ian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916.
It was fought in a inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba mate
, that was called Contestado because it was contested by the states of Paraná
and Santa Catarina
as well as Argentina
. The war had its casus belli in the social conflicts in the region, the result of local disobediences, particularly regarding the regularization of land ownership on the part of the caboclo
s. The conflict was permeated by religious fanaticism expressed by the messianism and faith of the rebellious cablocos that they were engaged in a religious war
; at the same time, it reflected the dissatisfaction of the population with its material situation.
s of the region. The first one who rose to prominence was João Maria, a man of Italian
origin, who wandered, preaching and attending to the sick, from 1844 to 1870. He lived a very simple life, and his ethics and lifestyle attracted thousands of followers. He died in 1870, in Sorocaba
, São Paulo
state.
The second monk also adopted the alias of João Maria, although his real name was Atanás Marcaf, probably of Syria
n origin. He appeared to the public during the Federalist Revolution of 1893; he belonged to the Maragato
faction, and projected a firm and even messianic stature. He even made prophecies about the political events of his time. He was active in the region between the Iguaçu and Uruguay
rivers. As a sign of his unquestioned influence over the faithful, a portion of them waited for his return by resurrection after his disappearance in 1908.
The wait of the faithful ended in 1912, when the figure of the third monk appeared in public. He was initially known as an herbal healer, having presented himself under the name of José Maria de Santo Agostinho, although, according to a report of the police of Vila de Palmas, Paraná state, he was, in reality, an army deserter who had been convicted of rape
, by the name of Miguel Lucena de Boaventura.
Because no one knew his origins, and because he lived a straight and honest life, it was not difficult for him to achieve the people's admiration and confidence in a short period of time. One of his claims to fame was the account of his resurrection of a young lady (who probably was just a victim of catalepsy
). He was also said to have cured the colonel Francisco de Almeida's wife of a previously uncurable illness. After this event. the monk won even more fame and trust by declining the land and significant quantity of gold that the grateful colonel offered him.
From this point on, José Maria began to be considered a saint
: a man who had come to Earth only to heal the sick and aid the needy. Methodical and organized, he was quite different from the familiar healers. He knew how to read and write and he described in his notebooks the medical properties of the plants found in the region. With the permission of Colonel Almedia, he set up what was known as the "people's pharmacy
" at the ranch of one of the foremen, where he stored up medicinal herbs that he used in his daily medical consultations with anyone who wished to visit him, until the late hours of the night.
A foreign company was commissioned to finish the railroad that was to begin in 1890 by the engineer João Teixeira Soares. This railroad would connect the cities of São Paulo to Santa Maria
, in Rio Grande do Sul
state. As Teixeira did not or could not take on the project, the responsibility was transferred in 1908 to the Brazil Railway Company, a north-American company owned by Percival Farquhar.
Besides the right to finish the project, the company also obtained from the government the right to explore a strip of land 15 km (9.32 mi) wide on each side of the railroad. The Company thus legally seized ownership of the land that it bordered and offered work to local families during the construction of the railroad.
At the same time, the concession guaranteed that another associated company of the trust, the Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization would have the rights to extract lumber and later resell the land.
It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time: workers coming from the urban populations of Rio De Janeiro, Santos, Salvador and Recife attracted by the possibility of many advantages and high wages.
However by the time the construction work was finished a large number of people were left without work or a place to go (as much land around the railroad was legally owned by the Trust) adding to unrest amid dissatisfaction.
Foreseeing what was coming, José Maria
(Miguel Lucena Boaventura) left immediately for the border town of Irani with his followers. Irani at the time belonged to the municipality of Palmas
which was within the jurisdiction of the state of Paraná. As Paraná and Santa Catarina then had unresolved land disputes, the government of Paraná regarded this mass relocation of people as a strategy by the State of Santa Catarina to occupy and claim those lands.
So the Contestado war began there in October 1912. In order to prevent the sudden mass occupation of that land, some troops of the Regiment of Security of Paraná State
were sent out to force the invaders to return to Santa Catarina.
But things did not go as planned. A bloody confrontation started between government troops and followers of the Contestado at a place called Banhado Grande. At the end of the battle, dozens of people from both sides were dead, and the rebels seized a large amount of guns and ammunition from the Paraná police forces. Among those killed were Colonel Gualberto João, who commanded the troops, and also the Monk Jose Maria, but the partisans of the Contestado had obtained their first victory.
Jose Maria was buried by his followers, who hoped for his resurrection (in similar fashion to the legend of the king Sebastian of Portugal, who was revered by some messianic followers of Sebastianism
).
The federal government sent in 200 federal troops on December 29, 1913 in order to deal with the rebellion. Once again, the government was upset by the fierce opposition. For some historians, this is considered to be the official beginning of the war, despite the initial confrontations back in 1912.
In March and May of that year other expeditions were sent out, however they were all unsuccessful. As the social order degraded quickly in the region, the central government appointed General Carlos Frederico de Mesquita (a veteran of the Canudos rebellion) to lead a new operation against the rebels. He led an assault on the village of Santo Antônio da Platina, causing the rebels to flee. The hamlet of Caraguatá where the federal troops were first chased from by the rebels was now struck by typhoid fever
. General Mesquita mistakenly believed the rebels were finally dispersed and declared the war was over.
However, peace was to be short-lived. The rebels quickly regrouped and organized around Santa Maria, intensifying the attacks: they took and set fire to the Calmon rail station; destroyed the village of São João (present-day Matos Costa), they attacked Curitibanos and threatened Porto União, causing the population to flee. There were rumours that they were on their way to invade the city of Ponta Grossa
and some believed the rebels and their army would march all the way to Rio de Janeiro
in order to oust the President. The rebels at the time already controlled 25,000 km2.
The federal government named General Setembrino de Carvalho the leader of the operation against the rebels in southern Brazil. So in September 1914 he led about 7,000 men with the mandate to suppress the rebellion and thus pacify the region at any cost. Setembrino sent out an announcement to the rebels in which he guaranteed the land would be returned to those who turned themselves in. He also promised, however, a harsh and hostile treatment to those who decided to continue the armed uprising against the government.
By then the rebels were totally enclosed, and internal strife further weakened them. On February 8, 1915, a column from the south led by Lt. Col. Estillac arrived in Santa Maria. That attack cost the Army 30 dead and 40 injured. New pushes and retreats took place in the next few days.
On March 28, 1915, Captain Tertuliano Potyguara led 710 men from the town of Reinchardt towards Santa Maria, losing 24 men in the process. After several strikes, the spiritual leader of the insurgents, Maria Rosa, was killed on the banks of the Caçador river. On the 3rd of April, Estillac's and Potyguara's troops advanced towards the final assault on Santa Maria, where a few of the starving rebels still lived.
On the 5th of April, after the major attack on Santa Maria, General Estillac wrote that "everything was destroyed, the estimated number of razed houses is 5000 (...) women that fought along the men were killed (...) the number of irregulars killed is over 600. The villages of Caçador and Santa Maria were annihilated. I cannot guarantee that all such bandits that festered in the Contestado may have disappeared, but the mission entrusted to the Army is now accomplished." The surviving rebels soon dispersed and moved to other towns and cities.
In December 1915, the last of the rebellious villages was destroyed by Gen. Setembrino's troops. Adeodato managed to escape and hide in the woods while being sought by the federal troops. The War of the Contestado was finally over with his arrest in August 1916.
Adeodato was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in 1923, less than seven years later, Adeodato was killed by the jail warden in an alleged escape attempt.
On October 12, 1916, the state governors Filipe Schmidt (Santa Catarina) and Afonso de Camargo (Paraná) signed an agreement and the town of Campos do Irani was renamed Concordia.
The Contestado War , broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazil
ian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916.
It was fought in a inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba mate
, that was called Contestado because it was contested by the states of Paraná
and Santa Catarina
as well as Argentina
. The war had its casus belli in the social conflicts in the region, the result of local disobediences, particularly regarding the regularization of land ownership on the part of the caboclo
s. The conflict was permeated by religious fanaticism expressed by the messianism and faith of the rebellious cablocos that they were engaged in a religious war
; at the same time, it reflected the dissatisfaction of the population with its material situation.
s of the region. The first one who rose to prominence was João Maria, a man of Italian
origin, who wandered, preaching and attending to the sick, from 1844 to 1870. He lived a very simple life, and his ethics and lifestyle attracted thousands of followers. He died in 1870, in Sorocaba
, São Paulo
state.
The second monk also adopted the alias of João Maria, although his real name was Atanás Marcaf, probably of Syria
n origin. He appeared to the public during the Federalist Revolution of 1893; he belonged to the Maragato
faction, and projected a firm and even messianic stature. He even made prophecies about the political events of his time. He was active in the region between the Iguaçu and Uruguay
rivers. As a sign of his unquestioned influence over the faithful, a portion of them waited for his return by resurrection after his disappearance in 1908.
The wait of the faithful ended in 1912, when the figure of the third monk appeared in public. He was initially known as an herbal healer, having presented himself under the name of José Maria de Santo Agostinho, although, according to a report of the police of Vila de Palmas, Paraná state, he was, in reality, an army deserter who had been convicted of rape
, by the name of Miguel Lucena de Boaventura.
Because no one knew his origins, and because he lived a straight and honest life, it was not difficult for him to achieve the people's admiration and confidence in a short period of time. One of his claims to fame was the account of his resurrection of a young lady (who probably was just a victim of catalepsy
). He was also said to have cured the colonel Francisco de Almeida's wife of a previously uncurable illness. After this event. the monk won even more fame and trust by declining the land and significant quantity of gold that the grateful colonel offered him.
From this point on, José Maria began to be considered a saint
: a man who had come to Earth only to heal the sick and aid the needy. Methodical and organized, he was quite different from the familiar healers. He knew how to read and write and he described in his notebooks the medical properties of the plants found in the region. With the permission of Colonel Almedia, he set up what was known as the "people's pharmacy
" at the ranch of one of the foremen, where he stored up medicinal herbs that he used in his daily medical consultations with anyone who wished to visit him, until the late hours of the night.
A foreign company was commissioned to finish the railroad that was to begin in 1890 by the engineer João Teixeira Soares. This railroad would connect the cities of São Paulo to Santa Maria
, in Rio Grande do Sul
state. As Teixeira did not or could not take on the project, the responsibility was transferred in 1908 to the Brazil Railway Company, a north-American company owned by Percival Farquhar.
Besides the right to finish the project, the company also obtained from the government the right to explore a strip of land 15 km (9.32 mi) wide on each side of the railroad. The Company thus legally seized ownership of the land that it bordered and offered work to local families during the construction of the railroad.
At the same time, the concession guaranteed that another associated company of the trust, the Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization would have the rights to extract lumber and later resell the land.
It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time: workers coming from the urban populations of Rio De Janeiro, Santos, Salvador and Recife attracted by the possibility of many advantages and high wages.
However by the time the construction work was finished a large number of people were left without work or a place to go (as much land around the railroad was legally owned by the Trust) adding to unrest amid dissatisfaction.
Foreseeing what was coming, José Maria
(Miguel Lucena Boaventura) left immediately for the border town of Irani with his followers. Irani at the time belonged to the municipality of Palmas
which was within the jurisdiction of the state of Paraná. As Paraná and Santa Catarina then had unresolved land disputes, the government of Paraná regarded this mass relocation of people as a strategy by the State of Santa Catarina to occupy and claim those lands.
So the Contestado war began there in October 1912. In order to prevent the sudden mass occupation of that land, some troops of the Regiment of Security of Paraná State
were sent out to force the invaders to return to Santa Catarina.
But things did not go as planned. A bloody confrontation started between government troops and followers of the Contestado at a place called Banhado Grande. At the end of the battle, dozens of people from both sides were dead, and the rebels seized a large amount of guns and ammunition from the Paraná police forces. Among those killed were Colonel Gualberto João, who commanded the troops, and also the Monk Jose Maria, but the partisans of the Contestado had obtained their first victory.
Jose Maria was buried by his followers, who hoped for his resurrection (in similar fashion to the legend of the king Sebastian of Portugal, who was revered by some messianic followers of Sebastianism
).
The federal government sent in 200 federal troops on December 29, 1913 in order to deal with the rebellion. Once again, the government was upset by the fierce opposition. For some historians, this is considered to be the official beginning of the war, despite the initial confrontations back in 1912.
In March and May of that year other expeditions were sent out, however they were all unsuccessful. As the social order degraded quickly in the region, the central government appointed General Carlos Frederico de Mesquita (a veteran of the Canudos rebellion) to lead a new operation against the rebels. He led an assault on the village of Santo Antônio da Platina, causing the rebels to flee. The hamlet of Caraguatá where the federal troops were first chased from by the rebels was now struck by typhoid fever
. General Mesquita mistakenly believed the rebels were finally dispersed and declared the war was over.
However, peace was to be short-lived. The rebels quickly regrouped and organized around Santa Maria, intensifying the attacks: they took and set fire to the Calmon rail station; destroyed the village of São João (present-day Matos Costa), they attacked Curitibanos and threatened Porto União, causing the population to flee. There were rumours that they were on their way to invade the city of Ponta Grossa
and some believed the rebels and their army would march all the way to Rio de Janeiro
in order to oust the President. The rebels at the time already controlled 25,000 km2.
The federal government named General Setembrino de Carvalho the leader of the operation against the rebels in southern Brazil. So in September 1914 he led about 7,000 men with the mandate to suppress the rebellion and thus pacify the region at any cost. Setembrino sent out an announcement to the rebels in which he guaranteed the land would be returned to those who turned themselves in. He also promised, however, a harsh and hostile treatment to those who decided to continue the armed uprising against the government.
By then the rebels were totally enclosed, and internal strife further weakened them. On February 8, 1915, a column from the south led by Lt. Col. Estillac arrived in Santa Maria. That attack cost the Army 30 dead and 40 injured. New pushes and retreats took place in the next few days.
On March 28, 1915, Captain Tertuliano Potyguara led 710 men from the town of Reinchardt towards Santa Maria, losing 24 men in the process. After several strikes, the spiritual leader of the insurgents, Maria Rosa, was killed on the banks of the Caçador river. On the 3rd of April, Estillac's and Potyguara's troops advanced towards the final assault on Santa Maria, where a few of the starving rebels still lived.
On the 5th of April, after the major attack on Santa Maria, General Estillac wrote that "everything was destroyed, the estimated number of razed houses is 5000 (...) women that fought along the men were killed (...) the number of irregulars killed is over 600. The villages of Caçador and Santa Maria were annihilated. I cannot guarantee that all such bandits that festered in the Contestado may have disappeared, but the mission entrusted to the Army is now accomplished." The surviving rebels soon dispersed and moved to other towns and cities.
In December 1915, the last of the rebellious villages was destroyed by Gen. Setembrino's troops. Adeodato managed to escape and hide in the woods while being sought by the federal troops. The War of the Contestado was finally over with his arrest in August 1916.
Adeodato was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in 1923, less than seven years later, Adeodato was killed by the jail warden in an alleged escape attempt.
On October 12, 1916, the state governors Filipe Schmidt (Santa Catarina) and Afonso de Camargo (Paraná) signed an agreement and the town of Campos do Irani was renamed Concordia.
The Contestado War , broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazil
ian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916.
It was fought in a inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba mate
, that was called Contestado because it was contested by the states of Paraná
and Santa Catarina
as well as Argentina
. The war had its casus belli in the social conflicts in the region, the result of local disobediences, particularly regarding the regularization of land ownership on the part of the caboclo
s. The conflict was permeated by religious fanaticism expressed by the messianism and faith of the rebellious cablocos that they were engaged in a religious war
; at the same time, it reflected the dissatisfaction of the population with its material situation.
s of the region. The first one who rose to prominence was João Maria, a man of Italian
origin, who wandered, preaching and attending to the sick, from 1844 to 1870. He lived a very simple life, and his ethics and lifestyle attracted thousands of followers. He died in 1870, in Sorocaba
, São Paulo
state.
The second monk also adopted the alias of João Maria, although his real name was Atanás Marcaf, probably of Syria
n origin. He appeared to the public during the Federalist Revolution of 1893; he belonged to the Maragato
faction, and projected a firm and even messianic stature. He even made prophecies about the political events of his time. He was active in the region between the Iguaçu and Uruguay
rivers. As a sign of his unquestioned influence over the faithful, a portion of them waited for his return by resurrection after his disappearance in 1908.
The wait of the faithful ended in 1912, when the figure of the third monk appeared in public. He was initially known as an herbal healer, having presented himself under the name of José Maria de Santo Agostinho, although, according to a report of the police of Vila de Palmas, Paraná state, he was, in reality, an army deserter who had been convicted of rape
, by the name of Miguel Lucena de Boaventura.
Because no one knew his origins, and because he lived a straight and honest life, it was not difficult for him to achieve the people's admiration and confidence in a short period of time. One of his claims to fame was the account of his resurrection of a young lady (who probably was just a victim of catalepsy
). He was also said to have cured the colonel Francisco de Almeida's wife of a previously uncurable illness. After this event. the monk won even more fame and trust by declining the land and significant quantity of gold that the grateful colonel offered him.
From this point on, José Maria began to be considered a saint
: a man who had come to Earth only to heal the sick and aid the needy. Methodical and organized, he was quite different from the familiar healers. He knew how to read and write and he described in his notebooks the medical properties of the plants found in the region. With the permission of Colonel Almedia, he set up what was known as the "people's pharmacy
" at the ranch of one of the foremen, where he stored up medicinal herbs that he used in his daily medical consultations with anyone who wished to visit him, until the late hours of the night.
A foreign company was commissioned to finish the railroad that was to begin in 1890 by the engineer João Teixeira Soares. This railroad would connect the cities of São Paulo to Santa Maria
, in Rio Grande do Sul
state. As Teixeira did not or could not take on the project, the responsibility was transferred in 1908 to the Brazil Railway Company, a north-American company owned by Percival Farquhar.
Besides the right to finish the project, the company also obtained from the government the right to explore a strip of land 15 km (9.32 mi) wide on each side of the railroad. The Company thus legally seized ownership of the land that it bordered and offered work to local families during the construction of the railroad.
At the same time, the concession guaranteed that another associated company of the trust, the Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization would have the rights to extract lumber and later resell the land.
It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time: workers coming from the urban populations of Rio De Janeiro, Santos, Salvador and Recife attracted by the possibility of many advantages and high wages.
However by the time the construction work was finished a large number of people were left without work or a place to go (as much land around the railroad was legally owned by the Trust) adding to unrest amid dissatisfaction.
Foreseeing what was coming, José Maria
(Miguel Lucena Boaventura) left immediately for the border town of Irani with his followers. Irani at the time belonged to the municipality of Palmas
which was within the jurisdiction of the state of Paraná. As Paraná and Santa Catarina then had unresolved land disputes, the government of Paraná regarded this mass relocation of people as a strategy by the State of Santa Catarina to occupy and claim those lands.
So the Contestado war began there in October 1912. In order to prevent the sudden mass occupation of that land, some troops of the Regiment of Security of Paraná State
were sent out to force the invaders to return to Santa Catarina.
But things did not go as planned. A bloody confrontation started between government troops and followers of the Contestado at a place called Banhado Grande. At the end of the battle, dozens of people from both sides were dead, and the rebels seized a large amount of guns and ammunition from the Paraná police forces. Among those killed were Colonel Gualberto João, who commanded the troops, and also the Monk Jose Maria, but the partisans of the Contestado had obtained their first victory.
Jose Maria was buried by his followers, who hoped for his resurrection (in similar fashion to the legend of the king Sebastian of Portugal, who was revered by some messianic followers of Sebastianism
).
The federal government sent in 200 federal troops on December 29, 1913 in order to deal with the rebellion. Once again, the government was upset by the fierce opposition. For some historians, this is considered to be the official beginning of the war, despite the initial confrontations back in 1912.
In March and May of that year other expeditions were sent out, however they were all unsuccessful. As the social order degraded quickly in the region, the central government appointed General Carlos Frederico de Mesquita (a veteran of the Canudos rebellion) to lead a new operation against the rebels. He led an assault on the village of Santo Antônio da Platina, causing the rebels to flee. The hamlet of Caraguatá where the federal troops were first chased from by the rebels was now struck by typhoid fever
. General Mesquita mistakenly believed the rebels were finally dispersed and declared the war was over.
However, peace was to be short-lived. The rebels quickly regrouped and organized around Santa Maria, intensifying the attacks: they took and set fire to the Calmon rail station; destroyed the village of São João (present-day Matos Costa), they attacked Curitibanos and threatened Porto União, causing the population to flee. There were rumours that they were on their way to invade the city of Ponta Grossa
and some believed the rebels and their army would march all the way to Rio de Janeiro
in order to oust the President. The rebels at the time already controlled 25,000 km2.
The federal government named General Setembrino de Carvalho the leader of the operation against the rebels in southern Brazil. So in September 1914 he led about 7,000 men with the mandate to suppress the rebellion and thus pacify the region at any cost. Setembrino sent out an announcement to the rebels in which he guaranteed the land would be returned to those who turned themselves in. He also promised, however, a harsh and hostile treatment to those who decided to continue the armed uprising against the government.
By then the rebels were totally enclosed, and internal strife further weakened them. On February 8, 1915, a column from the south led by Lt. Col. Estillac arrived in Santa Maria. That attack cost the Army 30 dead and 40 injured. New pushes and retreats took place in the next few days.
On March 28, 1915, Captain Tertuliano Potyguara led 710 men from the town of Reinchardt towards Santa Maria, losing 24 men in the process. After several strikes, the spiritual leader of the insurgents, Maria Rosa, was killed on the banks of the Caçador river. On the 3rd of April, Estillac's and Potyguara's troops advanced towards the final assault on Santa Maria, where a few of the starving rebels still lived.
On the 5th of April, after the major attack on Santa Maria, General Estillac wrote that "everything was destroyed, the estimated number of razed houses is 5000 (...) women that fought along the men were killed (...) the number of irregulars killed is over 600. The villages of Caçador and Santa Maria were annihilated. I cannot guarantee that all such bandits that festered in the Contestado may have disappeared, but the mission entrusted to the Army is now accomplished." The surviving rebels soon dispersed and moved to other towns and cities.
In December 1915, the last of the rebellious villages was destroyed by Gen. Setembrino's troops. Adeodato managed to escape and hide in the woods while being sought by the federal troops. The War of the Contestado was finally over with his arrest in August 1916.
Adeodato was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in 1923, less than seven years later, Adeodato was killed by the jail warden in an alleged escape attempt.
On October 12, 1916, the state governors Filipe Schmidt (Santa Catarina) and Afonso de Camargo (Paraná) signed an agreement and the town of Campos do Irani was renamed Concordia.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916.
It was fought in a inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba mate
Yerba mate
Maté, yerba maté or erva maté , Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly native to subtropical South America in northeastern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay...
, that was called Contestado because it was contested by the states of Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...
and Santa Catarina
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...
as well as Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. The war had its casus belli in the social conflicts in the region, the result of local disobediences, particularly regarding the regularization of land ownership on the part of the caboclo
Caboclo
A caboclo or caboco is a person of a mixed Brazilian Indian and European ancestry. In Brazil, a caboclo is a specific type of mestiço as is the mulato, a person of a mixed Afro-Brazilian and European ancestry....
s. The conflict was permeated by religious fanaticism expressed by the messianism and faith of the rebellious cablocos that they were engaged in a religious war
Religious war
A religious war; Latin: bellum sacrum; is a war caused by, or justified by, religious differences. It can involve one state with an established religion against another state with a different religion or a different sect within the same religion, or a religiously motivated group attempting to...
; at the same time, it reflected the dissatisfaction of the population with its material situation.
Prologue: the monks' power
The origins of the Contestado War can be understood best by beginning a little earlier and considering the influence of three monkMonk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s of the region. The first one who rose to prominence was João Maria, a man of Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
origin, who wandered, preaching and attending to the sick, from 1844 to 1870. He lived a very simple life, and his ethics and lifestyle attracted thousands of followers. He died in 1870, in Sorocaba
Sorocaba
Sorocaba is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sorocaba is the fourth largest city in the state of São Paulo. Outside the Greater São Paulo region, it ranks behind only Campinas, Sao Jose dos Campos and Ribeirão Preto...
, São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...
state.
The second monk also adopted the alias of João Maria, although his real name was Atanás Marcaf, probably of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n origin. He appeared to the public during the Federalist Revolution of 1893; he belonged to the Maragato
Maragato (Brazil)
Maragato is a name given in Brazil to those who initiated the Riograndense Revolution of 1893 in protest against the federal government represented in the province by Júlio Prates de Castilhos.They wore red neckerchiefs for identification...
faction, and projected a firm and even messianic stature. He even made prophecies about the political events of his time. He was active in the region between the Iguaçu and Uruguay
Uruguay River
The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...
rivers. As a sign of his unquestioned influence over the faithful, a portion of them waited for his return by resurrection after his disappearance in 1908.
The wait of the faithful ended in 1912, when the figure of the third monk appeared in public. He was initially known as an herbal healer, having presented himself under the name of José Maria de Santo Agostinho, although, according to a report of the police of Vila de Palmas, Paraná state, he was, in reality, an army deserter who had been convicted of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, by the name of Miguel Lucena de Boaventura.
Because no one knew his origins, and because he lived a straight and honest life, it was not difficult for him to achieve the people's admiration and confidence in a short period of time. One of his claims to fame was the account of his resurrection of a young lady (who probably was just a victim of catalepsy
Catalepsy
Catalepsy is also a term used by hypnotists to refer to the state of making a hypnotised subject's arm, leg or back rigid. "Arm catalepsy" is often a pre-hypnotic test performed prior to an induction into a full trance.-Causes:...
). He was also said to have cured the colonel Francisco de Almeida's wife of a previously uncurable illness. After this event. the monk won even more fame and trust by declining the land and significant quantity of gold that the grateful colonel offered him.
From this point on, José Maria began to be considered a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
: a man who had come to Earth only to heal the sick and aid the needy. Methodical and organized, he was quite different from the familiar healers. He knew how to read and write and he described in his notebooks the medical properties of the plants found in the region. With the permission of Colonel Almedia, he set up what was known as the "people's pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
" at the ranch of one of the foremen, where he stored up medicinal herbs that he used in his daily medical consultations with anyone who wished to visit him, until the late hours of the night.
Railroad
Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul
Santa Maria is a municipality in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. In 2007, its population was 263,403 inhabitants in a total area of 1,823 km2.-Importance:...
, in Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
state. As Teixeira did not or could not take on the project, the responsibility was transferred in 1908 to the Brazil Railway Company, a north-American company owned by Percival Farquhar.
Besides the right to finish the project, the company also obtained from the government the right to explore a strip of land 15 km (9.32 mi) wide on each side of the railroad. The Company thus legally seized ownership of the land that it bordered and offered work to local families during the construction of the railroad.
At the same time, the concession guaranteed that another associated company of the trust, the Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization would have the rights to extract lumber and later resell the land.
It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time: workers coming from the urban populations of Rio De Janeiro, Santos, Salvador and Recife attracted by the possibility of many advantages and high wages.
However by the time the construction work was finished a large number of people were left without work or a place to go (as much land around the railroad was legally owned by the Trust) adding to unrest amid dissatisfaction.
The first casualties
The Brazilian government, then led by Marshal Hermes da Fonseca who was responsible for the policy of military inverventions in other states in order to eliminate political adversaries decided to send federal troops to that region in order to quell the rebellion.Foreseeing what was coming, José Maria
José Maria
Miguel Boaventura Lucena , known as José Maria or José Maria de Santo Agostinho, was a Brazilian mystic from the state of Santa Catarina, probably the western part of the state. Little is known about his early life. In 1911, he began preaching against the Brazilian state...
(Miguel Lucena Boaventura) left immediately for the border town of Irani with his followers. Irani at the time belonged to the municipality of Palmas
Palmas, Paraná
Palmas is a small city in the south of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Palmas is located in the mountainous area of Paraná and is in the mesorregião of Southcentral Paraná. Palmas is the capital of the microregion of the same name. Its coordinates are 26.483667/26°29'3" S and the longitude is...
which was within the jurisdiction of the state of Paraná. As Paraná and Santa Catarina then had unresolved land disputes, the government of Paraná regarded this mass relocation of people as a strategy by the State of Santa Catarina to occupy and claim those lands.
So the Contestado war began there in October 1912. In order to prevent the sudden mass occupation of that land, some troops of the Regiment of Security of Paraná State
Military Police of Paraná State
The Military Police are reserve and ancillary forces of the Brazilian Army, and part of the System of Public Security and Brazilian Social Protection. Its members are called Military's States....
were sent out to force the invaders to return to Santa Catarina.
But things did not go as planned. A bloody confrontation started between government troops and followers of the Contestado at a place called Banhado Grande. At the end of the battle, dozens of people from both sides were dead, and the rebels seized a large amount of guns and ammunition from the Paraná police forces. Among those killed were Colonel Gualberto João, who commanded the troops, and also the Monk Jose Maria, but the partisans of the Contestado had obtained their first victory.
Jose Maria was buried by his followers, who hoped for his resurrection (in similar fashion to the legend of the king Sebastian of Portugal, who was revered by some messianic followers of Sebastianism
Sebastianism
Sebastianism, one aspect of the sleeping king folk-motif, is part of the Portuguese and Brazilian mythology and culture. It means waiting for a hero that will save Portugal and lead it to the Fifth Empire, and known as Eu nacional...
).
The federal government sent in 200 federal troops on December 29, 1913 in order to deal with the rebellion. Once again, the government was upset by the fierce opposition. For some historians, this is considered to be the official beginning of the war, despite the initial confrontations back in 1912.
More conflicts, attacks and counter-attacks
On February 8, 1914, the federal and state governments sent 700 men to Taquaruçu, supported by artillery and machine guns. Caraguatá was a more remote location where 2,000 other people had already settled. The followers in Caraguatá were led by Maria Rosa, a 15-year-old girl who led the 6000-strong armed rebellion after the death of José Maria.In March and May of that year other expeditions were sent out, however they were all unsuccessful. As the social order degraded quickly in the region, the central government appointed General Carlos Frederico de Mesquita (a veteran of the Canudos rebellion) to lead a new operation against the rebels. He led an assault on the village of Santo Antônio da Platina, causing the rebels to flee. The hamlet of Caraguatá where the federal troops were first chased from by the rebels was now struck by typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
. General Mesquita mistakenly believed the rebels were finally dispersed and declared the war was over.
However, peace was to be short-lived. The rebels quickly regrouped and organized around Santa Maria, intensifying the attacks: they took and set fire to the Calmon rail station; destroyed the village of São João (present-day Matos Costa), they attacked Curitibanos and threatened Porto União, causing the population to flee. There were rumours that they were on their way to invade the city of Ponta Grossa
Ponta Grossa
Ponta Grossa is a city in the state of Paraná, Brazil. With a population of over 315,000 inhabitants, it is the 4th most populous city of Paraná.It is the second industrial pole of the State, exceeded only by Curitiba—the State's capital and largest city...
and some believed the rebels and their army would march all the way to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
in order to oust the President. The rebels at the time already controlled 25,000 km2.
The federal government named General Setembrino de Carvalho the leader of the operation against the rebels in southern Brazil. So in September 1914 he led about 7,000 men with the mandate to suppress the rebellion and thus pacify the region at any cost. Setembrino sent out an announcement to the rebels in which he guaranteed the land would be returned to those who turned themselves in. He also promised, however, a harsh and hostile treatment to those who decided to continue the armed uprising against the government.
Change of strategy and the war's end
At this point in the war Deodato Manuel Ramos (also known as Adeodato) became a prominent figure, and he is considered by historians to be the last leader of the Contestadores. Adeodato moved the capital of the rebellious territory over to the Santa Maria valley, where he amassed about 5,000 men. As food and other shortages increased, he became more ruthless in dealing orders, including the execution of those willing to turn themselves in.By then the rebels were totally enclosed, and internal strife further weakened them. On February 8, 1915, a column from the south led by Lt. Col. Estillac arrived in Santa Maria. That attack cost the Army 30 dead and 40 injured. New pushes and retreats took place in the next few days.
On March 28, 1915, Captain Tertuliano Potyguara led 710 men from the town of Reinchardt towards Santa Maria, losing 24 men in the process. After several strikes, the spiritual leader of the insurgents, Maria Rosa, was killed on the banks of the Caçador river. On the 3rd of April, Estillac's and Potyguara's troops advanced towards the final assault on Santa Maria, where a few of the starving rebels still lived.
On the 5th of April, after the major attack on Santa Maria, General Estillac wrote that "everything was destroyed, the estimated number of razed houses is 5000 (...) women that fought along the men were killed (...) the number of irregulars killed is over 600. The villages of Caçador and Santa Maria were annihilated. I cannot guarantee that all such bandits that festered in the Contestado may have disappeared, but the mission entrusted to the Army is now accomplished." The surviving rebels soon dispersed and moved to other towns and cities.
In December 1915, the last of the rebellious villages was destroyed by Gen. Setembrino's troops. Adeodato managed to escape and hide in the woods while being sought by the federal troops. The War of the Contestado was finally over with his arrest in August 1916.
Adeodato was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in 1923, less than seven years later, Adeodato was killed by the jail warden in an alleged escape attempt.
On October 12, 1916, the state governors Filipe Schmidt (Santa Catarina) and Afonso de Camargo (Paraná) signed an agreement and the town of Campos do Irani was renamed Concordia.
Statistics of the war
- Size of combat area: 20,000 km²
- Population living in the combat area: about 40,000 inhabitants
- Municipalities of Paraná (at the time): Rio Negro, ItaiópolisItaiópolisItaiópolis is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.-References:...
, TimbóTimbóTimbó is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.It is located at 26º49'24" from latitude South and 49º16'18" from longitude west, at an altitude of 68 meters...
, Três BarrasTrês BarrasTrês Barras is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.-References:...
, União da VitóriaUnião da VitóriaUnião da Vitória is a city located in the south of the State of Paraná, Brazil. Its population was about 51.858 people in 2006. In the economic area, União da Vitória's GDP is of US$ 115,364,648.65.- History :...
and PalmasPalmas, ParanáPalmas is a small city in the south of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Palmas is located in the mountainous area of Paraná and is in the mesorregião of Southcentral Paraná. Palmas is the capital of the microregion of the same name. Its coordinates are 26.483667/26°29'3" S and the longitude is... - Municipalities of Santa Catarina (at the time): LagesLagesLages, formerly Lajens, is a Brazilian town located in the central part of the state of Santa Catarina, in the region known in Portuguese as "Planalto Serrano"....
, CuritibanosCuritibanosCuritibanos is a city in Santa Catarina, Brazil....
, Campos NovosCampos NovosCampos Novos is a city in Santa Catarina, in the Southern Region of Brazil. Campos Novos is a pioneer in production of pollen and the biggest grain and oat producer of Santa Catarina.The municipality invests also into fatstock and poultry farming....
and CanoinhasCanoinhasCanoinhas is a Brazilian city, in the north plateau of the State of Santa Catarina. Its latitude is 26°10'38" South, its longitude is 50°23'24" West, and its altitude is 839 meters...
The Contestado War , broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916.
It was fought in a inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba mate
Yerba mate
Maté, yerba maté or erva maté , Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly native to subtropical South America in northeastern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay...
, that was called Contestado because it was contested by the states of Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...
and Santa Catarina
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...
as well as Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. The war had its casus belli in the social conflicts in the region, the result of local disobediences, particularly regarding the regularization of land ownership on the part of the caboclo
Caboclo
A caboclo or caboco is a person of a mixed Brazilian Indian and European ancestry. In Brazil, a caboclo is a specific type of mestiço as is the mulato, a person of a mixed Afro-Brazilian and European ancestry....
s. The conflict was permeated by religious fanaticism expressed by the messianism and faith of the rebellious cablocos that they were engaged in a religious war
Religious war
A religious war; Latin: bellum sacrum; is a war caused by, or justified by, religious differences. It can involve one state with an established religion against another state with a different religion or a different sect within the same religion, or a religiously motivated group attempting to...
; at the same time, it reflected the dissatisfaction of the population with its material situation.
Prologue: the monks' power
The origins of the Contestado War can be understood best by beginning a little earlier and considering the influence of three monkMonk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s of the region. The first one who rose to prominence was João Maria, a man of Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
origin, who wandered, preaching and attending to the sick, from 1844 to 1870. He lived a very simple life, and his ethics and lifestyle attracted thousands of followers. He died in 1870, in Sorocaba
Sorocaba
Sorocaba is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sorocaba is the fourth largest city in the state of São Paulo. Outside the Greater São Paulo region, it ranks behind only Campinas, Sao Jose dos Campos and Ribeirão Preto...
, São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...
state.
The second monk also adopted the alias of João Maria, although his real name was Atanás Marcaf, probably of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n origin. He appeared to the public during the Federalist Revolution of 1893; he belonged to the Maragato
Maragato (Brazil)
Maragato is a name given in Brazil to those who initiated the Riograndense Revolution of 1893 in protest against the federal government represented in the province by Júlio Prates de Castilhos.They wore red neckerchiefs for identification...
faction, and projected a firm and even messianic stature. He even made prophecies about the political events of his time. He was active in the region between the Iguaçu and Uruguay
Uruguay River
The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...
rivers. As a sign of his unquestioned influence over the faithful, a portion of them waited for his return by resurrection after his disappearance in 1908.
The wait of the faithful ended in 1912, when the figure of the third monk appeared in public. He was initially known as an herbal healer, having presented himself under the name of José Maria de Santo Agostinho, although, according to a report of the police of Vila de Palmas, Paraná state, he was, in reality, an army deserter who had been convicted of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, by the name of Miguel Lucena de Boaventura.
Because no one knew his origins, and because he lived a straight and honest life, it was not difficult for him to achieve the people's admiration and confidence in a short period of time. One of his claims to fame was the account of his resurrection of a young lady (who probably was just a victim of catalepsy
Catalepsy
Catalepsy is also a term used by hypnotists to refer to the state of making a hypnotised subject's arm, leg or back rigid. "Arm catalepsy" is often a pre-hypnotic test performed prior to an induction into a full trance.-Causes:...
). He was also said to have cured the colonel Francisco de Almeida's wife of a previously uncurable illness. After this event. the monk won even more fame and trust by declining the land and significant quantity of gold that the grateful colonel offered him.
From this point on, José Maria began to be considered a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
: a man who had come to Earth only to heal the sick and aid the needy. Methodical and organized, he was quite different from the familiar healers. He knew how to read and write and he described in his notebooks the medical properties of the plants found in the region. With the permission of Colonel Almedia, he set up what was known as the "people's pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
" at the ranch of one of the foremen, where he stored up medicinal herbs that he used in his daily medical consultations with anyone who wished to visit him, until the late hours of the night.
Railroad
Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul
Santa Maria is a municipality in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. In 2007, its population was 263,403 inhabitants in a total area of 1,823 km2.-Importance:...
, in Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
state. As Teixeira did not or could not take on the project, the responsibility was transferred in 1908 to the Brazil Railway Company, a north-American company owned by Percival Farquhar.
Besides the right to finish the project, the company also obtained from the government the right to explore a strip of land 15 km (9.32 mi) wide on each side of the railroad. The Company thus legally seized ownership of the land that it bordered and offered work to local families during the construction of the railroad.
At the same time, the concession guaranteed that another associated company of the trust, the Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization would have the rights to extract lumber and later resell the land.
It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time: workers coming from the urban populations of Rio De Janeiro, Santos, Salvador and Recife attracted by the possibility of many advantages and high wages.
However by the time the construction work was finished a large number of people were left without work or a place to go (as much land around the railroad was legally owned by the Trust) adding to unrest amid dissatisfaction.
The first casualties
The Brazilian government, then led by Marshal Hermes da Fonseca who was responsible for the policy of military inverventions in other states in order to eliminate political adversaries decided to send federal troops to that region in order to quell the rebellion.Foreseeing what was coming, José Maria
José Maria
Miguel Boaventura Lucena , known as José Maria or José Maria de Santo Agostinho, was a Brazilian mystic from the state of Santa Catarina, probably the western part of the state. Little is known about his early life. In 1911, he began preaching against the Brazilian state...
(Miguel Lucena Boaventura) left immediately for the border town of Irani with his followers. Irani at the time belonged to the municipality of Palmas
Palmas, Paraná
Palmas is a small city in the south of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Palmas is located in the mountainous area of Paraná and is in the mesorregião of Southcentral Paraná. Palmas is the capital of the microregion of the same name. Its coordinates are 26.483667/26°29'3" S and the longitude is...
which was within the jurisdiction of the state of Paraná. As Paraná and Santa Catarina then had unresolved land disputes, the government of Paraná regarded this mass relocation of people as a strategy by the State of Santa Catarina to occupy and claim those lands.
So the Contestado war began there in October 1912. In order to prevent the sudden mass occupation of that land, some troops of the Regiment of Security of Paraná State
Military Police of Paraná State
The Military Police are reserve and ancillary forces of the Brazilian Army, and part of the System of Public Security and Brazilian Social Protection. Its members are called Military's States....
were sent out to force the invaders to return to Santa Catarina.
But things did not go as planned. A bloody confrontation started between government troops and followers of the Contestado at a place called Banhado Grande. At the end of the battle, dozens of people from both sides were dead, and the rebels seized a large amount of guns and ammunition from the Paraná police forces. Among those killed were Colonel Gualberto João, who commanded the troops, and also the Monk Jose Maria, but the partisans of the Contestado had obtained their first victory.
Jose Maria was buried by his followers, who hoped for his resurrection (in similar fashion to the legend of the king Sebastian of Portugal, who was revered by some messianic followers of Sebastianism
Sebastianism
Sebastianism, one aspect of the sleeping king folk-motif, is part of the Portuguese and Brazilian mythology and culture. It means waiting for a hero that will save Portugal and lead it to the Fifth Empire, and known as Eu nacional...
).
The federal government sent in 200 federal troops on December 29, 1913 in order to deal with the rebellion. Once again, the government was upset by the fierce opposition. For some historians, this is considered to be the official beginning of the war, despite the initial confrontations back in 1912.
More conflicts, attacks and counter-attacks
On February 8, 1914, the federal and state governments sent 700 men to Taquaruçu, supported by artillery and machine guns. Caraguatá was a more remote location where 2,000 other people had already settled. The followers in Caraguatá were led by Maria Rosa, a 15-year-old girl who led the 6000-strong armed rebellion after the death of José Maria.In March and May of that year other expeditions were sent out, however they were all unsuccessful. As the social order degraded quickly in the region, the central government appointed General Carlos Frederico de Mesquita (a veteran of the Canudos rebellion) to lead a new operation against the rebels. He led an assault on the village of Santo Antônio da Platina, causing the rebels to flee. The hamlet of Caraguatá where the federal troops were first chased from by the rebels was now struck by typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
. General Mesquita mistakenly believed the rebels were finally dispersed and declared the war was over.
However, peace was to be short-lived. The rebels quickly regrouped and organized around Santa Maria, intensifying the attacks: they took and set fire to the Calmon rail station; destroyed the village of São João (present-day Matos Costa), they attacked Curitibanos and threatened Porto União, causing the population to flee. There were rumours that they were on their way to invade the city of Ponta Grossa
Ponta Grossa
Ponta Grossa is a city in the state of Paraná, Brazil. With a population of over 315,000 inhabitants, it is the 4th most populous city of Paraná.It is the second industrial pole of the State, exceeded only by Curitiba—the State's capital and largest city...
and some believed the rebels and their army would march all the way to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
in order to oust the President. The rebels at the time already controlled 25,000 km2.
The federal government named General Setembrino de Carvalho the leader of the operation against the rebels in southern Brazil. So in September 1914 he led about 7,000 men with the mandate to suppress the rebellion and thus pacify the region at any cost. Setembrino sent out an announcement to the rebels in which he guaranteed the land would be returned to those who turned themselves in. He also promised, however, a harsh and hostile treatment to those who decided to continue the armed uprising against the government.
Change of strategy and the war's end
At this point in the war Deodato Manuel Ramos (also known as Adeodato) became a prominent figure, and he is considered by historians to be the last leader of the Contestadores. Adeodato moved the capital of the rebellious territory over to the Santa Maria valley, where he amassed about 5,000 men. As food and other shortages increased, he became more ruthless in dealing orders, including the execution of those willing to turn themselves in.By then the rebels were totally enclosed, and internal strife further weakened them. On February 8, 1915, a column from the south led by Lt. Col. Estillac arrived in Santa Maria. That attack cost the Army 30 dead and 40 injured. New pushes and retreats took place in the next few days.
On March 28, 1915, Captain Tertuliano Potyguara led 710 men from the town of Reinchardt towards Santa Maria, losing 24 men in the process. After several strikes, the spiritual leader of the insurgents, Maria Rosa, was killed on the banks of the Caçador river. On the 3rd of April, Estillac's and Potyguara's troops advanced towards the final assault on Santa Maria, where a few of the starving rebels still lived.
On the 5th of April, after the major attack on Santa Maria, General Estillac wrote that "everything was destroyed, the estimated number of razed houses is 5000 (...) women that fought along the men were killed (...) the number of irregulars killed is over 600. The villages of Caçador and Santa Maria were annihilated. I cannot guarantee that all such bandits that festered in the Contestado may have disappeared, but the mission entrusted to the Army is now accomplished." The surviving rebels soon dispersed and moved to other towns and cities.
In December 1915, the last of the rebellious villages was destroyed by Gen. Setembrino's troops. Adeodato managed to escape and hide in the woods while being sought by the federal troops. The War of the Contestado was finally over with his arrest in August 1916.
Adeodato was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in 1923, less than seven years later, Adeodato was killed by the jail warden in an alleged escape attempt.
On October 12, 1916, the state governors Filipe Schmidt (Santa Catarina) and Afonso de Camargo (Paraná) signed an agreement and the town of Campos do Irani was renamed Concordia.
Statistics of the war
- Size of combat area: 20,000 km²
- Population living in the combat area: about 40,000 inhabitants
- Municipalities of Paraná (at the time): Rio Negro, ItaiópolisItaiópolisItaiópolis is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.-References:...
, TimbóTimbóTimbó is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.It is located at 26º49'24" from latitude South and 49º16'18" from longitude west, at an altitude of 68 meters...
, Três BarrasTrês BarrasTrês Barras is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.-References:...
, União da VitóriaUnião da VitóriaUnião da Vitória is a city located in the south of the State of Paraná, Brazil. Its population was about 51.858 people in 2006. In the economic area, União da Vitória's GDP is of US$ 115,364,648.65.- History :...
and PalmasPalmas, ParanáPalmas is a small city in the south of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Palmas is located in the mountainous area of Paraná and is in the mesorregião of Southcentral Paraná. Palmas is the capital of the microregion of the same name. Its coordinates are 26.483667/26°29'3" S and the longitude is... - Municipalities of Santa Catarina (at the time): LagesLagesLages, formerly Lajens, is a Brazilian town located in the central part of the state of Santa Catarina, in the region known in Portuguese as "Planalto Serrano"....
, CuritibanosCuritibanosCuritibanos is a city in Santa Catarina, Brazil....
, Campos NovosCampos NovosCampos Novos is a city in Santa Catarina, in the Southern Region of Brazil. Campos Novos is a pioneer in production of pollen and the biggest grain and oat producer of Santa Catarina.The municipality invests also into fatstock and poultry farming....
and CanoinhasCanoinhasCanoinhas is a Brazilian city, in the north plateau of the State of Santa Catarina. Its latitude is 26°10'38" South, its longitude is 50°23'24" West, and its altitude is 839 meters...
The Contestado War , broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916.
It was fought in a inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba mate
Yerba mate
Maté, yerba maté or erva maté , Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly native to subtropical South America in northeastern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay...
, that was called Contestado because it was contested by the states of Paraná
Paraná (state)
Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...
and Santa Catarina
Santa Catarina (state)
Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...
as well as Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. The war had its casus belli in the social conflicts in the region, the result of local disobediences, particularly regarding the regularization of land ownership on the part of the caboclo
Caboclo
A caboclo or caboco is a person of a mixed Brazilian Indian and European ancestry. In Brazil, a caboclo is a specific type of mestiço as is the mulato, a person of a mixed Afro-Brazilian and European ancestry....
s. The conflict was permeated by religious fanaticism expressed by the messianism and faith of the rebellious cablocos that they were engaged in a religious war
Religious war
A religious war; Latin: bellum sacrum; is a war caused by, or justified by, religious differences. It can involve one state with an established religion against another state with a different religion or a different sect within the same religion, or a religiously motivated group attempting to...
; at the same time, it reflected the dissatisfaction of the population with its material situation.
Prologue: the monks' power
The origins of the Contestado War can be understood best by beginning a little earlier and considering the influence of three monkMonk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s of the region. The first one who rose to prominence was João Maria, a man of Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
origin, who wandered, preaching and attending to the sick, from 1844 to 1870. He lived a very simple life, and his ethics and lifestyle attracted thousands of followers. He died in 1870, in Sorocaba
Sorocaba
Sorocaba is a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sorocaba is the fourth largest city in the state of São Paulo. Outside the Greater São Paulo region, it ranks behind only Campinas, Sao Jose dos Campos and Ribeirão Preto...
, São Paulo
São Paulo (state)
São Paulo is a state in Brazil. It is the major industrial and economic powerhouse of the Brazilian economy. Named after Saint Paul, São Paulo has the largest population, industrial complex, and economic production in the country. It is the richest state in Brazil...
state.
The second monk also adopted the alias of João Maria, although his real name was Atanás Marcaf, probably of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
n origin. He appeared to the public during the Federalist Revolution of 1893; he belonged to the Maragato
Maragato (Brazil)
Maragato is a name given in Brazil to those who initiated the Riograndense Revolution of 1893 in protest against the federal government represented in the province by Júlio Prates de Castilhos.They wore red neckerchiefs for identification...
faction, and projected a firm and even messianic stature. He even made prophecies about the political events of his time. He was active in the region between the Iguaçu and Uruguay
Uruguay River
The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...
rivers. As a sign of his unquestioned influence over the faithful, a portion of them waited for his return by resurrection after his disappearance in 1908.
The wait of the faithful ended in 1912, when the figure of the third monk appeared in public. He was initially known as an herbal healer, having presented himself under the name of José Maria de Santo Agostinho, although, according to a report of the police of Vila de Palmas, Paraná state, he was, in reality, an army deserter who had been convicted of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, by the name of Miguel Lucena de Boaventura.
Because no one knew his origins, and because he lived a straight and honest life, it was not difficult for him to achieve the people's admiration and confidence in a short period of time. One of his claims to fame was the account of his resurrection of a young lady (who probably was just a victim of catalepsy
Catalepsy
Catalepsy is also a term used by hypnotists to refer to the state of making a hypnotised subject's arm, leg or back rigid. "Arm catalepsy" is often a pre-hypnotic test performed prior to an induction into a full trance.-Causes:...
). He was also said to have cured the colonel Francisco de Almeida's wife of a previously uncurable illness. After this event. the monk won even more fame and trust by declining the land and significant quantity of gold that the grateful colonel offered him.
From this point on, José Maria began to be considered a saint
Saint
A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
: a man who had come to Earth only to heal the sick and aid the needy. Methodical and organized, he was quite different from the familiar healers. He knew how to read and write and he described in his notebooks the medical properties of the plants found in the region. With the permission of Colonel Almedia, he set up what was known as the "people's pharmacy
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
" at the ranch of one of the foremen, where he stored up medicinal herbs that he used in his daily medical consultations with anyone who wished to visit him, until the late hours of the night.
Railroad
Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul
Santa Maria is a municipality in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. In 2007, its population was 263,403 inhabitants in a total area of 1,823 km2.-Importance:...
, in Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...
state. As Teixeira did not or could not take on the project, the responsibility was transferred in 1908 to the Brazil Railway Company, a north-American company owned by Percival Farquhar.
Besides the right to finish the project, the company also obtained from the government the right to explore a strip of land 15 km (9.32 mi) wide on each side of the railroad. The Company thus legally seized ownership of the land that it bordered and offered work to local families during the construction of the railroad.
At the same time, the concession guaranteed that another associated company of the trust, the Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization would have the rights to extract lumber and later resell the land.
It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time: workers coming from the urban populations of Rio De Janeiro, Santos, Salvador and Recife attracted by the possibility of many advantages and high wages.
However by the time the construction work was finished a large number of people were left without work or a place to go (as much land around the railroad was legally owned by the Trust) adding to unrest amid dissatisfaction.
The first casualties
The Brazilian government, then led by Marshal Hermes da Fonseca who was responsible for the policy of military inverventions in other states in order to eliminate political adversaries decided to send federal troops to that region in order to quell the rebellion.Foreseeing what was coming, José Maria
José Maria
Miguel Boaventura Lucena , known as José Maria or José Maria de Santo Agostinho, was a Brazilian mystic from the state of Santa Catarina, probably the western part of the state. Little is known about his early life. In 1911, he began preaching against the Brazilian state...
(Miguel Lucena Boaventura) left immediately for the border town of Irani with his followers. Irani at the time belonged to the municipality of Palmas
Palmas, Paraná
Palmas is a small city in the south of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Palmas is located in the mountainous area of Paraná and is in the mesorregião of Southcentral Paraná. Palmas is the capital of the microregion of the same name. Its coordinates are 26.483667/26°29'3" S and the longitude is...
which was within the jurisdiction of the state of Paraná. As Paraná and Santa Catarina then had unresolved land disputes, the government of Paraná regarded this mass relocation of people as a strategy by the State of Santa Catarina to occupy and claim those lands.
So the Contestado war began there in October 1912. In order to prevent the sudden mass occupation of that land, some troops of the Regiment of Security of Paraná State
Military Police of Paraná State
The Military Police are reserve and ancillary forces of the Brazilian Army, and part of the System of Public Security and Brazilian Social Protection. Its members are called Military's States....
were sent out to force the invaders to return to Santa Catarina.
But things did not go as planned. A bloody confrontation started between government troops and followers of the Contestado at a place called Banhado Grande. At the end of the battle, dozens of people from both sides were dead, and the rebels seized a large amount of guns and ammunition from the Paraná police forces. Among those killed were Colonel Gualberto João, who commanded the troops, and also the Monk Jose Maria, but the partisans of the Contestado had obtained their first victory.
Jose Maria was buried by his followers, who hoped for his resurrection (in similar fashion to the legend of the king Sebastian of Portugal, who was revered by some messianic followers of Sebastianism
Sebastianism
Sebastianism, one aspect of the sleeping king folk-motif, is part of the Portuguese and Brazilian mythology and culture. It means waiting for a hero that will save Portugal and lead it to the Fifth Empire, and known as Eu nacional...
).
The federal government sent in 200 federal troops on December 29, 1913 in order to deal with the rebellion. Once again, the government was upset by the fierce opposition. For some historians, this is considered to be the official beginning of the war, despite the initial confrontations back in 1912.
More conflicts, attacks and counter-attacks
On February 8, 1914, the federal and state governments sent 700 men to Taquaruçu, supported by artillery and machine guns. Caraguatá was a more remote location where 2,000 other people had already settled. The followers in Caraguatá were led by Maria Rosa, a 15-year-old girl who led the 6000-strong armed rebellion after the death of José Maria.In March and May of that year other expeditions were sent out, however they were all unsuccessful. As the social order degraded quickly in the region, the central government appointed General Carlos Frederico de Mesquita (a veteran of the Canudos rebellion) to lead a new operation against the rebels. He led an assault on the village of Santo Antônio da Platina, causing the rebels to flee. The hamlet of Caraguatá where the federal troops were first chased from by the rebels was now struck by typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
. General Mesquita mistakenly believed the rebels were finally dispersed and declared the war was over.
However, peace was to be short-lived. The rebels quickly regrouped and organized around Santa Maria, intensifying the attacks: they took and set fire to the Calmon rail station; destroyed the village of São João (present-day Matos Costa), they attacked Curitibanos and threatened Porto União, causing the population to flee. There were rumours that they were on their way to invade the city of Ponta Grossa
Ponta Grossa
Ponta Grossa is a city in the state of Paraná, Brazil. With a population of over 315,000 inhabitants, it is the 4th most populous city of Paraná.It is the second industrial pole of the State, exceeded only by Curitiba—the State's capital and largest city...
and some believed the rebels and their army would march all the way to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
in order to oust the President. The rebels at the time already controlled 25,000 km2.
The federal government named General Setembrino de Carvalho the leader of the operation against the rebels in southern Brazil. So in September 1914 he led about 7,000 men with the mandate to suppress the rebellion and thus pacify the region at any cost. Setembrino sent out an announcement to the rebels in which he guaranteed the land would be returned to those who turned themselves in. He also promised, however, a harsh and hostile treatment to those who decided to continue the armed uprising against the government.
Change of strategy and the war's end
At this point in the war Deodato Manuel Ramos (also known as Adeodato) became a prominent figure, and he is considered by historians to be the last leader of the Contestadores. Adeodato moved the capital of the rebellious territory over to the Santa Maria valley, where he amassed about 5,000 men. As food and other shortages increased, he became more ruthless in dealing orders, including the execution of those willing to turn themselves in.By then the rebels were totally enclosed, and internal strife further weakened them. On February 8, 1915, a column from the south led by Lt. Col. Estillac arrived in Santa Maria. That attack cost the Army 30 dead and 40 injured. New pushes and retreats took place in the next few days.
On March 28, 1915, Captain Tertuliano Potyguara led 710 men from the town of Reinchardt towards Santa Maria, losing 24 men in the process. After several strikes, the spiritual leader of the insurgents, Maria Rosa, was killed on the banks of the Caçador river. On the 3rd of April, Estillac's and Potyguara's troops advanced towards the final assault on Santa Maria, where a few of the starving rebels still lived.
On the 5th of April, after the major attack on Santa Maria, General Estillac wrote that "everything was destroyed, the estimated number of razed houses is 5000 (...) women that fought along the men were killed (...) the number of irregulars killed is over 600. The villages of Caçador and Santa Maria were annihilated. I cannot guarantee that all such bandits that festered in the Contestado may have disappeared, but the mission entrusted to the Army is now accomplished." The surviving rebels soon dispersed and moved to other towns and cities.
In December 1915, the last of the rebellious villages was destroyed by Gen. Setembrino's troops. Adeodato managed to escape and hide in the woods while being sought by the federal troops. The War of the Contestado was finally over with his arrest in August 1916.
Adeodato was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in 1923, less than seven years later, Adeodato was killed by the jail warden in an alleged escape attempt.
On October 12, 1916, the state governors Filipe Schmidt (Santa Catarina) and Afonso de Camargo (Paraná) signed an agreement and the town of Campos do Irani was renamed Concordia.
Statistics of the war
- Size of combat area: 20,000 km²
- Population living in the combat area: about 40,000 inhabitants
- Municipalities of Paraná (at the time): Rio Negro, ItaiópolisItaiópolisItaiópolis is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.-References:...
, TimbóTimbóTimbó is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.It is located at 26º49'24" from latitude South and 49º16'18" from longitude west, at an altitude of 68 meters...
, Três BarrasTrês BarrasTrês Barras is a town and municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil.-References:...
, União da VitóriaUnião da VitóriaUnião da Vitória is a city located in the south of the State of Paraná, Brazil. Its population was about 51.858 people in 2006. In the economic area, União da Vitória's GDP is of US$ 115,364,648.65.- History :...
and PalmasPalmas, ParanáPalmas is a small city in the south of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Palmas is located in the mountainous area of Paraná and is in the mesorregião of Southcentral Paraná. Palmas is the capital of the microregion of the same name. Its coordinates are 26.483667/26°29'3" S and the longitude is... - Municipalities of Santa Catarina (at the time): LagesLagesLages, formerly Lajens, is a Brazilian town located in the central part of the state of Santa Catarina, in the region known in Portuguese as "Planalto Serrano"....
, CuritibanosCuritibanosCuritibanos is a city in Santa Catarina, Brazil....
, Campos NovosCampos NovosCampos Novos is a city in Santa Catarina, in the Southern Region of Brazil. Campos Novos is a pioneer in production of pollen and the biggest grain and oat producer of Santa Catarina.The municipality invests also into fatstock and poultry farming....
and CanoinhasCanoinhasCanoinhas is a Brazilian city, in the north plateau of the State of Santa Catarina. Its latitude is 26°10'38" South, its longitude is 50°23'24" West, and its altitude is 839 meters...