Travel Guide Canudos

At the end of the th century, the Bahia sertão experienced Years of Terrible Drought. In addition to hunger and thirst, the inhabitants of the region suffer from another wound: the cangaceiros, the armed bands plying the countryside, carried out killings and looting, flying the little food they find.A charismatic Character, Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel, nicknamed Antônio Conselheiro («the Counselor»), who has been preaching and harangue for years in this hostile region, attracting an ever growing number of faithful by claiming to be prophet, brings to Canudos several thousand poor people. This mystical leader founded a community challenging the national religious and political order, governed by Christian morality and abolished money and private property. The charism of the «Counselor» is such that dangerous cangaceiros come to look for their redemption and join the population, made up of peasants, merchants and marginals.The authorities of the young republic are soon fear about this subversion and sending 4 military expeditions to end: this is the "war of Canudos" (1896-1897).After the first three attacks were postponed thanks to the guerrilla led by insurgents organized and determined to resist until death, it is a real army of 2 columns and 8 000 men, with the most modern weapons (including powerful guns) marching on Canudos. This fourth campaign will result in the total annihilation of the town (which then has some 25 000 souls), encircled and bombed relentlessly then invested home per house. The ultimate defenders (including children) are ruthlessly massacred, many women raped, the most avenantes being delivered to prostitution.A military engineer and war correspondent, Jao da Cunha joined the last military expedition and published in 1902 under the title Bones Sertões, an encyclopaedic book analysing this blip among the most violent in Brazil's history and constitutes a founding document of Brazilian historiography. He will inspire the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas LLosa his book La War de la fin du monde, whose reading is highly recommended (he is translated into French).You can visit the area from Jao da Cunha.