The Federalist Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução Federalista) was a civil war that took place in southern Brazil between 1893 and 1895, fought by the federalists, opponents of Rio Grande do Sul state president Júlio de Castilhos, seeking greater autonomy for the state and decentralization of power by the newly installed First Brazilian Republic.
Inspired by the monarchist ideologies of Gaspar da Silveira Martins, who had been one of the most prominent politicians by the end of the monarchy and acted as political head of the revolution, the federalists had Gumercindo Saraiva as the military head supported by his brother Aparicio Saraiva, of the Uruguayan National Party, and by the Navy rebels who, after being defeated at the capital following the Rio de Janeiro Affair, moved south to strengthen the federalist forces. Also known as maragatos, the federalists fought the republican forces of the Brazilian Army headed by the Rio Grande do Sul senator and army general Pinheiro Machado.
The conflict was not limited to Rio Grande do Sul, affecting the entire southern region of the country, which was mostly under federalist control. The rebels' objective was to group the forces against the republican government of Floriano Peixoto and march to the capital, Rio de Janeiro, to depose him. The federalists effectively installed a parallel government by deposing the presidents of the states they controlled and holding elections and by adhering to the proclamation by the navy rebels of Prince Pedro de Alcântara as emperor Pedro III. Nonetheless, after the Siege of Lapa, the federalists were unable to advance further, being defeated in the Battle of Campo Osório. The end of the war consolidated the young Brazilian republic, leaving 10,000 dead, many of which were beheaded. The common practice of beheading of prisoners of war is the reason why the war is sometimes nicknamed as Guerra das Degolas (War of the Beheadings).
Background
During the nineteenth century, the province of Rio Grande do Sul was often in a state of war. In the Ragamuffin War (1835-1845) and in the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), the population of Rio Grande do Sul was devastated. In the last years of the Brazilian Empire, three antagonistic political leaders appeared in the region: the liberal Assis Brasil, the conservative Pinheiro Machado and positivist Júlio de Castilhos. The three met to found the Riograndense Republican Party (Partido Republicano Rio-Grandense) (PRR), which opposed the Federalist Party of Rio Grande do Sul, founded and led by the liberal monarchist Gaspar da Silveira Martins. In 1889, with the Proclamation of the Republic, these currents came into conflict, so that in only two years the now state of Rio Grande do Sul would have eighteen presidents.
Panorama of Castilhos
Júlio de Castilhos was born and raised in a gaúcho resort and studied Law in the Faculty of Law of São Paulo, where he had contact with the positivist ideas of Auguste Comte. After graduating, he returned to his homeland and began to write in the newspaper The Federation (Brazilian Portuguese: A Federação), attacking the monarchical government, slavery and his political opponent Gaspar da Silveira Martins. He was a constituent congressman in 1890-1891, and believed in a dictatorial phase to consolidate the Brazilian Republic, defending a strong centralization of power in the republished dictator.
Defeated in the national constituent assembly, he implanted his ideas in Rio Grande do Sul's state constitution, months later, in a text he wrote almost entirely by himself, ignoring suggestions from the commission of jurists highlighted for the task, and approved it in July 1891 at a controlled state assembly by the Riograndense Republican Party, led by him and of positivist orientation. The state constitution foresaw that the laws would not be drafted by the state parliament, but by the chief executive, who could be re-elected for new mandates. As the vote was not secret, the elections would be easily manipulated by the followers of Castilhos, which would guarantee him to remain in power indefinitely.
In the same month that he approved his constitution, he was elected governor. In November, for having supported the coup led by president Deodoro da Fonseca who ordered the closing of the National Congress, he was deposed and replaced by a government junta that lasted little and soon passed the government to general Domingos Barreto Leite. Castilhos resumed a parallel government and was re-elected in a contest without competitors, taking possession in January 1893. At that moment, the state was the "nerve point of the Republic" and the answer of the opponents was imminent.
Panorama of Martins
Gaspar da Silveira Martins, an intellectual and a good orator, had been appointed minister by emperor Pedro II in one of his last acts in an attempt to save the monarchy. After the proclamation of the Republic, he was imprisoned and sent into exile in Europe, returning to Rio Grande do Sul in 1892 with the state already under the government of Júlio de Castilhos; there he founded the Federalist Party of Rio Grande do Sul, that defended the parliamentary system of government and the revision of the state constitution. With the possession of Castilhos, Gumercindo Saraiva would also return to the state, coming from his refuge in Uruguay and leading a band of five hundred men. A second group, commanded by general João Nunes da Silva Tavares, occupied another region of the state with a force of three thousand men. Threatened, the governor convinced the then president of Brazil Floriano Peixoto that the uprising was an attempt by Silveira Martins to restore the monarchy. And indeed, it was. Silveira Martins, for being a declared monarchist, participated in meetings with other Brazilians who had the goal of restoring the parliamentary monarchy in Brazil. On that occasion he proposed to Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil to allow the soldiers linked to the Navy Revolt to take her eldest son, Pedro de Alcântara, Prince of Grão-Pará, to be acclaimed as emperor Pedro III, whom the princess refused to fear for her son.
Pica-paus and Maragatos
The followers of Gaspar da Silveira Martins, gasparistas or maragatos (federalists), were frontally opposed to the followers of Júlio de Castilhos, the castilhistas, pica-paus (woodpeckers) or ximangos (republicans).
The followers of Júlio de Castilhos received the nickname of pica-paus or ximangos, due to the color of the uniform used by the soldiers who defended that faction, that resembled the birds of the region. This denomination extended to all the castilhistas, including civilians. The term maragato, which was used to refer to the political current that Gaspar da Silveira Martins defended, had a more complex explanation:
"In the province of Leon, Spain, there is a district called Maragateria, whose inhabitants have the name of maragatos, and that, according to some, it is a town of condemnable customs; therefore, living to wander from one point to another, with Freighters, selling and buying robberies and in turn robbing animals, they are a species of gypsies." -Romaguera.
The Spanish maragatos were eminently nomadic, and adopted professions that allowed them to be in constant displacement. In Uruguay, the inhabitants of the city of San José de Mayo were called maragatos, perhaps because their first inhabitants were descendants of the Spanish maragatos, who were responsible for bringing to the region of the River Plate the custom of the bombacha.
At the time of the revolution, legalistic republicans used this appeal as pejorative, with the meaning of "mercenaries." The reality offered some basis for this assertion - Gumercindo Saraiva, one of the leaders of the revolution, had entered Rio Grande do Sul from Uruguay by the border of Aceguá, in the Cerro Largo Department, commanding soldiers that included natives from that country. The family of Gumercindo, although of Brazilian origin, owned land in Cerro Largo. However, giving this nickname to the revolutionaries was a backfire. The denomination gained sympathy, and the rebels themselves came to be denominated maragatos. In 1896, they even created a newspaper bearing that name.
The war
Federalist offensive
Beginning
The disagreements began with the concentration of troops under the command of maragato João Nunes da Silva Tavares, referred to as Joca Tavares, formerly the Baron of Itaqui, in fields of the woodworking, in Uruguay, locality near Bagé. Shortly after the potrero of Ana Correia, coming from Uruguay towards Rio Grande do Sul, was the federalist Gumercindo Saraiva.
Efficiently, the maragatos dominated the border, demanding the deposition of Júlio de Castilhos, who had been elected president of the state by direct vote. There was also the desire for a plebiscite where the people should choose the system of government. Due to the seriousness of the movement, the rebellion quickly acquired nationwide attention, threatening the stability of the state's government and the republican regime throughout Brazil. Floriano Peixoto, then in the Presidency of the Republic, sent federal troops under the command of general Hipólito Ribeiro to rescue Júlio de Castilhos. Three divisions were strategically organized, called legalists: the northern, the capital and the center. In addition to these, the state police and all its contingent were called to fight the rebels.
The first victory of the maragatos was in May 1893, next to the brook Inhanduí, in Alegrete. In this fight along with the legalistic pica-paus took part senator Pinheiro Machado, who had left his seat in the Federal Senate to organize the Division of the North, which he led during all the conflict.
Maragatos advance
Gumercindo Saraiva and his troops went to Dom Pedrito, from there they began a series of lightning attacks against several points of the state, destabilizing the positions conquered by the Republicans. They then headed north, advancing in November on Santa Catarina state and arriving in Paraná, being stopped in the city of Lapa, sixty kilometers southwest of Curitiba. At the time, president Floriano Peixoto called a veteran of the Paraguayan War, colonel Gomes Carneiro. His orders were to halt the revolution. In five days, he Carneiro came to the area to replace general Argolo. It was November 1893 and the revolutionary troops were now advancing towards the state of Paraná. On this occasion, colonel Carneiro died defending the besieged city of Lapa in February 1894 without surrendering his positions to the rebels, in the episode that came to be known as the siege of Lapa. The fierce resistance opposed to the federalist troops in the city of Lapa, by colonel Carneiro, frustrated the rebellious pretensions to arrive at the capital of the Republic.
In the capital, the Revolt of the Navy began, under the leadership of the monarchist admiral Custódio José de Melo, who also fought against Floriano. After some exchange of gunfire with the army, the navy rebels went south. After docking in the city of Desterro, renamed to Florianópolis after the war, they proclaimed the city as a new capital of the federalist regime. Interests meant that the two revolts came to join.
"They have joined forces to overthrow Floriano. By sea, Custódio de Melo was responsible for striking Paranaguá, which happened in January 1894" says the judge and scholar Paul Hapner. By land, Gumercindo Saraiva advanced towards the state capital.
Siege of Lapa
In the same period that the coast was taken, the maragatos passed by Tijucas do Sul and came to Lapa - only 60 km away from Curitiba, capital of the state of Paraná.
The state was in chaos. With the advance of the rebels, the state governor, Vicente Machado, fled from Curitiba. With only 639 men, few weapons and food shortages, colonel Carneiro had a mission to contain the Federalists in Lapa. During 26 days, Carneiro and his army resisted the attacks of 3,000 soldiers commanded by Gumercindo Saraiva. "The troops of the maragatos made a real siege to the city," says Hapner. At least 500 people died in the siege of Lapa, including Carneiro. With the death of the commander in February, Lapa surrendered and left the passage open for the revolutionaries to take Curitiba.
Despite the defeat, the battle in Lapa was critical for the Republican victory. Hapner considers the siege to have been a strategic error of the maragatos: "If they wanted to go to Rio de Janeiro, they should not have wasted time in Lapa. This gave Floriano's army enough time to organize, ultimately defeating the Federalists", he says. For the historian Dennisson de Oliveira, "This was a mythical episode that, to the power established under Floriano, 'saved' the Republic." After the battle, Gumercindo Saraiva, unable to advance, retired to Rio Grande do Sul. He died on 10 August 1894, after being shot by treason while recognizing the terrain on the eve of the Battle of Carovi.
Republican offensive
Federalist occupation and release of Curitiba
At dawn on 17 January 1894, a rebel brigade commanded by general João Meneses Dória took the Serrinha train and telegraphic station. With the complicity of the officials there, he began to respond to telegraph calls as if he were the loyalist troops of Lapa, warning that thousands of federalist rebels were marching towards Curitiba. There was panic in the capital and general Pego, the city's military commander, fled abandoning trains loaded with war material. Following the take over of Paranaguá, Tijucas do Sul and Lapa, and with the absence of a government and military forces in Paraná, the rebels easily entered Curitiba with a little force of 150 cavalrymen and a train which disembarked the federalist high officials.