Republicanism and the state between Brazil and the River Plate: Rio Grande do Sul, 1808-1845

Thesis

The Rio Grandense Republic rose and fell between 1836 and 1845 in Brazil’s southernmost province, Rio Grande do Sul. Its founders, known as ‘farroupilhas’, first rebelled in 1835, decrying the Brazilian Empire’s centralisation and taxation, but they soon turned to separatism. Their decade-long attempt to establish an independent state remains Brazil’s longest armed conflict, as well as its last separatist uprising. This thesis is centred on an analysis of this separatist republic, contextualising it against Brazilian and River Plate developments, while contending that the farroupilhas consciously embarked on a state-building experiment after their separatist turn. An emphasis on the farroupilha state and its administration sets this dissertation apart from much of the scholarship on the so-called ‘Farroupilha Revolution’, whose scholars have most often focused on particular aspects of the conflict, like military engagements, individuals’ trajectories, or the immediate causes of the conflict.

The Rio Grandense Republic also serves as a window to state-building processes beyond Brazil, as well as to the transnational entanglements underpinning River Plate frontier politics. The development of the Brazilian state (especially its province-metropole relations) is thus discussed here as the immediate context to the Farroupilha Revolution, including a series of provincial revolts whose non-separatism serve as a foil to the farroupilhas. But River Plate republicanism, too, influenced the farroupilhas, even though the Rio Grandense Republic was not recognised by its republican neighbours. Rio Grande do Sul’s ‘frontier’ society was deeply enmeshed with those of Argentina and Uruguay, providing avenues for commercial, political, and even family linkages, which predated and survived the revolutionary conflicts of the early nineteenth century. These connections facilitated mobility across the River Plate-Rio Grandense borderlands, allowing various political exiles, including Giuseppe Garibaldi, to participate in movements like the Farroupilha Revolution, acting as both soldiers and propagandists.

Authors: Jockyman Roithmann, A

• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: borderland; Latin America; Age of Revolutions; farrapo; River Plate; Brazil; state; Garibaldi; frontier; state-building; Rio Grande do Sul; republicanism; farroupilha
• Subjects: Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil : State)--History; age of; Republicanism--History; Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil : State)--History--Revolution of the Farrapos, 1835-1845; Río de la Plata Region (Argentina and Uruguay)--History; Brazil--History--Empire, 1822-1889; Latin America--History--19th century