Rio Grande do Sul
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Rio Grande do Sul República do Rio Grande do Sul (Rio-Grandense Portuguese) | |
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 Flag
 Seal
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Motto: "Liberdade, Igualdade, Humanidade" "Freedom, Equality, Humanity" | |
Anthem: "Hino Revolucionário Rio-Grandense" "Revolutionary Rio-Grandense Anthem"  | |
| Capital and largest city | Porto Alegre |
| Official languages | Rio-Grandense Portuguese |
| Recognised regional languages | Kaingang Charrua Rio-Grandense Spanish Guarani Hunsrik |
| Ethnic groups (2024) | 60.6% White 16.97% Brown 15.89% Black 7.34% Indigenous 0.17% Asian |
| Demonym(s) | Rio-Grandense Rio-Grandian Gaucho |
| Government | Unitary parliamentary Republic |
• President | Olívio Dutra |
• Prime Minister | Edegar Pretto |
| Legislature | Assembly of the Republic |
| Independence from the Empire of Brazil | |
• Ragamuffin War | September 20th, 1835 |
• Declaration of Independence | September 11th, 1836 |
• Pampas Confederation | March 23th, 1848 |
• National Reconstruction Regime | September 11th, 1930 |
• First Rio-Grandense Republic | September 20th, 1934 |
• Insurrection of the Peoples | February 28th, 1953 |
• Socialist Republic of Rio Grande do Sul | March 10th, 1953 |
• Revolution of the Roses | July 12th, 1992 |
• Second Rio-Grandense Republic | November 10th, 1992 |
| Area | |
• Total | 340.668 km2 (131.533 sq mi) |
• Water (%) | 33.56 |
| Population | |
• 2024 estimate | 24,567,345 |
• Density | 72.1/km2 (186.7/sq mi) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2021 estimate |
• Total | $1.048 trillion |
• Per capita | $42,690 |
| GDP (nominal) | 2021 estimate |
• Total | $691 billion |
• Per capita | $28,130 |
| Gini (2021) |  33.6medium |
| HDI (2021) |  0.893very high |
| Currency | Guarani (G$) (GUA) |
| Time zone | UTC -3 |
| Date format | dd/mm/yyyy |
| Driving side | right |
| Calling code | +51 |
| Internet TLD | .rs |
Rio Grande do Sul (Rio-Grandense Portuguese: República do Rio Grande do Sul or República Rio-Grandense, lit. 'Republic of Rio Grande do Sul' or 'Rio-Grandense Republic') is a country in South America. It shares borders with Brazil to the North, Argentina to the West (separated by the Uruguay River) and Uruguay to the South. It is a part of the Southern Cone region of South America. Rio Grande do Sul covers an area of 340.668 square kilometers and has a population of around 24 million people, of which about 12 million live in the metropolitan zones of either the capital of Porto Alegre or the city of Rio Grande.
The land of present-day Rio Grande do Sul has been inhabited by hunter-gatherers since 12,000 BCE. The predominant tribe before the arrival of Europeans was the Guarani people, but there were also other, smaller, tribes such as the Kaingang or the Charruá people. Effective colonization of the entire territory of Rio Grande do Sul by Europeans was reasonably late, but the first colonial settlement of São Francisco do Sul was created in 1658.
In 1627, Spanish Jesuits created Jesuit missions near the Uruguay River, but were expelled by the Portuguese in 1680, when the Portuguese Crown decided to take over their domain, founding the Colony of Sacramento. In 1682, the Spanish Jesuits established the Seven Peoples of the Missions. The Portuguese arrived in 1737 with a military expedition by José da Silva Paes. The struggles for land ownership between the Portuguese and Spanish continued, and only ended in 1801, when the Gauchos themselves dominated the Seven Peoples, incorporating them into their territory. The Captaincy of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul was created on September 19, 1807. On February 28, 1821, it became the Province of São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul, inside the emerging Empire of Brazil.
However, insatisfaction with the imperial government and it's taxes led the Gaucho oligarchical elite (the estancieros) to revolt, starting the Ragamuffin War on September 20th, 1835. Although the original intention of the rebels was never to separate the province from the Empire, a enraged and brutal Brazil forced them to double on the independence of Rio Grande do Sul as a independent republic, together with the Juliana Republic. As other nations such as Paraguay, Argentina and USA involved themselves in the war, the Brazilian troops ended up backing down and signing the Treaty of Poncho Verde on June 8th 1848, effectively recognising the Pampas Cofederation (Rio-Grandense Republic and Juliana Republic) and ending the war.
The rest of the history of Rio Grande do Sul has been turbulent throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries. Enslaved people rebelled in the Revolt of the Black Spearmen of 1850 against the betrayal of the newly independent Confederation, who promised abolition but never followed through. The Juliana Republic proclaimed independence from the Confederation in the Railway Conflict of 1890, being annexed back to the Confederation by the Treaty of Desterro of 1892. In 1930, a Military Triumvirate overthrew the ruling oligarchy and set the National Reconstruction Regime, a quasi-fascist, interventionist regime in practice, ending the Pampas Confederation and centralising the nation under the First Rio-Grandense Republic in 1934. By 1953, the regime of Getúlio Vargas was overthrown by the MP-12-1 guerilla, putting a socialist regime in place.