War of the Emboabas


The War of the Emboabas was a conflict in colonial Brazil waged in 1706-1707 and 1708-1709 over newly discovered gold fields, which had set off a rush to the region between two generations of Portuguese settlers in the viceroyalty of Brazil - then the Captaincy of São Vicente. The discovery of gold set off a rush to the region, Paulistas asserted rights of discovery and non-Paulistas challenged their claims. Although the Portuguese crown sought more control in the area and the Paulistas sought protection of their claims, the Emoboabas won. The crown re-assessed its position in the region and made administrative changes subsequently.

History

Starting from the village of São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga the Bandeirantes had explored most of southeast and southwest of current Brazil, effectively taking advantage of the union of the Crowns of Portugal and Spain from 1580 to 1640 to incorporate all the former Spanish territories then west of the Tordesilhas Line. Their goal was to capture new Indian slaves, recapture runaway slaves and find precious minerals.
Their search was rewarded in a then inaccessible area just north of their original Capitania that was to become Minas dos Matos Gerais. The problem was that the mines, while rich, were in a vast area they could not effectively settle, so it attracted a gold rush from Portugal. The newcomers, called Emboabas, found an alternative, shorter route to the sea; the Caminho Novo das Minas dos Matos Gerais to São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro on Guanabara Bay, bypassing and alienating the original discoverers.
The Bandeirantes, or Paulistas, tried to assert rights of precedence but were defeated. As a result, the provinces of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro were formed, their capital cities of Vila Rica do Ouro Preto and São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, respectively, became the new centers of power in the vice-kingdom of Brazil. São Sebastião became the capital city of the viceroyalty and later of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
As soon as news of the discovery of gold spread thousands of outsiders moved to the area and became known pejoratively as "Emboabas". The term is derived from the Tupi mbóaba which literally means "hairy leg" + tab ). Originally the term referred to birds with feathered legs and as, unlike the Paulista pioneers, the outsiders always wore knee-high boots with their trousers tucked in, giving them the name.
Alternatively, according to the Dicionário Houaiss emboaba could be derived from the Tupi words mbo and tab meaning "those who invade or attack" and would be applied to a group rather than an individual.

Consequences