Ragamuffin War Issues - Essay Example

Ragamuffin War This was one of the largest wars taking place Brazil. It was took place for ten years from around 1835and 1845. The war called in Portuguese Guerra dos Farrapos and commonly known in Brazil to date as revolução farroupilha. The war brought the country to a standstill; the southern Brazil region was the worst hit and it served as the region in which the war began. In particular, state of Rio Grande do Sul of Brazil was the first state in the country to be affected by the war. The ring leaders that organized and made the war to be great was the Antonio de Sousa Neto and Bento Goncalves da Silva (Rosenfeld 34). These two army generals succeeded in making the war big because of the support they got from Giuseppe Garibaldi who was an Italian fighter. The war ended came to ending on March 1, 1845 after there were negotiations that led to the signing of the Ponche Verde Treaty. The Ragamuffin War was a big war that took place in the Brazilian Empire. The cause of the war was that there had risen a difference between the status of the economy in Rio Grande do Sul as opposed to the other states within the Brazilian Empire. The main issue with the economy was that there was an over focus on the internal market as opposed to the external market; this means that the income that came from the exports was relatively low. The internal market was going through hard times after the products that came from region faced much competition from commodities from outside the state, especially from Uruguay and Argentina, where dried and salted beef came from. The taxes imposed to the gauchos (the residents of Rio Grande do Sul) were relatively higher than that which was imposed in other states. The goods from the two highly competitive countries were tax free, an aspect that forced the local goods to suffer a big blow. The outburst of the war came immediately after a presidential election. In the elections held the same year the war began, Antonio Rodrigues Braga was elected the president of the Rio Grande do Sul. As expected by many, the president would make changes that would see that the state benefit more from its production after the heightened competition from products outside the state. Despite being impressive in the first days of his appointment, he began having resistance from the farming community. The perceived unfairness in trade caused general Bento Goncalves to initiate a revolution that would see the overturning of the government. This took place in September of 1935, where the General took captive of Porto Alegre and started to push the government out of power. The president was forced to flee from the city of Porto Alegre and sought refuge in Rio Grande. When the president fled, the state had no option other than elect another president. In the process, Marciano Pereira Ribeiro was officially elected as the president. To counter the effect of the rebellion, the Brazilian regent opted to choose another state president who would be a replacement of the ousted one. This new president could not operate from Porto Allegre but opted to be the president while at the Rio Grande (Loveman 43). The revolution went on. Under the declaration of independence for Rio Grande do Sul by Antonio de Souza Netto, Bento took over officially as the president. A major setback in the revolution came with the arrest of Bento who had taken over as the president. In 1837, Bento was arrested and sent to jail where I stayed for a few time before he ran away from the place and went ahead with his revolution. The strength of the rebellion came in when there came collaboration with the Italians; in 1839, the reinforcement from an Italian fighter Garibaldi Giuseppe caused a major progress to be achieved (Brambilla 1). The rebels spread throughout the region to capture regions such as Laguna in Catarina. The capture of the town was short-lived; the imperial forces later took it up. Through the fighting experience, Giuseppe developed prowess in fighting and later came to become an outstanding military leader. Though there was an outcry to end the fighting, peace was becoming difficult to attain. Around 1940, the rebels were offered an amnesty; however, they refused and held their position that they would continue to fight. Despite the offer, it was becoming clear that the rebels were strained and stood a chance of losing the battle. A constitution was developed in 1942 to spearhead the maintenance of power. In addition, the imperial forces worked on strengthening its forces in order to counter the rebellion that arose from the rebels. The high-ranking military officers were shuffled with General Lima e Silva taking over as the leader of the imperial forces. Almost at the same time, the new General began focusing on developing systems for amicable settlement of the issue through negotiations. The negotiations seemed to be the ultimate solution after the leaders from the imperial forces started coming together and talking with the leaders of the rebels. These leaders entailed mainly the military leaders. Since his appointment, Lima e Silva worked tirelessly to strike a peace deal with the rebels (Paquette 41). The peace negotiations were having a breakthrough. A negotiation agreement was stricken by Antonio Vicente da Fontoura and Lima e Silvia on March 1, 1945. The events of negotiation led to the development of a peace agreement called the Ponche Verde Treaty. The treaty was signed at Dom Pedrito (Treece 12). Through the peace deal, the rebels were provided with absolute amnesty. In addition, the deal provided for equal inclusion of the rebel forces to the imperial forces. To seal the agreement and ensure it did not provide for future issues by the rebels, they were granted by the treaty the right to have the next provincial president come from among them. To ensure that the issues raised by the rebels were addressed, a 25% charge as import duty was introduced on the imported products. The March 1, 1845 market a very important day in the history of the war. The negotiations for peace came to a mutual agreement between the opposing parties. Among the many benefits that came with the treaty was the payment of the debts of Riograndese Republic in which the Empire promised to pay. The independence of Juliana and Riograndese republics did not feature in the treaty was signed by the two opposing camps. Though the states came to disintegrate later, in 1845, the three states remained in the same empire, which came to give rise to the states of Rio Grande do Sul and the Santa Catarina (Kerr 14). The rebellion was able to achieve the anticipated results since it got to a point of establishing systems that ensured involvement of the rebels in leadership as well as ensuring that the increased competitiveness cited was dramatically reduced. The war was considered as one of the most bloody wars that secession that failed in the Brazilian Empire. In conclusion, the Ragamuffin War (1835-1845) was a dramatic showdown of supremacy between the rebels and the imperial forces and the rebel forces. Though none of the interventions materialized to bring forth a huge war; the ten years of the war brought forth many changes in the Empire including the ousting of a duly elected president. The main concern that caused the uprising was the imbalance in trade that had resulted to low consumption of local goods and importation and duty free Charque. Works Cited Brambilla, Ana, M. Celebrating Brazil’s ‘gaucho’ Tradition. 2005. Web. 7 July 2014. http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?menu=c10400&no=249102&rel_no=1 Kerr, Gordon. A Short History Of Brazil : From Pre-Colonial Peoples To Modern Economic Miracle. New York: Oldcastle Books, 2014 Loveman, Brian. For La Patria: Politics and the Armed Forces in Latin America. Rowman & Littlefield. 1999. Paquette, Gabriel. "Empire of Exceptions." History Today 61.6 (2011): 39-46. Web. 7 July 2014. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=89f07766-c915-4202-a05f-55860e4b1ef3%40sessionmgr113&vid=1&hid=116&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=aph&AN=61866336 Rosenfeld, William. Garibaldi And Rio Grande Do Suls War Of Independence From Brazil : The Memoirs Of Luigi Rossetti, John Griggs, And Anita Garibaldi. Boston: Dante University Press, 2013 The farroupilha. 2009. Web. 7 July 2014. http://web.archive.org/web/20091027150221/http://www.geocities.com/ulysses_costa2000/farroupilha.html Treece, David. Exiles, Allies, Rebels. London: Greenwood Press. 2000. 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