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{{Short description|Armed conflict in Portuguese America}} |
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:War of the ''Mascates''}} |
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{{cleanup|reason=The article is incomprehensible, and much of it is irrelevant.|date=January 2014}} |
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The '''Mascate War''' (]: ''Guerra dos Mascates''), also known as the '''War of the Peddlers''', was a conflict fought between two rival mercantile groups in ] from Oct. 1710 to Aug. 1711. On one side were landowners and sugar mill owners concentrated in ]. On the other were Portuguese traders in ], pejoratively called peddlers. It ended with a stalemated siege of Recife by planter militas. The installation of a new governor by the crown favoring the peddlers resulted in razing and confiscation of planter property in Olinda. |
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The '''War of the ''Mascates''''' might be more accurately called an ]; the main events occurred in and around ], Pernambuco during 1710 and 1711.<ref name="Boxer"/> Some consider the underlying causes lasted for two centuries.<ref>E. Bradford Burns, A History of Brazil, 3 ed. Columbia University Press, New York, p. 79</ref> The two sides were the landed elites, often referred to as ''senhores de engenho'', and the merchants of Recife. |
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{{BrazilianHistory}} |
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== Background == |
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==Intro== |
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The twentieth century historian ], in describing the coeval accounts of the War of the Mascates commented: "So much hard lying is involved in this conflict of evidence that the exact truth is probably unascertainable..."<ref>C. R. Boxer, The Golden Age of Brazil: 1695-1750, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1962. p. 115</ref> |
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{{missing information|dramatic increase in price of slaves|date=January 2014}} |
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:''For history 1580-1640, see ] |
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The War of the Mascates evidences the tensions between the landed elites in colonial Brazil and the ''mascates'' (merchants) of Recife. The "war" (there was considerable shooting but little loss of life) has elements of ]. Moreover, although Recife and ] were far from the goldfields, to an arguable extent the War of the Mascates can be seen as a parallel to the ] between people born in Brazilian and newcomers. To the extent that is true, it shows effects of the gold rush were felt in Pernambuco, many miles from the goldfields.<ref name="Boxer">C. R. Boxer, The Golden Age of Brazil: 1695-1750, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1962. Ch. V</ref> |
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:''For history 1630-1654, see ]'' |
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After the expulsion of the Dutch, Olinda, then the capital of Pernambuco and the civic and religious center, was left in shambles. Yet Olinda was the municipality of the planters, the local aristocracy. Recife, the port facility for Olinda, had formerly consisted of a few modest dwellings, warehouses, and businesses catering to ships and seamen. It had been developed by the Dutch into a thriving center of commerce populated by wealthy, mostly recently arrived merchants. The investment required to build, operate, and maintain an ''engenho'' had always been high and the discovery of gold and the subsequent demand for slaves had driven up the cost of slaves significantly, which further indebted the planters to the merchants.<ref name=Boxer/> |
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Until the mid-17th century, ] was the main city of the ] in northeast Brazil, where sugar plantations produced Brazil's major export, sugar. A lack of capital to invest in crops, equipment and manpower (slaves), combined with the declining price of sugar due to competition from European powers' investments in the ], caused a crisis. In an effort to resolve this, the sugar planters of Olinda began to borrow money from traders in the settlement of ]. At that time, ] traders (pejoratively called "mascates," or "peddlers") living in Recife agreed to lend money to the planters in Olinda, but charged very high interest rates, increasing the planters' indebtedness. |
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==The events== |
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Aware of Recife's economic importance, merchants asked ] that the settlement be elevated to town status. In February 1709, shortly after receiving the Royal Charter which declared it a town, merchants erected the town hall and a ]. Recife was formally separated from Olinda, the seat of the Captaincy. |
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The governor, Sebastião de Castro e Caldas, was appointed by the crown. The local municipal offices were controlled by the planters. The wealthy merchants resented the political controls exercised by the planters, and the planters resented being indebted to the merchants. The governors frequently favored wealthy merchants.<ref name=Boxer /> |
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In 1710, after many denied requests, the crown granted Recife municipal status. The governor, anticipating resistance from the planters, decided on a secret and clumsy strategy to implement the new municipality. The planters seized upon his secrecy to contend that the new status for Recife had not been authorized by the king. The planters reacted, the governor reacted, the governor was shot at and decamped to Bahia. The planters attacked Recife, although serious violence was averted by clerical intercession. The planters and their allies regrouped in Olinda where, in a precursor to the declaration of an independent republic in the nineteenth century, there was at least a minimally credible suggestion that Pernambuco be declared an independent republic.<ref name=Boxer /> |
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Economically dependent on Portuguese merchants, the landowners did not accept the Pernambuco political-administrative emancipation of Recife, before then a settlement subject to Olinda. The emancipation of Recife was seen as an aggravating the situation of local landowners (debtors) before the bourgeoisie ] (creditors), which by this mechanism put them at the level of political equality. |
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For several months the situation was subdued, but then the merchants and their allies rebelled. After some minimal violence, the planters and their adherents laid siege to Recife, and additionally to some other areas adhering to the ''mascates'', such as the fortress of Tamandaré. The siege succeeded in isolating and inconveniencing the residents of Recife but despite a need to subsist mostly by eating shellfish and other seafood, Recife was able to sustain itself until the crown-appointed new governor arrived. The new governor, Felix Machado, came with a pardon for the rebels and relative peace was restored temporarily. However, the municipal status of Recife was also affirmed and the planters again took offense. Felix Machado, who would be remembered as one of the worst governors of Pernambuco, sided with the merchants and persecuted the planters. He too like his predecessor, Sebastiåo de Castro, accrued an attempted assassination.<ref name=Boxer /> |
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] <center>]] |
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However accurate or exaggerated the descriptions of the depravity of governor Felix Machado, his excesses were eventually quelled when António de Albuquerque, twice governor of Rio de Janeiro, stopped in Pernambuco en route to Lisbon. Apprised of the situation he presented his Pernambucan relative's case to the king. The king issued a new set of instructions to Governor Felix Machado, freeing a shipload of planters who were already chained and on board a ship about to sail to Portugal. In 1715 the crown dispatched a new governor to replace Felix Machado and residents of Pernambuco finally felt the troubles were ended, though many families of the colony's elites were ruined.<ref name=Boxer /> |
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== The conflict == |
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{{cleanup|section|reason=Too many insignificant names of people and places.|date=January 2014}} |
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As the separation between the two cities was being implemented in 1710, the lords of Olinda revolted, with mill owner ] among their leaders. When there was sedition among the peddlers of Recife and the European gentry of Olinda, the sectarians of the hawkers were nicknamed Manoel Gonçalves Tunda-Cumbe, vines and Sebastião Pinheiro Camerão. {{#tag:ref| the ] and their ]s, shaved legs - because when they would take arms, they went barefoot, with less embarrassment for the manning, and so were known as skilful in them, and very valuable, so in the ], the moniker is synonymous with shaved legs nobility.|group=Note}} |
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No condition to resist, the wealthiest merchants of Recife fled to avoid being captured. Having members of the landed aristocracy abandoned Olinda to escape the plantations where they lived, hostilities commenced in ], led by their Captain General, Pedro Ribeiro da Silva. These forces, thickened in Afogados with reinforcements from São Lourenço de Mata and Olinda, under the leadership of Bernardo Vieira de Melo and his father, Colonel Leonardo Bezerra Cavalcanti, invaded Recife, demolishing the ], tearing the Provincial regal, freeing arrested and persecuting people connected to the governor Sebastião de Castro Caldas Barbosa (peddlers). This, in turn, in order to ensure their safety, he withdrew to ], and left the government over the captaincy of Bishop ]. The crown appointed a new governor Félix José de Mendonça. |
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The peddlers fought back in 1712, invading Olinda and causing fires and destroying villages and plantations in the region. |
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{{#tag:ref| |
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{{Cleanup translation|Portuguese}} |
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In the 19th century, ] wrote about it: "When the country lacked the arms and blood of their sons, along with the browns have not given him his arms and blood whites and blacks? When those tears have washed their irons despotism, did not go well with the edge of tears? Before the pernambucanos have suffered more than other major storms in Pernambuco. Sedition in the last century, all entering the fray, only about white people came the plagues and lightning, the dungeons were full of the most respectable people of Pernambuco, others piled on more entrenched in the woods and distant hinterlands, and they were loaded irons and sent to Portugal. ' («Frei Joaquim do Amor Divino Caneca», Coleção Formadores do Brasil, 1994, p. 283). |
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== End == |
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==See also== |
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* ] |
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The new governor and the intervention of troops sent from Bahia ended the war. The commercial bourgeoisie was supported by the metropolis, and Recife maintained its autonomy. |
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* ] |
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The city intervened in the region in 1711, arresting the leaders of the rebellion. Finally after much struggling, which included the intervention of colonial authorities, this fact was consummated in 1711: Recife was to be treated like Olinda from that time on. |
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* ] |
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==Legacy== |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
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With the victory of the merchants, the war reaffirmed the dominance of merchant capital (trade) on the colonial production. After the victory of the hawkers, traders perceived the predominance of trade in relation to colonial production that had already occurred since the lords of Olinda caught the interest on money borrowed so the peddlers can keep their colonial system. |
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== External links == |
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The autonomist feeling of Pernambuco, which came from the fight against the Dutch, continued to manifest itself in other conflicts such as the ], ] of 1817 against Portugal and the ] against Brazil.{{speculation inline}}{{citation needed|date=January 2014}} |
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* https://web.archive.org/web/20121213152927/http://www.v-brazil.com/information/geography/pernambuco/history.html |
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{{Portuguese overseas empire}} |
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== See also == |
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==Notes== |
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{{reflist|group=Note}} |
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== References == |
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{{reflist}} |
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* Frei Joaquim do Amor Divino Caneca, Coleção Formadores do Brasil (Collection of Brazil Trainers), 1994 {{pt icon}} |
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* "The Golden Age of Brazil", ] |
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==External links== |
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* http://www.v-brazil.com/information/geography/pernambuco/history.html |
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{{Portugal topics}} |
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{{Portugal topics}} |
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{{Brazil topics}} |
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{{Brazil topics}} |
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{{History of South America}} |
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{{History of South America}} |
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{{Authority control}} |
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The War of the Mascates evidences the tensions between the landed elites in colonial Brazil and the mascates (merchants) of Recife. The "war" (there was considerable shooting but little loss of life) has elements of class struggle. Moreover, although Recife and Olinda were far from the goldfields, to an arguable extent the War of the Mascates can be seen as a parallel to the War of the Emboabas between people born in Brazilian and newcomers. To the extent that is true, it shows effects of the gold rush were felt in Pernambuco, many miles from the goldfields.
After the expulsion of the Dutch, Olinda, then the capital of Pernambuco and the civic and religious center, was left in shambles. Yet Olinda was the municipality of the planters, the local aristocracy. Recife, the port facility for Olinda, had formerly consisted of a few modest dwellings, warehouses, and businesses catering to ships and seamen. It had been developed by the Dutch into a thriving center of commerce populated by wealthy, mostly recently arrived merchants. The investment required to build, operate, and maintain an engenho had always been high and the discovery of gold and the subsequent demand for slaves had driven up the cost of slaves significantly, which further indebted the planters to the merchants.
The governor, Sebastião de Castro e Caldas, was appointed by the crown. The local municipal offices were controlled by the planters. The wealthy merchants resented the political controls exercised by the planters, and the planters resented being indebted to the merchants. The governors frequently favored wealthy merchants.
In 1710, after many denied requests, the crown granted Recife municipal status. The governor, anticipating resistance from the planters, decided on a secret and clumsy strategy to implement the new municipality. The planters seized upon his secrecy to contend that the new status for Recife had not been authorized by the king. The planters reacted, the governor reacted, the governor was shot at and decamped to Bahia. The planters attacked Recife, although serious violence was averted by clerical intercession. The planters and their allies regrouped in Olinda where, in a precursor to the declaration of an independent republic in the nineteenth century, there was at least a minimally credible suggestion that Pernambuco be declared an independent republic.
For several months the situation was subdued, but then the merchants and their allies rebelled. After some minimal violence, the planters and their adherents laid siege to Recife, and additionally to some other areas adhering to the mascates, such as the fortress of Tamandaré. The siege succeeded in isolating and inconveniencing the residents of Recife but despite a need to subsist mostly by eating shellfish and other seafood, Recife was able to sustain itself until the crown-appointed new governor arrived. The new governor, Felix Machado, came with a pardon for the rebels and relative peace was restored temporarily. However, the municipal status of Recife was also affirmed and the planters again took offense. Felix Machado, who would be remembered as one of the worst governors of Pernambuco, sided with the merchants and persecuted the planters. He too like his predecessor, Sebastiåo de Castro, accrued an attempted assassination.
However accurate or exaggerated the descriptions of the depravity of governor Felix Machado, his excesses were eventually quelled when António de Albuquerque, twice governor of Rio de Janeiro, stopped in Pernambuco en route to Lisbon. Apprised of the situation he presented his Pernambucan relative's case to the king. The king issued a new set of instructions to Governor Felix Machado, freeing a shipload of planters who were already chained and on board a ship about to sail to Portugal. In 1715 the crown dispatched a new governor to replace Felix Machado and residents of Pernambuco finally felt the troubles were ended, though many families of the colony's elites were ruined.
