In 1874 and 1875, Brazilian peasants in the Northeastern region of Brazil rose up in rebellion, destroying the weights and measures of the new metric system implemented by the government from Rio de Janeiro. The authorities quickly dubbed this the Quebra-Quilos or the "Break the Scales" uprising. Richardson's analysis of the uprising explores its underlying causes: increased taxes, rising costs of foodstuffs, the forced implementation of this new metric system, fear of being drafted into the military and, finally, the imprisonment of two of the leading bishops in Brazil, known as the Religious Question. Quebra-Quilos and Peasant Resistance explores the complicated, multi-faceted uprising. The book covers the causes and results of an economy gone awry, governmental attempts at modernization, and the inevitable nineteenth-century conflicts over church-state relations.
- ISBN10 0761853065
- ISBN13 9780761853060
- Publish Date 10 July 2012 (first published 16 February 2011)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University Press of America
- Format eBook
- Pages 170
- Language English