[1] It was fought in an inland southern region of the country, rich in wood and yerba mate,[2] that was called Contestado because it was contested by the states of Paraná and Santa Catarina as well as Argentina.

The war had its casus belli in the social conflicts in the region, the result of local disobediences, particularly regarding the regularization of land ownership on the part of the caboclos.

After this event the monk won even more fame and trust by declining the land and significant quantity of gold that the grateful colonel offered him.

[citation needed] From this point on, José Maria began to be considered a saint: a man who had come to Earth only to heal the sick and aid the needy.

With the permission of Colonel Almeida, he set up what was known as the "people's pharmacy" at the ranch of one of the foremen, where he stored up medicinal herbs that he used in his daily medical consultations with anyone who wished to visit him, until the late hours of the night.

[citation needed] José Maria's preaching displayed acutely Monarchist sentiments and adopting a highly adversarial stance towards the existing national government of Brazil.

[4] Construction was underway on a railway that would run between the cities of São Paulo to Santa Maria, in the southern Brazilian state Rio Grande do Sul, much of which ran through the contested territory.

[2] It was estimated that 8000 men had worked for the railroad at the time;[5] with the workers coming largely from the urban populations of cities Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco.

[5] Thousands of the workers that were laid off once the railroad construction work was finished, joined with A large portion of local peasants that had been evicted from the land they had lived on, led by José Maria.

[6] The "holy monk" José Maria rose against the recently created Republic of Brazil (1889), effectively declaring his community to be ruled by an independent government.

[7] He appointed an illiterate farmer to be "Emperor of Brazil", founded the community of Quadro Santo and created a personal guard corps of 12 men, in an allusion to Charlemagne's knights.

[citation needed] Peasants followed him around, founding more communities, each one with an assigned patron saint in hopes of creating a "heavenly monarchy" similar to Antonio Conselheiro (the messianic leader from the Canudos rebellion in Bahia during the late 1890s).

In order to prevent the sudden mass occupation of that land, some troops of the Regiment of Security of Paraná State were sent out to force the invaders to return to Santa Catarina.

At the end of the battle, dozens of people from both sides were dead, and the rebels seized a large number of guns and amounts of ammunition from the Paraná police forces.

As the social order degraded quickly in the region, the central government appointed General Carlos Frederico de Mesquita (a veteran of the Canudos rebellion) to lead a new operation against the rebels.

There were rumours that they were on their way to invade the city of Ponta Grossa and some believed the rebels and their army would march all the way to Rio de Janeiro in order to oust the President.

At this point in the war Deodato Manuel Ramos (also known as Adeodato) became a prominent figure, and he is considered by historians to be the last leader of the Contestadores.

On October 12, 1916, the state governors Filipe Schmidt (Santa Catarina) and Afonso de Camargo (Paraná) signed an agreement and the town of Campos do Irani was renamed Concórdia.