Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Canudos in the National Context

1991; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 48; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1006824

1533-6247

Robert M. Levine,

Rural Development and Agriculture

In 1893, the penitent known as Antônio Conselheiro convinced several thousand devout followers to join with him in creating a religious community at Canudos in the Bahian sertão . It grew precipitously, attracting pilgrims from every part of the region, some from places more than two hundred kilometers distant. Within two years it had become the second largest urban center (after the capital, Salvador) in Bahia, Brazil's second most populous state. As soon as the effect on the traditional labor system began to be felt by landowners, pressure was applied to state officials, who in 1896 agreed to take action to dismantle the settlement. This would prove arduous, but after four bloody military campaigns, Canudos was destroyed by the Brazilian army in 1897. The so-called “rebellion” left an indelible legacy on late nineteenth-century Brazil. Taken to be a symbol of the clash between urban rationality and rural “backwardness,” Canudos was celebrated as a pivotal national victory for “progress” and “civilization.”