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- Title
«Liberdades Sertanias» in Maranhão. From Portuguese America to Balaiada (1838- 1841).
- Authors
COSTA, Maria Bertolina
- Abstract
The University of Coimbra's influence on the formation of Maranhão's technical and political elite was critical to sediment the view of the world and society that shaped the tensions between Portugal and colonial Brazil, the people and the elite, submission and insubordination oppression and freedom. Regions like Pará, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia and Pernambuco, witnessed the first turmoil and the effects of the 1820 Revolution that unfolded in Portugal and would continue throughout the 19th century. To the common political vocabulary were added ancient words taking new meanings along with new terms, even though their meaning varied, depending on the events and the actors. A hot debate commences in the Luso-Brazilian world under the motto of liberal ideals and constitutionalism, one fueled by the ever-increasing circulation of leaflets, pamphlets and newspapers issued from Lisbon or printed in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, only to produce an explosive climate in Maranhão, Pará and Pernambuco. From 1822, Brazil's status as an independent nation as well as the need for some adjustments to the new political pact were perceived in Maranhão as a source of new opportunities, a moment for liberal ideals to be extolled. Meanwhile, Brazil was witnessing the emergence of contradictions within the broad constitutional spectrum. Confronted with arbitrary and despotic initiatives taken by the Portuguese liberals, the Brazilian political elite managed to join the growing animosity against the royal Courts, despite ideological differences among its groups; in their turn, the Courts interpreted such manifestations as a sign of opposition to the liberal ideology. As far as the elite of Maranhão is specifically concerned, constitutionalism would later evolve to become secessionism. The political emancipation of Brazil (1822) brought to light some different manners of combining tradition and political modernity in a unique way, which resulted in various projects and political activities shaped by the underlying opposition between the different social groups, and reflecting the different economic, political and racial interests. Newspapers became the vehicle whereby Maranhão's Coimbra graduates launched discussion of ideas, criticism and complaints, in the context of the power struggle going on between liberals («Bemti- vis») and the conservatives («Cabanos») that resulted in the Balaiada upheaval. The political discourse emerging from these social outcasts combined a strong social content with the protests and the clichés typically used in liberal speech, and all of this was used in the Manifestos and revolutionary proclamations, like the 1824 "Revolução Pernambucana" and the 1831 "Setembrada" in Maranhão. These were, therefore, the polarities that shaped the clashes in the historical process of the rebel movement in the Brazilian province of Maranhão, known as «Balaiada" (1838-1841).
- Subjects
PORTUGAL; BRAZILIAN foreign relations; INTERNATIONAL relations
- Publication
E-Journal of Portuguese History, 2019, Vol 17, Issue 2, p292
- ISSN
1645-6432
- Publication type
Abstract