Mining Inconfidence was an unsuccessful separatist movement in Brazil in 1789. It was the result of a confluence of external and internal causes in what was then a Portuguese colony. The external inspiration was the independence of thirteen British colonies in North America after the War. American Revolutionary, a development that impressed the intellectual elite, particularly the captaincy of Minas Gerais. The main internal cause of the conspiracy was the decline of gold mining in that captaincy. As gold became less abundant, the region's miners faced increasing difficulties in the fulfillment of tax obligations to the crown, and the tax on gold was a fifth. When the captaincy could not satisfy the real demand for gold, it was burdened with an additional tax on gold called pours.
Conspirators seeking independence from Portugal planned to rebel the day the spill was instituted. However, the conspirators had neither well-formed plans nor a general leader. Some of the conspirators were republicans, others were royalists. Some favored the abolition of slavery, while others found abolition impractical at the time. The conspirators presented some economic and social ideas: the promotion of cotton production, the exploitation of iron and saltpeter reserves, a proposal to encourage mothers to have many children and the creation of a militia of citizens.
The conspiracy attracted a large number of soldiers, priests and intellectuals, as well as the poets Cláudio Manuel da Costa and Tomás Antônio Gonzaga (1744-1807). Among the best known participants were Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, better known as “Tiradentes”; José Álvares Maciel, philosopher and chemistry student; and Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Paula Freire de Andrade (1756–1792) of the regiment of dragoons. Tiradentes, who came from the Andrade regiment, was the most enthusiastic propagandist of the independence movement.
See too: Royal Family in Brazil.
THE Inconfidence it was inspired by the ideals of French liberal philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment and the successful American Revolution of 1776. The conspirators largely belonged to the mineral-rich white upper class of Minas Gerais. Many studied in Europe, especially at the University of Coimbra, and some were heavily indebted to the colonial government. In the context of declining gold production, the Portuguese government's intention to impose mandatory payment of all debts (the pour) was the main cause behind the conspiracy. The conspirators wanted to create a republic in which the leader would be chosen through democratic elections. The capital would be São João do Rei and Ouro Preto would become a university city. The structure of society, including property rights and slave ownership, would be kept intact. Eventually, three participants in the independence movement revealed the conspirators' plans for the government, and the rebels were arrested in 1789. Among the movements were the lawyer Alvarenga Peixoto, the poets Tomás Antônio Gonzaga and Cláudio Manuel da Costa, the priest José da Silva. de Oliveira Rolim, and Lieutenant Joaquim José da Silva Xavier (aka “Tiradentes”). After Joaquim Silvério dos Reis (1756–1792), a member of the conspiracy, informed about the movement before it could happen, Peixoto was captured, imprisoned and sent into exile in the city of Ambaca, in Portuguese Angola, another colony of the Portuguese Empire, where he remained until the end of your life.
The failed mining conspiracy of 1789 involved some of the main figures in the captaincy: tax collectors, priests, military officers, judges, government officials and mine owners and farmers. Some were born in Portugal, several studied early with the Jesuits and later studied in Coimbra, a number wrote poetry that is still read and studied. But what they had most in common were the financial problems caused by the crown's policies that the forced them to pay their debts, or eliminated them from the lucrative trade in gold and smuggling of diamonds. They argued that Brazil had everything it needed to survive and prosper and that Portugal was a parasite. They pledged to lift restrictions on mining; explore iron ore; build factories; create a university, a citizens' militia and a parliament; forgive debts to the royal treasury; free slaves born in Brazil; and form a union with São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro similar to that of the United States.
THE history of the mining conspiracy it's full of heavy drama. Revelation of the conspiracy turned siblings, friends, clients, and patrons against each other in an improper struggle to escape punishment. In a sense, the case foreshadowed the nature of future Brazilian revolutionary movements, as it was a conspiracy of oligarchs seeking their own advantage while intending to act on behalf of the people. His execution in 1792 in Rio de Janeiro might well have been forgotten if the nineteenth-century republicans had not had embraced as a symbolic counterweight Dom Pedro I, who declared Brazilian independence from Portugal in 1822. Later, with the establishment of the republic in Portugal. In 1889, every town and city in Brazil built a Tiradentes square, and the day of its execution, April 21, became a well-celebrated national holiday. However, as the Minas Conspiracy was more marked by dishonesty than by nobility and clarity, its value as a national symbol required selective interpretation and presentation.
Portugal decided to watch Brazilians more carefully and reacted vehemently to a nonexistent but suspicious plan in Rio de Janeiro in 1794, and to a true mulatto in Bahia in 1798. Meanwhile, the French Revolution, the resulting slave rebellion in Haiti, and fear of similar revolts in Brazil convinced Brazilian elites that the dream of a conservative US-style revolution that would leave the slave-based socioeconomic structure intact and in their hands was impossible. The crown separated the residents of Minas Gerais from the reinvigorated coastal sugar producers through policies that put their interests at odds. Lisbon deflected Brazilian nationalism with greater imperial involvement.
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Legal proceedings against the conspirators lasted from 1789 to 1792. Lieutenant Colonel Freire de Andrade, Tiradentes, José Álvares Maciel and eight others were sentenced to be hanged. Seven more were sentenced to life banishment in Africa, the rest were acquitted. After the trial, Queen Mary I commuted sentences from capital punishment to life ban on all except those whose activities involved aggravated circumstances. This was the case of Tiradentes, who assumed full responsibility for the conspiracy movement and was arrested in Rio de Janeiro, where he was hanged on April 21, 1792. Afterwards, her body was torn into pieces, which were sent to Vila Rica in the captaincy. Minas Gerais, to be exhibited in the places where he had propagated his revolutionary ideas. His death anniversary is celebrated as a national holiday in Brazil.
In 1948 the events were portrayed in a film called Inconfidência Mineira, directed by Carmen Santos.
In 1963, Minas Gerais incorporated as its state flag the one designed by Inconfidência, with an equilateral triangle inspired by the Holy Trinity – although supposedly the inconfidentes wanted a green triangle, while the Minas Gerais flag used a red one – and a Latin motto taken from the Eclogues de Vergil
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