War of Tatters
Encyclopedia
The War of the Ragamuffins (Portuguese: Guerra dos Farrapos) was a Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...

an uprising that began in southern 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...

, in the states of 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...

 and Santa Catarina
Santa Catarina
Santa Catarina is the name of several places :-Places:Brazil*Santa Catarina , one of that country's federal states...

 in 1835. The rebels, led by generals Bento Gonçalves da Silva
Bento Gonçalves da Silva
General Bento Gonçalves da Silva, , was a Tatter Revolutionary leader and President of the Piratini Republic ....

 and Antônio de Sousa Neto
Antônio de Sousa Neto
General Antônio Neto, was a Tatter Revolutionary leader. On September 20, 1836, Neto declared the independence of the Piratini Republic....

 with the support of the 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...

 fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

, surrendered to imperial forces in 1845.

The war was the cause of the rushed coronation of Dom Pedro II, at that time 15 years old in 1841, in direct violation of the Brazilian constitution. It is considered the second bloodiest civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

 to have ever occurred in Brazil, after the War of Cabanagem
Cabanagem
The Cabanagem was a social revolt that occurred in the then-province of Grão-Pará, Brazil.Among the causes for this revolt were the extreme poverty of the Paraense people and the political irrelevance to which the province was relegated after the independence of Brazil.The name "Cabanagem" refers...

.

The War

The uprising is believed to have begun due to the difference between the economy of Rio Grande do Sul and the rest of the country. Unlike the other provinces, the state economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

 focused in the internal market rather than exporting commodities, the state's main product, charque (dried and salted beef), suffering badly from competition from charque imported from Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 and 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...

, which had free access to Brazilian markets while the gaucho
Gaucho
Gaucho is a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos, or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil...

s
(as residents of Rio Grande do Sul are nicknamed) were charged high taxes inside Brazil.

In 1835, Antônio Rodrigues Fernandes Braga was nominated president of Rio Grande do Sul and at first his appointment pleased the liberal farmers, but that soon changed. In his first day in the office, he accused many farmers of being separatists
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...

.

On September 20, 1835, General Bento Gonçalves captured the capital, Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...

, beginning an uprising against the perceived unfair trade reinforced by the state government; the state president fled to the city of Rio Grande
Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande is the oldest city in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and also the former state capital from 1835 to 1845...

, two hundred kilometers to the south. In Porto Alegre, the rebels, also known as farrapos (ragamuffins), elected Marciano Pereira Ribeiro their new president.

Responding to the situation and further upsetting the Ragamuffin rebels, the Brazilian regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

, Diogo Feijó, appointed a new state president, who was forced to take office in exile in Rio Grande.
Pushing for consolidation of their power, Antônio de Souza Netto declared the independence of the Piratini Republic
Piratini Republic
The Riograndense Republic, often called Piratini Republic , was a de facto state that existed between September 11, 1836 and March 1, 1845 geographically coinciding with the present state of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil...

 on September 11, 1836 with Bento Gonçalves as president nominee.
However, Bento was arrested and jailed by imperial forces until he escaped in 1837, returning to the province and bringing the revolution to a head. Nonetheless, Porto Alegre was recaptured by the empire and the rebels never managed to regain it.

The 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...

 revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

 joined the rebels in 1839. With his help, the revolution spread through 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...

, which adjoined Rio Grande do Sul to the north. The capital of Santa Catarina, Laguna, was taken by the Ragamuffins; but, after four months, Laguna fell back into imperial hands.

It was in this struggle that Garibaldi gained his first military experience and got on the road leading to his becoming the famed military leader of the Unification of Italy.

Peace

In 1840, amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...

 was offered to the rebels, which they refused although it was clear that they had no chances of winning, followed by the issuing of a republican constitution
Constitution
A constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed. These rules together make up, i.e. constitute, what the entity is...

 by the Ragamuffins in 1842, as a last attempt to maintain power. The same year saw General Lima e Silva (soon Duke of Caxias) take office and try to find a diplomatic settlement of the situation.

On March 1, 1845, the peace negotiations led by Lima e Silva and Antônio Vicente da Fontoura
Antônio Vicente da Fontoura
Antônio Vicente da Fontoura was a Brazilian statesman. He was one of the main leaders of the Riograndense Republic during the War of the Farrapos and the chief-negotiator of the Peace Agreement with the Empire of Brazil.- Background :Fontoura was born on June 16, 1807 in the city of Rio Pardo to...

 concluded with the signing of the Ponche Verde Treaty between the two sides, in Dom Pedrito
Dom Pedrito
-See also:*List of municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul...

.

The treaty offered the rebels a full amnesty, full incorporation into the imperial army and the choice of the next provincial president. All the debts of the Riograndense Republic were paid off by the Empire and a tariff of 25% was introduced on imported charque.

As a goodwill gesture, the Ragamuffins chose Lima e Silva as the next provincial president.

See also

  • List of wars involving Brazil
  • Revolutions of Brazil
    Revolutions of Brazil
    This page lists various rebellions and revolutions in Brazil.----*Empire of Brazil* Pernambucan Revolt * Irish and German Mercenary Soldiers' Revolt * War of the Farrapos * Cabanagem * Balaiada...

  • Riograndense Republic

External links

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