Brazil: Inconfidencia Mineira (the Mining Conspiracy). The victorious American Revolutionary War inspired many Brazilians to follow the same path. The occasion was the further increase in the Portuguese tax on gold mining due to the decline in gold production and thus in revenue. But the rebel group was very heterogeneous and lacked a truly charismatic leader. The conspiracy attracted many members of the military, priests, intellectuals, and poets (Cláudio Manuel da Costa and Tomás Antônio Gonzaga). The rebels were arrested in 1789. Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Paula Freire de Andrade (known as Tiradentes), José Álvares Maciel, and eight others were sentenced to the gallows. Tiradentes was hanged on April 21, 1792. His body was dismembered and sent to Vila Rica, in the Minas Gerais captaincy, to be displayed in the places where he had spread his ideas. The anniversary of his death is celebrated as a national holiday in Brazil. The nation would gain independence from Portugal thirty years later.
