Battle in Piauí helped consolidate Independence in 1823 – 03/11/2023 – Politics

One of the most important episodes for the consolidation of Brazil’s independence and maintenance of national unity took place on the banks of a river. It was not the Ipiranga, and its banks were not placid on March 13, 1823.

The surroundings of the Jenipapo River, a watercourse that cuts through the plains of Campo Maior, in the interior of Piauí, was the scene of one of the bloodiest fights of the Independence period, opposing Brazilians and Portuguese on the battlefield.

On one side, there was an organized and well-armed army of Portuguese people who tried to maintain Portugal’s dominance in the northern provinces of Brazil. On the other, hastily organized Brazilian militias who fought with knives, scythes, axes and a rusty cannon.

With the victory of the Portuguese, the Battle of Jenipapo left a balance of hundreds of dead Brazilians, but represented a setback for the resistance of Portugal, which was trying to maintain the domain of the provinces of the North of Brazil after the cry of Dom Pedro on the banks of the Ipiranga.

The clash in Piauí took place in the midst of an escalation of animosities between the Portuguese and Brazilians that had been going on since before Independence.

The General and Extraordinary Courts of the Portuguese Nation, which demanded the return of Brazil to the condition of a colony of Portugal and the resumption of trade restrictions suspended with the opening of the ports, appointed Portuguese soldiers as new governors of arms of the Brazilian provinces.

In Piauí, the chosen governor of arms was the Portuguese major João José da Cunha Fidié. He landed in the province in August 1822 with the mission of keeping it under Portuguese rule.

The province was considered strategic for being a kind of gateway to the northern provinces, especially Maranhão and Grão-Pará, where the Portuguese had prestige among the local elites.

There was also an economic importance: at that time, Piauí had a thriving livestock, with one of the largest herds of cattle in the country, and was one of the main suppliers of dried meat in the North and Midwest, being surpassed only by beef jerky in Rio Grande. southern.

The proclamation of Independence, however, moved the elites of Piauí, who declared support for Brazil independent of the Portuguese crown. The news first reached the village of Parnaíba, where the political group led by the merchant Simplício Dias predominated, who announced support for Dom Pedro.

Parnaíba’s accession to independent Brazil motivated a march led by João José da Cunha Fidié, who took troops to the village to quell the movement in support of Dom Pedro.

The march to the coast, however, unguarded the village of Oeiras, then capital of the province. It was precisely at this moment that Brigadier Manoel de Souza Martins, who represented the economic elite linked to livestock and had been jettisoned by the Cortes of Lisbon, also declared support for Independence.

When troops led by Cunha Fidié arrived in Parnaíba, Independence supporters had fled to Ceará, where they organized a militia to face the Portuguese.

The disagreements ended on March 13, 1823, when Brazilians and Portuguese met in the village of Campo Maior, today a city of 47,000 inhabitants 80 km from Teresina.

The banks of the Jenipapo River were the scene of an unequal battle. There were about 1,600 soldiers of the Portuguese troops, armed with 11 cannons and led by experienced officers.

On the other side, there was a precarious militia, formed in a hurry, with about 2,000 men from Piauí and Ceará. Most were cowboys and rural workers, enlisted by local political leaders, as well as indigenous and freed blacks.

The Battle of Jenipapo lasted five hours: it started around 9 am and continued until 2 pm, leaving a balance of 36 dead on the Portuguese side and between 200 and 400 dead among Brazilian troops.

“The battle was tragic, it was a defeat for the independentists. But it was also a ‘Pyrrhic victory’ for the Portuguese, who had losses in their logistics”, evaluates historian Johny Santana de Araújo, professor at the Federal University of Piauí.

He claims that the battle undermined the logistics of the Portuguese troops, who chose not to pursue and suffocate the independence soldiers. The idea was to regroup forces and return to Oeiras to overthrow Dom Pedro’s allies in the capital.

The army was camped on the Tombador farm, went on to the village of Estanhado and then went on to Caxias, in Maranhão, where there was a beginning of rebellion among Portuguese soldiers.

At the same time, the independence supporters in the capital organized their troops and received reinforcements from Ceará, Pernambuco and Bahia, reaching close to 22,000 regimented soldiers.

Reinforcement also came by sea. After expelling the Portuguese from Bahia, driving out the army led by Madeira de Melo, the squadron of the Scottish admiral Thomas Cochrane landed in São Luís and made the governing council, under cannon sights, swear loyalty to Dom Pedro.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese Army was isolated in Caxias, without the possibility of receiving reinforcements from Oeiras, Parnaíba and São Luís, already dominated by the Brazilians. Surrounded, Cunha Fidié surrendered on July 28, 1823.

For Araújo, the Battle of Jenipapo was fundamental to guarantee national unity and was also important to forge a feeling of Piauienseness in the state. Even so, it remained an obscure episode in Brazilian historiography, being little known outside Piauí.

“The Battle of Jenipapo is a very important event in the history of Brazil, but it is forgotten, like the whole context of the Independence process that took place in the North. This is largely due to the way in which the official historiography tried to tame the idea that there was a conflict” , assesses Araújo.

This Monday (13), the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Jenipapo will be celebrated in Campo Maior, Piauí. The city is home to a monument, a museum and a cemetery on the banks of the river.

In this holy field, stripped of adornments and mausoleums, the remains of anonymous Brazilians who died in battle are buried, surrounded by stones and wooden crosses. The Battalion cemetery is considered national heritage and was listed in 1990.