Contestado War: Difference between revisions

{{more footnotes needed|date=November 2014}}

| place = [[Santa Catarina (state)|Santa Catarina]] and [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]], Southern Brazil

*{{flagicon image|Bandeira do Contestado.svg|border}} {{illminterlanguage link|Maria Rosa (Contestado)|pt|lt=Maria Rosa}}{{KIA}}

*{{flagicon|Brazil|1889}} {{illminterlanguage link|Setembrino de Carvalho|pt|lt=S. de Carvalho}}

The '''Contestado War''' ({{lang-pt|Guerra do Contestado}}), broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazilian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Welch |first=Cliff |title=Fifty years of peasant wars in Latin America |date=2020 |publisher=Berghahn |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-78920-561-9 |editor-last=Binford |editor-first=Leigh |edition=1st |series=Dislocations |location=New York |pages=147-148147–148 |editor-last2=Gill |editor-first2=Lesley |editor-last3=Striffler |editor-first3=Steve}}</ref>

It was fought in an inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and [[yerba mate]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Pinheiro Machado |first=Roberto |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1007557996 |title=Brazilian history: culture, society, politics 1500-2010 |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-5275-0349-6 |location=Newcastle upon Tyne, UK |pages=147 |oclc=on1007557996}}</ref> that was called Contestado because it was contested by the states of [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]] and [[Santa Catarina (state)|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 caboclos that they were engaged in a [[religious war]]; at the same time, it reflected the dissatisfaction of the population with its material situation.<ref name=":0" />

The Contestado War is often considered tooto have many of the conflict's roots in the influence of three [[monk]]s of the region. The first one who rose to prominence was [[João Maria D'Agostini]], 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. Although many sources say he died in 1870, he actually left Brazil in 1852; after traveling in Mexico, Cuba, and Canada, he was killed in April, 1869; in Mesilla, New Mexico, USA.<ref name=Thomas2014>{{cite book|first=David G.|last=Thomas|year=2014|title=Giovanni Maria de Agostini, Wonder of the Century: The Astonishing World Traveler Who Was A Hermit |publisher=Doc45 Publishing|isbn=978-0692247402 }}</ref>

In 1912, A third monk came to the notice of the public in the region. He was initially known as an herbal healer, having presented himself under the name of José Maria de Santo Agostinho.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Diacon |first=Todd A. |title=Millenarian vision, capitalist reality: Brazil's Contestado rebellion, 1912-1916 |date=1991 |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-8223-1157-7 |location=Durham |pages=1-21–2}}</ref> However, 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.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

A foreign companyConstruction was commissionedunderway toon finisha the railroadrailway that waswould to have been begun in 1890 by the engineer [[João Teixeira Soares]]. This railroad wouldrun connectbetween the cities of [[São Paulo (city)|São Paulo]] to [[Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul|Santa Maria]], in the southern Brazilian state [[Rio Grande do Sul]], statemuch of which ran through the contested territory. AsThe Teixeiraconstruction didof not,this orrailroad couldwas not,commissioned takeby onPresident theAfonso projectPena in 1908, and the responsibilitytask waswould transferredbe in 1908contracted to a North American based company known as the ''[[Brazil Railway Company]]'', aunder north-Americanthe companyownership owned byof [[Percival Farquhar]].<ref name=":2" />

BesidesIn addition to the right to finish the project, the company also obtained from the government the right to explore a strip of land 15&nbsp;km (9.32&nbsp;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. A number of communities in the region, living off subsistence agriculture, existed in the path of this newly privatized strip of land leading to the expulsion of many farmers of the region from the land they occupied.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Diacon |first=Todd A. |date=Jul 1, 1991 |title=The Search for Meaning in an Historical Context: Popular Religion, Millenarianism, and the Contestado Rebellion |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3513282 |journal=Luso-Brazilian Review |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=50–51 |jstor=3513282 |via=JSTOR}}</ref>

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.<ref name=":2" />

It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time;<ref name=":3" /> with the workers coming largely from the urban populations of cities Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Siegel |first=Bernard J. |date=Jul 1, Santos1977 |title=The Contestado Rebellion, Salvador1912-16: andA RecifeCase attractedStudy byin theBrazilian possibilityMessianism and Regional Dynamics |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3629739 |journal=Journal of highAnthropological wagesResearch and|volume=33 other|issue=2 advantages|pages=205 |doi=10.1086/jar.33.2.3629739 |jstor=3629739 |via=JSTOR}}</ref>

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 unrestthe amidlocal dissatisfactionunrest.<ref name=":3" />

The "holy monk" José Maria rose against the recently created Republic of Brazil (1889), effectively declaring his community to be ruled by an independent government. He also declared the Republic to be "the devil's law".<ref>Diacon, ''Millenarian Vision,'' 116</ref> He appointed an illiterate farmer to be "Emperor of Brazil", founded the community of Quadro Santo and created a personal guard corps of 12 men, in an allusion to [[Charlemagne]]'s knights.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

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