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Most Brazilianophile AH members here will remember the Farroupilha War (1835-45) as an interesting PoD regarding the Rio Grande do Sul region, but i don't think as many will remember the more destructive Federalist Revolution (1893-95).
The shtick of this historical fact is that there were southern Brazilian rebels, known as maragatos, who wished for a decentralized regime to be installed in Brazil, in contrast with the centralist ideals of president Floriano Peixoto. The revolt broke out around the border with Uruguay. On the way to Rio de Janeiro, the rebels were joined by a navy admiral who rebelled against the central government (in another occurence known as the Navy Revolt), boosting their supply and fighting capabilities. The rebels aimed to reach and besiege the capital, Rio de Janeiro.
However, they ended up tangled in a siege in the city of Lapa, in my home state of Paraná, and their advance was delayed long enough for loyalist forces to arrive and defeat them. Some historians tend to consider that, had the rebels instead avoided Lapa and gone straight for Rio, they could have a bigger chance of succeeding.
So, i ask: what if the Federalist Revolution had succeeded, in at least carving out an independent federal state in southern Brazil? Could we see the country divided in two?
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