Riograndense Republic | ||||||||||||||
República Rio-Grandense | ||||||||||||||
Unrecognized state | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Motto Liberdade, Igualdade, Humanidade "Liberty, Equality, Humanity" |
||||||||||||||
Capital | Piratini | |||||||||||||
Languages | Portuguese | |||||||||||||
Government | Constitutional Presidentialist Republic | |||||||||||||
President | ||||||||||||||
• | 1836-1841 | Bento Gonçalves da Silva | ||||||||||||
• | 1841-1845 | José Gomes de Vasconcellos Jardim | ||||||||||||
Historical era | 19th Century | |||||||||||||
• | Independence of Empire of Brazil | September 11, 1836 | ||||||||||||
• | Confederation with Juliana Republic | 24 July 1839 | ||||||||||||
• | Constitution adoppted | 8 February 1843 | ||||||||||||
• | Ponche Verde Treaty | March 5, 1845 | ||||||||||||
Area | ||||||||||||||
• | 1842 | 281,748 km2 (108,784 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
Population | ||||||||||||||
• | 1842 est. | 350,000 | ||||||||||||
Density | 1/km2 (3/sq mi) | |||||||||||||
Currency | Brazilian Real | |||||||||||||
|
The Riograndense Republic, often called Piratini Republic (Portuguese: República Rio-Grandense or República do Piratini), was a de facto state that seceded from the Empire of Brazil roughly coinciding with the present state of Rio Grande do Sul. It was proclaimed on September 11, 1836, by General Antônio de Sousa Neto, as a direct consequence of the victory obtained by Gaucho oligarchic forces at the Battle of Seival (1836), during the Farroupilha Revolution (1835-1845). However, the main objective was never to proclaim a nation-state of its own, and therefore separate from the Brazilian state, but rather to show to the Brazilian Empire that the Gaucho oligarchies were not at all satisfied with the high taxes. Although never recognised as a self-governing state, it voted itself a Constitution in 1843.
The official flag of the Rio-Grandense Republic was composed of green, yellow and red colors. There are two versions for the motif of the composition of the flag: one version explains that the colors-symbols of Brazil, yellow-green and red, symbolize the republic, intersecting them; Another version explains that the green represented the forest of the pampas, the red the revolutionary ideal, and the yellow the riches of the gaucho territory; And another version says to be the green of the Portuguese flag and the yellow of the Spanish flag (respectively, the most important colonizer and the second most important colonizer of the territory of the state of Rio Grande do Sul), interspersed by the vertical red stripe that Would be symbol of federation in the platine region from the time of Jose Gervasio Artigas (1764-1850). However, green would only be added to the Portuguese flag in 1910, 65 years after the end of the Farroupilha Revolution, which discards this latest version. Likewise, the current flag of the state of Rio Grande do Sul comes to have the same colors, having been added the coat of arms of the Rio-Grandense Republic in the middle of the flag.