“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ... “MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...
A broader conflict, however, was now unavoidable. For Gonçalves and his allies, the outbreak of hostilities opened up the possibility for a much more radical rupture with the empire. When Araújo Ribeiro arrived in Rio Grande do Sul in December, the provincial assembly refused to recognize his authority. Araújo Ribeiro then set up a second government in the coastal city of Rio Grande and prepared for civil war in the province. The empire now ordered substantial forces into its rebellious southern territories. Although imperial armies quickly recaptured Porto Alegre, they made little progress in the rebellion’s interior heartlands. The fighting further radicalized many of the rebels. Following several clashes with imperial forces, the Farrapos rebels declared independence from the empire altogether on 11 September 1836. The declaration immediately splintered the riograndense opposition. A number of prominent borderlands elites like Bento Ribeiro rejected independence. Instead, Ribeiro asserted that the true purpose of the revolts was strictly to remove the former provincial president and secure local autonomy. Tensions among the various Farrapos commanders over the question of whether to pursue republican independence or remain as an autonomous province within the empire continued for the duration of the conflict. Despite these divisions, the Farrapos Republic forged ahead. Rebels established the new republic’s capital in the borderlands city of Piritini in late 1836. The Farrapos government successfully blunted imperial efforts to retake the province, managing even briefly to widen the campaign to the neighboring Brazilian state of Santa Catarina in 1839 and 1840. Still, the rebels could not retake Porto Alegre or the other principal cities along the province’s southern coasts. By the early 1840s, the conflict devolved into a stalemate with imperial forces secure in the province’s cities and the Farrapos dominant in the western campanha along the Uruguayan border. 132
Frustrated by the lack of progress, imperial officials appointed Luís Alves Lima e Silva (more commonly known by his title as the Barão de Caxias) provincial president in late 1842. Caxias immediately embarked on a concerted campaign to end the conflict. He raised a large army of some 12,000 troops and advanced into the interior. Over the next year, Caxias captured most of the principal cities in Rio Grande do Sul. Deprived of their bases of operation in the Brazilian campanha, the remaining Farrapos rebels increasingly resorted to raids against imperial forces from across the border in Uruguay. With the rebels on the run but hardly defeated, Caxias also adopted a number of conciliatory policies that explicitly played upon the tensions within the opposition over the question of independence. In particular, he opened negotiations with rebel commanders like David Canabarro who supported reunification with the empire so long as local autonomy could be guaranteed. 22 On 1 March 1845, the two sides reached an agreement to end the conflict. To secure the peace, Caxias made substantial concessions to the rebels. The empire agreed to assume all of the former republic’s debts, Farrapos officers retained their prior ranks and could return to service in the imperial army and the province could elect its next president. The Ponche Verde Treaty in effect restored the old status quo. It recognized imperial authority over its southern peripheries, but equally codified the personal autonomy and political power of elite Brazilian ranchers in the borderlands. While a failure politically, the revolution had, for the moment, reconciled the system cross-border economic relationships and localized justice throughout the borderlands with the broader framework of imperial federalism. This uneasy truce, however, did not yet end sovereign conflicts. Threats now emerged across the border in the Uruguayan Republic. The stage was set for a decisive clash between 22 Moacyr Flores, História do Rio Grande do Sul, 5th ed. (Porto Alegre: Nova Dimensão, 1996), 96-98. 133
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A broader conflict, however, was now unavoidable. For Gonçalves and his allies, the<br />
outbreak of hostilities opened up the possibility for a much more radical rupture with the<br />
empire. When Araújo Ribeiro arrived in Rio Grande do Sul in December, the provincial<br />
assembly refused to recognize his authority. Araújo Ribeiro then set up a second<br />
government in the coastal city of Rio Grande and prepared for civil war in the province.<br />
The empire now ordered substantial forces into its rebellious southern territories. Although<br />
imperial armies quickly recaptured Porto Alegre, they made little progress in the rebellion’s<br />
interior heartlands. The fighting further radicalized many of the rebels. Following several<br />
clashes with imperial forces, the Farrapos rebels declared independence from the empire<br />
altogether on 11 September 1836. The declaration immediately splintered the riograndense<br />
opposition. A number of prominent borderlands elites like Bento Ribeiro rejected<br />
independence. Instead, Ribeiro asserted that the true purpose of the revolts was strictly to<br />
remove the former provincial president and secure local autonomy. Tensions among the<br />
various Farrapos commanders over the question of whether to pursue republican<br />
independence or remain as an autonomous province within the empire continued for the<br />
duration of the conflict.<br />
Despite these divisions, the Farrapos Republic forged ahead. Rebels established the<br />
new republic’s capital in the borderlands city of Piritini in late 1836. The Farrapos<br />
government successfully blunted imperial efforts to retake the province, managing even<br />
briefly to widen the campaign to the neighboring Brazilian state of Santa Catarina in 1839<br />
and 1840. Still, the rebels could not retake Porto Alegre or the other principal cities along<br />
the province’s southern coasts. By the early 1840s, the conflict devolved into a stalemate<br />
with imperial forces secure in the province’s cities and the Farrapos dominant in the western<br />
campanha along the Uruguayan border.<br />
132 <br />
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