History of Acre

Due to their complexity, they are reminiscent of pre-Columbian civilizations, demonstrating a high degree of knowledge in various areas and mastery of advanced earth and water-moving techniques.

The latest excavations made an important discovery in Xapuri: A prop hole in good condition was located in a round-shaped geoglyph, reinforcing the thesis that the Indians of that time might have used palisaded fortifications for habitation and security.

[1] The northeastern droughts and the economic appeal of rubber, a product that, at the end of the 19th century, began its trajectory of high prices in international markets, were among the predominant causes in the movement of human masses in search of the El Dorado in Acre.

[3] The inevitable consequence was the westward expansion of the geographic horizon, reaching Spanish-held lands, which became the subject of the Treaty of Madrid (1750)[4] and Santo Ildefonso (1777).

From this neglect, it resulted that, in the Atlas of the Empire of Brazil (1868), by Cândido Mendes de Almeida, a reference at its time, did not contain the Acre River and its main tributaries, unbeknownst to geographers.

[2] The exploratory activities, the industrial importance of the rubber reserves, and the penetration of Brazilian settlers in the region aroused the interest of Bolivia, which requested better boundary fixing.

[2] Also in the second half of the 19th century, the demographic and geo-economic balance of the empire was disturbed, as the coffee boom in the South channeled financial and labor resources to the detriment of the Northeast.

[18] The growing impoverishment of this region spurred waves of migration toward the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo.

[2] The great riverbeds and the network of their tributaries were then intensely trafficked by flotillas of vessels of the most varied sizes, transporting settlers, goods, and supplies to the more distant nuclei.

[2] The governments of Amazonas and Pará soon instituted the so-called casas aviadoras, which financed various types of operations, guaranteed credits, and promoted commercial incentives in the rubber plantations.

[22] Thus, before the end of the 19th century, the Brazilian occupation of the geographical space of Acre was completed, where more than fifty thousand people formed, in the forest recesses of the three hydrographic valleys, a society whose sole objective was to produce rubber.

Soon after, Bolivia began negotiations with an Anglo-American trust, the Bolivian Syndicate, to promote, with exceptional powers (tax collection, armed force), the political and economic incorporation of Acre into its territory.

The governor of Amazonas, José Cardoso Ramalho Júnior, was informed of the adjustment by an official of the Bolivian consulate in Belém, the Spaniard Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias, and trusted to him the contingents to occupy Puerto Alonso.

In December 1900, composed of intellectual young men from the bohemian Manaus, the "Expedition of the Poets" disbanded after a quick combat in front of Puerto Alonso.

The bankers responsible for the deal accepted Brazil's proposal in New York City: Ten thousand pounds as the price for giving up the contract (February 1903).

[2][31] Subsequently, Rio Branco adjusted with Bolivia a modus vivendi which provided for the military occupation of the territory, up to the 10º20' parallel, by detachments of the Brazilian Army, in the zone which was designated as Northern Acre.

[2][31] In November 1903, Rio Branco and plenipotentiary Assis Brasil signed with Bolivian representatives the Treaty of Petrópolis, by which Brazil acquired Acre by purchase (two million pounds sterling) and ceded a small strip of the then territory of Mato Grosso called the Triângulo do Abunã,[32] with approximately 2,300 km2.

[36] The evolution of Acre appears as a typical phenomenon of modern penetration in Brazilian history, accompanied by important contributions to the economic projection of the country.

In 1918, it would be the turn of the autonomist struggle to reach the Acre valley, in Rio Branco, which protested intensely against the maintenance of that situation of subjugation to the federal government.

[41] In recognition of the productive contribution to the Allied victory, Brazil obtained North American resources to build the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, leveraging the industrialization of the Center-South region.

[42][43] The autonomist movement would only gain momentum again in the mid-1950s, when the Social Democratic Party (PSD), under former governor José Guiomard, decided to take up the banner and elaborated a bill that transformed Acre into a State.

[44] After many disputes in the National Congress, finally in 1962, during the parliamentary phase of João Goulart's government, Law 4070, authored by the then deputy Guiomard Santos, was signed.

[49] In 2007, the state's legislative assembly approved a land regularization to legitimize the ownership and alienation of public rural properties, which benefitted 600 families in about ten Acre municipalities, an unprecedented achievement in the country.