Confederating Free People: Atlantic Republicanisms in the Farroupilha Revolution. Panel: "Radicals on the Move"

The Farroupilha Revolution was the most ambitious attempt to upset the imperial sovereignty. Started as a local revolt in Porto Alegre, in 1835, it soon turned into a cosmopolitan and transnational insurrection. For ten years, Liberal Argentinians, German émigrés, Mazzinian exiles, and Uruguayan border settlers cooperated with the Farrapos insurgents, running guerrilla raids, smuggling arms and weapons, and fostering radical propaganda. The revolution would culminate in the creation of a confederation of “sister republics” composed of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina states, Uruguay, and the Argentinian provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes. Despite the defeat, set off by the Poncho Verde Treaty in 1845, the alliance among foreign patriotisms gave birth to an international front struggling for democracy and rolled out a mutual exchange of ideas on crucial questions, such as anti-slavery, federalism, and free-trade