On April 22, 1500, Portuguese navigator Cabral accidentally discovered Brazil, and since then Brazil has become a Portuguese colony. Hundreds of years of colonial rule caused the Brazilian people to suffer. Native Indians, black slaves and native whites were all dissatisfied with the colonial rule. At the end of the 18th century, under the influence of the European and American bourgeois revolutions, the Brazilian people also set off an independence movement.
In 1789, Sylva Xavier, a junior officer who had worked as a dentist in half of Nas Gerais, organized a secret revolutionary organization with more than 30 participants, mostly young intellectuals. They conspired to overthrow the Portuguese colonial rule, establish a republic, abolish industrial and commercial monopolies, and eliminate slavery. They chose São João de Rey in the hinterland as their capital and designed the flag of the new republic.
The conspirators once sent people to Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other places to carry out revolutionary activities. They decided to launch an attack on the day when the colonial authorities formally collected the old taxes. They planned to defeat the Governor's Guard first and capture Governor Barbacena alive. However, the secret organization was destroyed due to the whistleblowing of the white military officer Reis who was involved in the plot. The "tooth extractor" Sylva Xavier was arrested in April 1789, and he was justified in Rio de Janeiro in April 1792. He was awe-inspiring in the courts and execution grounds, showing the brave and unyielding spirit of struggle of the Brazilian people.
Although this conspiracy failed, it marked the beginning of the Brazilian independence movement.