The War of Canudos (, ) was a conflict between the First Brazilian Republic and the residents of Canudos in the northeastern state of Bahia, between 1896 and 1897. It was waged in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery in Brazil and the overthrow of the monarchy. The conflict arose from a millenarian cult led by Antônio Conselheiro, who began attracting attention around 1874 by preaching spiritual salvation to the poor population of the sertão, a region which suffered from severe droughts. Conselheiro and his followers came into conflict with the local authorities after founding the village of Canudos. The situation soon escalated, with Bahia's government requesting assistance from the federal government, who sent military expeditions against the settlement.

Antônio Conselheiro and his followers were branded as "monarchists" by the press, with the authorities seeing the settlement as a threat to the recently proclaimed Brazilian Republic, which was still in process of consolidating itself. Rumors spread that the inhabitants of Canudos were planning to "depose the new Republican government" and "restore the monarchy." The inhabitants of Canudos were "so numerous, employed such artful strategies and so committed" that it took four military campaigns to defeat them. Despite the government's troops employing modern weapons against the poorly armed and organized Conselheiristas, the first three expeditions resulted in failure, including the death of Colonel Moreira César, which harmed the government's image and alarmed public opinion.

The conflict came to a brutal end in October 1897, when the fourth and final expedition, led by General Arthur Oscar, with a large fraction of the Brazilian Army, was deployed to bombard and overrun the settlement, raze it and slaughter nearly all its inhabitants.

Background

thumb|left|250px|A view of the village of Canudos. Typical constructions such as the one in the foreground were very basic, made of mud and straw

The conflict had its origins in the former settlement of Canudos (named Belo Monte by its inhabitants, meaning "Beautiful Hill" in Portuguese) in the semi-arid backcountry (or sertão) of Bahia. In the late 19th Century, the region suffered with poverty, with an economy based on subsistence agriculture and cattle raising, severely lacking infrastructure. The disenfranchised population drew equally from rural and urban portions of the region and represented a "broad spectrum of ethnic and economic origins". Conselheiro traveled from village to village with his followers, assisting the local communities and garnering support from small farmers, "collecting money and organizing labor for the construction of churches, dams and cemeteries". As an increasing number of supporters joined his cause, Conselheiro drew the attention and hostility of the local landowners, who disapproved of his ideals.

Conselheiro claimed to be a prophet and predicted the return of the legendary Portuguese king Sebastian (see Sebastianism). He held that "it was the monarch’s God-given right to rule", which caused him to be progressively branded as a monarchist figure by the unstable Republic at the time.

After wandering through the states of Ceará, Pernambuco, Sergipe and Bahia, he eventually decided to settle permanently in 1893 with his followers in the backlands of Bahia, in the farming community of Canudos, near Monte Santo, Bahia on the banks of the Vaza-Barris River. The village was very small but offered the Conselheiristas protection, as the location was hard to access. Within two years, as the religious community prospered, Conselheiro convinced several thousand followers to join him, eventually making it the second-largest urban center in Bahia at the time.

Basis of history

Determining what exactly happened in the war is problematic, as the two main historical source groups consist of military chronicles (written to justify the army's actions) and far-from-impartial journalistic reports. According to Peter Robb, "[t]he foreign correspondents who covered what was soon being called the War of Canudos, as if it were a conflict between nations rather than the extermination of a tiny community within a single country, were nearly all embedded with the army of the Brazilian republic." However, the Canudenses marching from the religious settlement to Juazeiro surprised the troops at Uauá and a fierce battle ensued. The unstable political climate along with the scarcity of military resources in Bahia led the state government to seek aid from the federal government to crush the increasingly threatening settlement.

The President of Brazil at the time, Prudente de Morais, ordered another punitive military expedition to Canudos. A second 104-man force, again commanded by Ferreira, began its preparations in November 1896, and attacked the settlement on 21 November 1896.

Although forewarned about the numbers and resolve of the rebels, the military thought it impossible that the rebels could resist such a strong regular army force. A day after arriving in Monte Santo, completely disregarding "the intense heat and parched land," the force advanced on Canudos. Starting to retreat, the soldiers panicked and a disastrous rout ensued; many were killed by pursuing Canudenses. When all resistance ceased and "peace" was restored, only 150 survivors remained.

Estimates for the number of dead in the War of Canudos vary. Euclides da Cunha (1902) estimated approximately 30,000 (25,000 residents and 5,000 attackers) died;

Euclides da Cunha did not see the fighting but did bear witness afterward, Robb says, and his "obsession with progress and modernity, the scientific racism that told him the people of the northeastern interior were doomed to backwardness by their mixed race" led him to tell a story filled with preconceptions — which is, however, the only story we have.

According to Walnice Nogueira Galvão, one of the most important results of the war was the complete "solidification of the republican regime" and final exorcism of "the specter of monarchical restoration".

Bibliography

  • Euclides da Cunha. Os Sertões, 1902. (Rebellion in the Backlands, University of Chicago Press)
  • Calasans, José. No Tempo de Antônio Conselheiro. Salvador, Livraria Progresso Editora, 1959.
  • Arinos, Afonso. Os Jagunços.
  • Macedo Soares, Henrique Duque-Estrada de. A Guerra de Canudos.Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Altiva, 1902
  • Benício, Manoel. O Rei dos Jagunços. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fundação Getúlio Vargas. 2a. edição, 1997
  • Mario Vargas Llosa. The War of the End of the World. Novel. 1981

Media

  • Guerra de Canudos (The Battle of Canudos). Motion picture directed by Sérgio Rezende, with José Wilker, Cláudia Abreu, Paulo Betti, and Marieta Severo. Brazil, 1997.
  • Sobreviventes – Os Filhos da Guerra de Canudos (Survivors, the Children of the War of Canudos). Documentary film by Paulo Fontenelle, Brazil, 2007.
  • Canudos. Documentary film by Ipojuca Pontes, with Walmor Chagas, Brazil, 1978.
  • War of Canudos in Brazil. Documentary radio broadcast, BBC World Service. Mon 9 June 2014 07:50 GMT.
  • Hell Clock, Video Game (Fiction, set in Canudos).

See also

  • Revolutions of Brazil
  • List of wars involving Brazil
  • Juazeiro Sedition
  • Caldeirão de Santa Cruz do Deserto
  • Contestado War

References

  • Witness History: War of Canudos in Brazil from the BBC
  • Heroic rebel town rises from deep from The Guardian