- Emboabas' War
The Emboabas' War ( _pt. Guerra dos Emboabas), was a
war waged in the early 18th century between two generations of Portuguese settlers in thevice-kingdom of Brazil , then merely theCapitaincy of São Vicente .Starting from the village of
São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga , theBandeirantes had explored all of current Brazil, effectively taking advantage of the union of the Crowns ofPortugal andSpain from 1580 to 1640 to incorporate all the former Spanish territories then west of theTordesilhas Line , now part of Brazil. Their goal was to capture new Indian slaves -- this put them in conflict with theJesuit Reductions --, recapture runaway slaves and mainly find precious metal and stones.Their search was rewarded in a then-inaccessible area just north of their original
Capitania that was to becomeMinas dos Matos Gerais . The problem was that the mines, if rich, were in a vast area they couldn't effectively settle, so it attracted a gold rush from Portugal. The new arrivers, calledEmboabas after a local tree, found an alternative, shorter route to the sea, theCaminho Novo das Minas dos Matos Gerais toSão Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro , at theBay of Guanabara , bypassing and alienating the original discoverers.The
Bandeirantes , or simplyPaulistas , tried to assert rights of precedence, but were defeated. As a result the provinces ofMinas Gerais andRio de Janeiro were formed, their capital cities of Vila Rica do Ouro Preto andSão Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro , respectively, became the new centers of power in the vice-kingdom of Brazil. São Sebastião (later shortened to its present name ofRio de Janeiro ) became the capital city of the vice-kingdom, later to become the capital too of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.
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