What was the Inconfidência Mineira?
THE Mining Inconfidence it was a political conspiracy organized by professionals, military and elite members of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais at the end of the 1780s – when Brazil was still Portuguese colony. The main intention of the inconfidentes was to remove the governor (at the time appointed by the Portuguese Crown) from local power. Viscount of Barbacena, which constituted an affront to the authority of the Portuguese Empire of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais. But what reasons motivated the inconfidentes? What was happening in the Captaincy of Minas Gerais at that time?
Taxes collected by the Crown
We know that the Captaincy of Minas Gerais was the great center of mining activity in Brazil during the colonial period. The region's gold and precious stones, such as diamonds, stimulated the migration of explorers and adventurers to the region, which ended up founding important villages such as rich village (which would later be called Goldblack) and diamond
. The Portuguese Crown, to establish control over this type of economic activity, organized the region politically, determining taxation and building “gold purification” systems on the spot, how the Foundry Houses. (For more details on this subject, click on here).All the extracted gold was transported to the Foundry Houses, which was taken to fire and melted into bars. From the cast bars, the governor of the Captaincy (always appointed by the Portuguese king) separated the fifth, that is, about 20%, and sent to Portugal. O fifth it was the main tax levied on the Captaincy of Minas Gerais. It happened that, from the 1760s, the mining economy began to decline, mainly due to the scarcity of gold. However, even so, the fifth continued to be charged. The problem is that the miners were no longer able to meet the demand of the fifth,and the Portuguese Crown considered new ways to offset the deficit generated.
One of the solutions was the call spills. THE spills consisted of charging taxes on all assets of the population of a given region, that is, on each property that someone owned or enjoyed would be charged a percentage to cover the debt with the Crown. At the end of 1780, the governor assigned to the Captaincy of Minas, Visconde de Barbacena, had as some of his obligations to bring order to the region and guarantee the percentage destined for the Crown. In 1788, there was a rumor that the biggest of all the spills, which caused agitation in Vila Rica.
Conspiracy
As a reaction to Barbacena's measures, some prominent members of the Minas Gerais society at the time decided to organize a conspiracy against the governor and the Crown. Most of the conspirators were influenced by the ideas of freedom propagated by the EnlightenmentFrench – ideas that would also set the tone for RevolutionFrench – and by other philosophical-political lines of the 18th century.
Tiradentes, that is, the ensign (member of the cavalry of the Mine Dragons) Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, was familiar with the republican legislation of the newly independent United States of America. the poets Tomás Antônio Gonzaga and Cláudio Manuel da Costa they had come into contact with the works of French authors in Coimbra, when they were studying there. These and other conspirators rejected Barbacena's authoritarian character as well as Portugal's absolutist political model.
the accusation and the judgment
Of all the conspirators, the most radical was Lieutenant Tiradentes, who even planned Barbacena's death. The entire schedule of the revolt against the Captaincy government was scheduled for when it was applied to spills of 1789. However, one of the conspirators, Joaquim Silverio dos Reis, denounced the entire conspiracy to Governor Barbacena, including the names of the leaders. Silverio believed that, by doing so, Barbacena would forgive the debts he had incurred.
Armed with information, Barbacena harassed and arrested the principals involved in the conspiracy, as historian Boris Fausto notes:
“In March 1789, Barbacena decreed the suspension of the spill, while the conspirators were denounced by Silverio dos Reis. Debtor of the Crown like several of the inconfidentes, Silverio dos Reis had been close to them, but he had chosen to get rid of his problems by denouncing the movement. Prisons in Minas and Tiradentes in Rio de Janeiro followed. The long process carried out in the capital of the Colony only ended on April 18, 1792.” [1]
Tiradentes, the only one to confess the crime and assume the guilt, was applied a judicial process that lasted almost four years. His sentence was the harshest of all: he was sentenced to death on the gallows. All records of the process (material gathered to carry out the judgment) directed against the second lieutenant and the other members of the conspiracy were known as wanton, a legal piece with all the details of the crimes of treason.
Execution of Ties
After the long process, Tiradentes was executed on April 21st. His body was dismembered, and the members scattered along the road that connected the city of Rio de Janeiro (capital of the country) to Vila Rica. In this last city, Tiradentes' head was stuck on a pole in a square. The purpose of this action was symbolic. The Crown wanted to convey the message of what would happen to anyone who committed the same crime of betrayal by conspirators like Joaquim José da Silva Xavier.
GRADES
[1] FAUSTO, Boris. History of Brazil. São Paulo: EDUSP, 2013. P. 101.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
