Acre Free State, 1899-1903



A.) History before 1899

Located in a remote region of the rain forest, on the banks of tributaries to the upper Amazon, it was not explored, by Portuguese, until the second half of the 18th century. When BOLIVIA and BRAZIL signed a border agreement, the area was allocated to Bolivia. The northern stretches, at that time, were part of PERU.


B.) The Free State, 1899-1903

In the final years of the 19th century, the high price for RUBBER made stretches of rain forest economically attractive - the area is said to produce Brazil's best rubber in these days. When Bolivia saw the federal revolution in which the liberals replaced the conservatives as the dominating force in politics in 1899, LUIS GALVEZ RODRIGUEZ declared the thinly populated region of Acre independent, under the name ACRE FREE STATE, extending it over adjacent Peruvian territory.
After an armed conflict over Acre, Bolivia and Brazil, together with Peru, in the TREATY OF PETROPOLIS (1903), agreed to partition the territory, thus fixing their mutual borders in the area. Brazil was allocated the largest share, in exchange for paying 2.5 million pound sterling. Acre's new capital was named after Brazil's president, RIO BRANCO. Ever since, (Brazilian) Acre makes up a state of it's own within the Brazilian federation.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Entry Acre, from Footnotes to History, by James L. Erwin
DOCUMENTS Flag of Acre Free State, from FOTW, commented
Article Acre or Aquiry, from EB 1911
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on September 12th 2006

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