Inconfidência Mineira
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The Inconfidência Mineira (Minas Conspiracy) of 1789, a Brazilian independence movement, was a result of the confluence of external and internal causes. The main external cause was the repercussions in this Portuguese colony of the independence in 1776 of the thirteen British colonies in North America, a development that particularly impressed the intellectual elite living in the captaincy of Minas Gerais. The main internal cause of the conspiracy was the decline of gold mining in that captaincy. As gold became less plentiful, the region's inhabitants faced increasing difficulties in fulfilling tax obligations to the crown. When the captaincy could not satisfy the royal demand for gold, it was burdened with an additional tax on gold, called derrama.
Conspirators seeking independence from Portugal planned to rise up in rebellion on the day that the derrama was instituted. However, the conspirators lacked both well-formed plans and an overall leader. Some of the conspirators were republicans; others were monarchists. Some favored the abolition of slavery; others judged abolition as impractical at that time. The conspirators did put forth a few economic and social ideas: the promotion of cotton production, the exploitation of iron and saltpeter reserves, a proposal to give incentives to mothers to have many children, and the creation of a citizens' militia.
The conspiracy attracted a great number of military personnel, priests, and intellectuals, as well as the poets Cláudio Manoel da Costa (1729-1789) and Tomás Antônio Gonzaga (1744-1807?). Among the best known participants were José Joaquim da Silva Xavier (1746-1792), also known as "Tiradentes"; José Álvares Maciel (1761-1804), the philosopher and chemistry student; and Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Paula Freire de Andrade (1756-1792) of the regiment of the dragoons. Tiradentes, who came from Andrade's regiment, was the independence movement's most enthusiastic propagandist.
In the end, three participants revealed the conspirators' plans to the government and the rebels were arrested in 1789. One of the informants, Joaquim Silvério dos Reis (1756-1792), became known as the Brazilian traitor.
Judicial proceedings against the conspirators lasted from 1789 to 1792. Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Paula Freire de Andrade, Tiradentes, José Álvares Maciel, and eight others were condemned to the gallows. Seven more were condemned to perpetual banishment in Africa; the rest were acquitted. Following the trial, Dona Maria I (1734-1816) commuted the sentences of capital punishment to perpetual banishment for all except those whose activities involved aggravated circumstances. That was the case for Tiradentes, who took full responsibility for the conspiracy movement and was imprisoned in Rio de Janeiro. Tiradentes died in the gallows on April 21, 1792. Afterwards, his body was torn into pieces, which were sent to Vila Rica in the captaincy of Minas Gerais, to be displayed in the places where he had propagated his revolutionary ideas.
