AHC: Riograndense Republic Successfully Secedes

Rush Tarquin

Gone Fishin'
Calling South America experts. The challenge is for the Riograndense Republic to take the region's larger cities and have the desire and wherewithal to completely, successfully, and permanently secede from Brazil.
 
While Gonzaga doesn't arrive to write you an essay about his favorite subject :)p), I'd say that if you have the Regency somehow fail and a republic declared, the amount of political clusterfuck added to the already troubled imperial scenario would be enough for the Republic to secede due to lack of attention from the Central Government.
 
It lasted for nearly a decade, and was only reincorporated after a negotiated truce between the loyalists and rebels. If anything it looks like the republic failed more so due to internal divisions than any external crisis.
 
Hmm. I'm no expert on the subject, but skimming the Portuguese-language Wikipedia article on the subject certainly leads to the impression that the fall of the republic was due to instability created by inter-factional divisions more than the war with Brazil.
 
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Oh, internal dissent certainly played a part, but by 1843 the imperial government could fully focus on the Farrapos, since all other revolts that started in the prior decade had been defeated. That makes the probability of the República Riograndense surviving slim at best.
 
It depends in what history you're relying. There is the real history of the Ragamuffin War and the history created after the downfall of the monarchy in 1889.

The latter one presents the Reiograndense republic as anti-slavery, powerful and able to create a peace accord with the Empire like an equal.

That's untrue.

The rebellion began in 1835. Most inhabitants of the province remained loyal to Brazil. They were Brazilians and regarded themselves as such. Anything else, such as "a feeling of being Riograndense" is nonsense created after 1889.

In 1836 the Ragamuffins had a few villages to the southwest and southcentral. All of the eastern area was in the hands of the Empire. That means that the Ragamuffins were unnable to reach the sea. "What about the central area of the province? Or the northwest?" The province was small and scarcely populated. It was not worth the trouble for both sides to have a militayr presence in deserted areas.

By 1840 the Ragamuffins had a few villages in the southwest. Two years later they were on the run, leaving Brazil and entering nearby Uruguay then returning after the Imperial troops left. By 1843 most of the Ragamuffins were desperate to stop their futile rebellion.

Enters Caxias.

There are two articles on Wikipedia which I reccomend:

*Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias
*Manuel Marques de Sousa, Count of Porto Alegre
 
It depends in what history you're relying. There is the real history of the Ragamuffin War and the history created after the downfall of the monarchy in 1889.

The latter one presents the Reiograndense republic as anti-slavery, powerful and able to create a peace accord with the Empire like an equal.

That's untrue.

The rebellion began in 1835. Most inhabitants of the province remained loyal to Brazil. They were Brazilians and regarded themselves as such. Anything else, such as "a feeling of being Riograndense" is nonsense created after 1889.

In 1836 the Ragamuffins had a few villages to the southwest and southcentral. All of the eastern area was in the hands of the Empire. That means that the Ragamuffins were unnable to reach the sea. "What about the central area of the province? Or the northwest?" The province was small and scarcely populated. It was not worth the trouble for both sides to have a militayr presence in deserted areas.

By 1840 the Ragamuffins had a few villages in the southwest. Two years later they were on the run, leaving Brazil and entering nearby Uruguay then returning after the Imperial troops left. By 1843 most of the Ragamuffins were desperate to stop their futile rebellion.

Enters Caxias.


Pretty much this. The whole episode of the Riograndense Republic can be considered as a joke that lasted for too long. They never kept control of the entire province, and especially they weren't able to control the three most important cities: Porto Alegre (the Capital), Pelotas (the economical center) and Rio Grande (our only port). They were so strangled in the countryside that they tried every crazy plan they could imagine in order to get resources from abroad: the invasion of Laguna, they conquest of São José do Norte, the foundation of Uruguaiana. And all them failed or didn't have much effect for their cause.
 

Hnau

Banned
My brother would be sorely disappointed to hear that the Riograndense Revolution couldn't have been successful. After two years there he considers himself a Gaucho at heart. This is the first time I've heard that the sequence of events as told in Brazil and especially in Rio Grande do Sul is fictionalized. Where can I find out more about this? The typical websites (Wikipedia) don't give that much information.
 
My brother would be sorely disappointed to hear that the Riograndense Revolution couldn't have been successful. After two years there he considers himself a Gaucho at heart. This is the first time I've heard that the sequence of events as told in Brazil and especially in Rio Grande do Sul is fictionalized. Where can I find out more about this? The typical websites (Wikipedia) don't give that much information.

I understand his disappointment. Is your brother gremista or colorado? :p

Regarding sources, I can't remember nothing online, but if he's still living here you could ask him to buy a book named "História Regional da Infâmia", by Juremir Machado da Silva. Here is a long and polemic interview he gave to the website Sul21 in September, about the Farroupilha War. If your Portuguese is still good you'll have no problems with it: http://www.sul21.com.br/jornal/2012...emoram-revolucao-e-nao-conhecem-sua-historia/
 
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