Our series on Secessionist Entities takes us to the days of the Empire of Brazil. The Province of Rio Grande do Sul was a rural region that was far from Brazil's centres of decision and felt ignored by the central government. The province unilaterally declared independence in 1836 as the Riograndense Republic (República Rio-Grandense), and it was recognized by major powers such as Great Britain and France. The independence was not accepted by the Empire of Brazil, and a decade of low-grade warfare ensued. By 1845, a treaty known as the Green Poncho Treaty was signed, according to which full amnesty was granted to the republican leaders against the reintegration of the Province into the Empire.
While the existence of this Republic and, for a short time, the Juliana Republic to the North of it has become anecdotal with time, the Republican sentiment it instilled in the population was in many ways a precursor to the Establishment of the Brazilian Republic in 1889.
More on the Riograndense Republic
The Riograndense Republic
