In 1821, before Brazil's independence, a movement against the Portuguese presence in the province began in Pernambuco. The movement was deposed by the new emperor of Brazil, D. Pedro I, in September 1822.
At first, the Pernambucans wanted independence from Portugal. Then, with the independence of Brazil, the closing of the Constituent Assembly, the creation of a centralized government in Rio de January and also with the imposition of the Constitution of 1824, the Pernambuco elite began to desire the independence of Pernambuco from the Brazil. A republican government was organized, that is, the Pernambuco elite intended to constitute a republic in the northeast: the so-called Confederation of Ecuador, a movement of a separatist character.
The organization of the separatist movement began from the moment when D. Pedro I appointed Francisco Paes Barreto as president of the province of Pernambuco. The municipal councils of Recife (capital of Pernambuco) did not accept this appointment, as they wanted the position to be occupied by Manuel de Carvalho Pais de Andrade.
Dissatisfied with the impositions of D. Pedro I, the elite of Pernambuco, along with other provinces in the northeast (Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará and Paraíba), proclaimed, in 1824, the Confederation of Ecuador, name given in allusion to the geographical line of the Ecuador.
After the proclamation of the Confederation, the leaders of the movement (among them, Manuel de Carvalho Pais de Andrade) convened an Assembly Constituent and began to organize a republican government, which would leave the shackles of the Brazilian imperial government governed by a Portuguese, D. Peter I.
There was, then, the elaboration of a Constitution for the newest republic in Latin America, the Confederation of Ecuador. D. Pedro I, emperor of Brazil, however, would never accept the loss of this vast territory in northeastern Brazil, which corresponded to the current states of Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Ceará and Paraíba. Therefore, D. Pedro I reacted with violence, sending a squadron of English mercenaries and ground troops to quell the separatist movement.
Members of the Confederation of Ecuador organized troops to fight the Emperor's squadron. For a time, the Confederates resisted the forces of the imperial troops, but after the takeover of Recife by government troops, several leaders of the Confederation fled and several confederates led by Frei Caneca resisted in the Pernambuco city of Olinda, but the resistance was close. time. Imperial troops brutally smothered the Confederate military forces. The main leaders of the separatist movement were arrested and executed by the forces sent by D. Peter I. Thus ended the dream of separation from the Confederation of Ecuador.
Leandro Carvalho
Master in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/sufocamento-confederacao-equador.htm
