Bahian Revolution, 1798 (Brazil)

Conjuração Baiana, Alfaiates Rebellion

Last modified: 2022-10-14 by ian macdonald
Keywords: brazil | bahia | alfaiates | conjuração | stars: 6 (red) | triband |
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image by Joseph McMillan

• About the Flag of the Bahian Revolution of 1798

• Index of Brazil Pages
• Historic Revolutionary and Separatist Flags
• Bahia

About the Flag of the Bahian Revolution

The first flag of Bahia was that of the so-called Conjuração Baiana, or Bahian Conspiracy, also called the Alfaiates Rebellion, launched in 1798 under the influence of French revolutionary ideas. On the morning of 12 August 1798, demonstrators collected in public areas of Salvador, the capital of the captaincy of Bahia, proclaiming a republic, abolishing slavery, abolishing noble privileges, and reducing taxation, and inviting the governor to side with the people. The uprising was quickly crushed by Portuguese authorities. According to Clovis Ribeiro and later flag historians, the flag used by the revolutionaries was a vertical triband, blue-white-blue, with a large red five-pointed star on the center surrounded by five smaller red stars. Ribeiro shows the large star with one point down and the small ones with one point up. Luponi shows all the stars with one point up, while Klein shows the large star point up and the small ones point down. The image above follows Ribeiro.
Sources: Ribeiro, Brazões e bandeiras do Brasil; Arthur Luponi, "The Flags of the States of Brazil: Bahia," Flag Bulletin 10:35-39 (Winter 1971); Klauss Erich Klein, "Bandeiras Históricas," at Agulhas Negras Military Academy website
Joseph McMillan, 21 August 2002