[2] He then led a rebellion in Acre, with rubber tappers and veterans of the Cuban War of Independence on July 14, 1899, purposely the date of the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the Fall of the Bastille.

Called "Emperor of Acre", he assumed the provisional position of president, instituted the Arms of the Republic, the flag, organized ministries, created schools, hospitals, an army, fire department, served as a judge, issued postage stamps and idealized a modern country for that time, with social, environmental and urban concerns.

Therefore, Brazil dispatched a military expedition consisting of four warships and another leading infantry troops to arrest Luis Gálvez, end the Republic of Acre and return the region to Bolivian rule.

On March 11, 1900, Luis Gálvez surrendered to the task force of the Brazilian Navy, at the headquarters of the Caquetá rubber plantation, on the banks of the Acre River, to later be exiled to Recife, Pernambuco.

Gálvez returned to Brazil years later, but the government of Amazonas arrested him and sent him back to the Fort of São Joaquim do Rio Branco, today in the state of Roraima, from where he would later flee.