Contestado War
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| Contestado War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Rebels |
.svg/75px-Flag_of_Brazil_(1889-1960).svg.png) Brazil |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| José Maria | Carlos Frederico de Mesquita | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 10,000 | 8,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 5.000 - 8.000 dead, wounded or disappeared 20,000 civilians |
800 - 1,000 dead, wounded, deserted or disappeared 20,000 civilians |
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The Contestado War (Portuguese: Guerra do Contestado), broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for lands between settlers and landowners, these last supported by the Brazilian state's police and military forces. It was fought in a Inland of southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba mate that was contested by the States of Paraná, Santa Catarina and Argentina, from October 1912 to August 1916. The war had its casus belli in the social conflicts in the region, the result of local disobediences, particularly regarding the regularization of land ownership on the part of the caboclos. The conflict was permeated by religious fanaticism expressed by the messianism and faith of the rebellious cablocos that they were engaged in a religious war; at the same time, it reflected the dissatisfaction of the population with its material situation.
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[edit] Prologue: the monks' power
The origins of the Contestado War can be understood best by beginning a little earlier and considering the influence of three monks of the region. The first one who rose to prominence was João Maria, a man of Italian origin, who wandered, preaching and attending to the sick, from 1844 to 1870. He lived a very simple life, and his ethics and lifestyle attracted thousands of followers. He died in 1870, in Sorocaba, São Paulo state.
The second monk also adopted the alias of João Maria, although his real name was Atanás Marcaf, probably of Syrian origin. He appeared to the public during the Federalist Revolution of 1893; he belonged to the maragatos faction, and projected a firm and even messianic stature. He even made prophecies about the political events of his time. He was active in the region between the Iguaçu and Uruguay rivers. As a sign of his unquestioned influence over the faithful, a portion of them waited for his return by resurrection after his disappearance in 1908.
The wait of the faithful ended in 1912, when the figure of the third monk appeared in public. He was initially known as an herbal healer, having presented himself under the name of José Maria de Santo Agostinho, although, according to a report of the police of Vila de Palmas, Paraná state, he was, in reality, an army deserter who had been convicted of rape, by the name of Miguel Lucena de Boaventura.
Because no one knew his origins, and because he lived a straight and honest life, it was not difficult for him to achieve the people's admiration and confidence in a short period of time. One of his claims to fame was the account of his resurrection of a young lady (who probably was just a victim of catalepsy). He was also said to have cured the colonel Francisco de Almeida's wife of a previously uncurable illness. After this event. the monk won even more fame and trust by declining the land and significant quantity of gold that the grateful colonel offered him.
From this point on, José Maria began to be considered a saint: a man who had come to Earth only to heal the sick and aid the needy. Methodical and organized, he was quite different from the familiar healers. He knew how to read and write and he described in his notebooks the medical properties of the plants found in the region. With the permission of Colonel Almedia, he set up what was known as the "people's pharmacy" at the ranch of one of the foremen, where he stored up medicinal herbs that he used in his daily medical consultations with anyone who wished to visit him, until the late hours of the night.
[edit] Ignited estopim
The estopim was still to be ignited. A foreign company was designated to finish the railroad that was started in 1890 by the engineer João Teixeira Soares. This railroad would connect the cities of São Paulo to Santa Maria, in Rio Grande do Sul. With the giving up of Teixeira, the concession of this road was transferred, in 1908, to the Brazil Railway Company, a north-American company owned by Percival Farquhar.
Beyond the right to finish the workmanships, it gained of the government the right to explore a band of 30 kilometers, 15 kilometers of each side of the railroad. The Company legally dispossessed the lands that bordered and offered it work in the seedbed of workmanships of the railroad to the families of one who holds legal titles to property who had been dispossessed. At the same time, the concession guarantee that another coligada company to the trust, the Southern Brazil Lumber & Colonization, started to explore and to commercialize the wood of the region, with the right to resell lands dispossessed throughout the railroad. While it had service, everything was well. It is calculated that about 8000 men they had worked in the workmanships of the railroad: workers proceeding from the urban population of Rio De Janeiro, Santos, Salvador and Recife, with faith in the promise of many advantages and high wages.
When the workmanships had finished, an enormous population of camponeses was without having what to make and for where to go. Identical situation to the one of a great number of workers of is that they had not returned to the origin cities because they had been only dismissed for the company that did not honor the commitment of taking them in return when the end of the works arrived.
This situation was similar to the one of the expulsos camponeses of its lands on the part of powerful lumber companies who also came if installing in the region. In this context of misery and poverty between the caboclos, saint entered in scene monge, that would inflame the inhabitants of the territory contested against the situation that they were facing and the occupation and exploration of lands on the part of strange companies to the region.
[edit] The first casualties
The Brazilian government, then led by Marshal Hermes da Fonseca, who was responsible for the policy of Salvaçoes, of military inverventions in various states of the country to eliminate political adversaries, saw signs of a rebellion in this movement and decided to repress it, sending troops to calm tempers.
Foreseeing what was coming, José Maria (Miguel Lucena Boaventura) left immediately for Irani with all the his following. Irani, at this time, belonged to Palmas, a city that was in the jurisdiction of Paraná. As Paraná and Santa Catarina then had unresolved disputes about territory and boundaries, Paraná saw this great movement of people as a strategy by the State of Santa Catarina to occupy those lands.
The Contestado war began here in October 1912. In defense of its lands, some troops of the Paranense Regiment of Security were sent out, to force the invaders to return to Santa Catarina.
But things did not go as planned. A bloody confrontation started between government troops and followers of the Contestado in a place called Banhado Grande. At the end of the battle, dozens of people from both sides were dead, and a great amount of guns and ammunition had been taken from the Paraná forces by the rebels. Among those killed were Colonel Gualberto João, who commanded the troops, and also the Monk Jose Maria, but the partisans of the Contestado had obtained their first victory.
Jose Maria was buried with boards by his followers, in order to facilitate his resurrection, since caboclos believed that this would revive folloied of Army Magic, vulgarly called Army of Is Sebastião, that would help them to fortify the Celestial Monarchy and to knock down the Republic, that each time more was given credit to be an instrument of the devil, dominated for the figures of the colonels.
[edit] Statistics of the war
- Size of combat area: 20,000 km²
- Population living in the combat area: about 40,000 inhabitants
- Municipalities of Paraná (at the time): Rio Negro, Itaiópolis, Timbó, Três Barras, União da Vitória and Palmas
- Municipalities of Santa Catarina (at the time): Lages, Curitibanos, Campos Novos and Canoinhas
[edit] References
- 'Grandes Acontecimentos da História - Revista da Editora 3, nº 4 (setembro de 1973)
- Diacon, Todd A. Millenarian Vision, Capitalist Reality: Brazil's Contestado Rebellion, 1912-1916 (Duke University Press 1991), ISBN 0-8223-1167-4
