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Fernandes Braga, the provincial president, accused Gonçalves of conspiring to incorporate<br />

Rio Grande do Sul into the Uruguayan Republic. Braga then attempted to strip Gonçalves<br />

of his command. At the same time, Braga also removed Bento Manoel Ribeiro from his<br />

frontier command around Alegrete for likewise violating imperial mandates by openly aiding<br />

Fructuoso Rivera. Ribeiro’s own activities linked up closely to the commercial chains<br />

established by Agustín Guarch and others from Montevideo across the borderlands to<br />

Alegrete and Uruguaiana. Braga threatened to undermine the entire reciprocal system of<br />

which Rivera and Ribeiro were key participants. In effect, Braga’s actions towards<br />

Gonçalves and Ribeiro amounted to an open invitation to revolt.<br />

The two commanders rallied support throughout the borderlands. In 1835, they<br />

marched on Porto Alegre, taking the provincial capital on 20 September 1835. They quickly<br />

deposed Braga and requested that the imperial government appoint a new president. The<br />

Farrapos Revolution was underway. 21 The initial movements against Braga ostensibly aimed<br />

only to end the abuses of his administration. This included restoring the relative autonomy<br />

of borderlands commanders like Ribeiro and Gonçalves to conduct their cross-border<br />

economic and political operations without undue interference from provincial or imperial<br />

officials. Even at this stage, the Regency government in Rio de Janeiro moved to placate the<br />

rebels by appointing a new provincial president, José de Araújo Ribeiro, with substantial ties<br />

to the borderlands.<br />

























































<br />

21 The literature on the Farrapos Revolution is truly vast. Important works include<br />

Alfredo Varela, Historia da Grande Revolução: O Cyclo Farroupilha no Brasil (Porto Alegre:<br />

Oficinas Graficas da Livraria do Globo, 1933), Varela, Revoluções Cisplatinas e Republica<br />

Riograndense, Padoin, Federalismo Gaúcho, Helga Piccolo, Décio Freitas, José Hildebrando<br />

Dacanal, Margaret Marchiori Bakos, Sandra Pesavento, and Spencer Leitman, ed. A Revolução<br />

Farroupilha: História e Interpretação (Porto Alegre: Mercado Aberto, 1985), Dante de Laytano,<br />

História da República Rio-Grandense (1835-1845), 2d ed. (Porto Alegre: Ed. Globo, 1983),<br />

Moacyr Flores, Modelo Político dos Farrapos: As Idéias Políticas da Revolução Farroupilha (Porto<br />

Alegre: Editora Mercado Aberto, 1978).<br />


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