Revolt of Cachaça

The colonial process of the Portugal, as it developed, highlighted contradictions between the metropolitan and colonial interests. The Crown of Portugal, the commercial sectors of the country and their representatives in the Colony of Brésil sought to exploit to the maximum the natural wealths and/or produced out of Brazilian grounds.

In this context, contradictions were transformed into rebellions against the excesses practiced in Brazil by the Portuguese Monarchie and its representatives. One among it, the Revolt of the Cachaça , is regarded by the histotiographes of the History of Brazil as a revolt of the type Régionaliste.

Genesis

The Revolt of the Cachaça proceeded with Rio de Janeiro, from 1660 to 1661, directed by Jerônimo Barbalho Bezerra, in reaction to the application of new tax S and to the attempt at prohibition of the production of geribita ( cachaça , Eau-de-vie of Brazil), with the profit of the Vin S Portuguese, by the governor El Salvador Correia de Sá E Benevides. These taxes on the cachaça , produced important for the maintenance of the local economy and source of revenue of the lords of the sugar of the traditional nobility of São Gonçalo whose Bezerra were, and the imposition of the sale of the wine of the Métropole, required by the Cour of Portugal, were to provide to this one resources, for, seems it, to rebuild Lisbon which had been destroyed by a Earthquake.

The Sá family had built a true empire of the Tropique S and benefitted since several generations from the full powerss in the Harbor office from Rio de Janeiro. She was touched hard by the sudden appearance of the Revolt of the Cachaça , in 1660. El Salvador de Sá, great-grandson of Mem de Sá, was the continuator of a family tradition of being able brought by its ancestors on the Brazilian ground, and which had installed them with the high responsibilities for the colonial administration.

Tensions had occurred between the two families opposed in the revolt, at the time of the direction of the businesses of the harbor office by the father of Jerônimo Bezerra, of 1643 with 1644, Luís Barbalho Bezerra, which had to also undergo him in its time of strong dissatisfactions with the population. It would seem that El Salvador de Sá, in which he had charmed the station of governor, organized these popular movements to harm this rival. It never recovered from its failure and died in half insane the April 15th 1644. One can consider that the Revolt of the Cachaça is the answer of the Bezerra heirs in a fight to to be able between these two Clan S. the distance of the politico-administrative loads of Bezerra made the remainder.

Facts

The Carioca S, " irreverent, undisciplined people and rebel " , were ready with in découdre with the governor and his tax measures. They gathered in all the surroundings of the Palate of the Government, required the presence of the administrators and, with the cries of " Live Roi" , relieved the governor to acclaim it by the brother of the chief of the Insurrection, Agostinho Barbalho Bezerra. A " revolutionary Room " was created to ensure the good fonctionnementdes activities of the area. The claims of the insurrectionary movement were consigned in " Chapters of the Revolt " and practical applications.

The Harbor office of Rio de Janeiro after the movement

When El Salvador Correia de Sá E Benavides, returned from São Paulo, where it had taken refuge, and attacked the harbor office of Rio, désarticulant the movement which entered its fifth month, it was thought that the destiny of this area was already traced.

Jerônimo Barbalho Bezerra was hung in public place for the example, and other leaders of the movements - Lucas da Silva, Jorge Ferreira Bulhão and Diogo Lobo Pereira- were imprisoned and sent to Portugal to be judged and condemned. But El Salvador de Sá had pacified the area only at the price of atrocities which confirmed with the Crown those made throughout its preceding administration, whose complaints were expressed in the last revolt. After the end of the conflict, the April 6th 1661, it was deposited by the capacity royal and moved away from its load.

This deposition of El Salvador Correia de Sá E Benavides did not symbolize only the setting á the variation of a bad royal administrator, but signifait also the end of the political domination of the Sá family on the Harbor office. Agostinho Barbalho Bezerra replaced Sá and, after the arrival of Pedro of Mello in 1662, Agostinho Barbalho will be transferred two years later to the Mines Inspectorate from Paranaguá with éliogeuses recommendations.

Most of the richnesses of the Sá Family plundered during the movement were not restored at the end of the revolt, and finished in the cases of the local political administration.

In Rio de Janeiro all changed, because all the measurements put into practice by the " revolutionary Room " in the " Chapters of the Revolt " and concerning the claims of the insurrectionists remained in the state after 1662. I.e. the excessive taxes were abolished, the publication of edict S in the isolated regions for the election S was put into practice and the choice of those which would occupy the Municipal council among the Noblesse was confirmed in an unquestionable way.

For brandy, all the provisions established by El Salvador Correia de Sá were revoked. Thus, the June 18th 1661, was created a " contract on water-of-vie" “which founded a tax perceived on its Consommation and its Exportation. Compared to one of the reasons for criticism of the economic situation in which the Harbor office of Rio de Janeiro at the 17th century lived, the General Company of the Trade of Brazil also did not escape the new royal position after 1662. Being one of the bastions of the financial perception of the Sá family, the company saw its privileges reduced in 1667. The release of the economy of brandy and the reduction in the restrictions of the General Company of the Trade opened the potentialities for growth of the local economy. All the area became, in the last quarter of the XVIIe century, an important exporting pole in direction of the Angola.

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