A Brief History
On September 20, 1835, Brazilian rebels captured Porto Alegre, starting a rebellion that lasted almost 10 years called The Ragamuffin War. The longest war against the Imperial Brazilian government (and second bloodiest), the Ragamuffin war raged between southern, rural “Ragamuffins” or “Gauchos” (cowboys) that wanted a Republican form of government against the northern portion of the country.
Digging Deeper
Despite an offer of amnesty and peace in 1840, the rebels continued the fight even though no realistic chance of winning existed. The famed Italian revolutionary and uniter, Giuseppe Garibaldi, came to assist the rebels in 1839 and there learned his military trade. When peace finally came in March of 1845, the rebels had won amnesty, the right to pick their own provincial leaders, and a tariff on imported beef. The Imperial government even paid off the war debts of the rebels.
It has often been said that all wars are stupid, and in cases such as this one, even the name is goofy! About 20,000 Brazilians died in combat during this war, so it is no laughing matter, but come on, Ragamuffin? (“Ragamuffin” is a scruffy person dressed in rags, especially with messed up hair. Gauchos wore fringed leather clothes, hence the name.)
We have seen many wars over trivial reasons and many with goofy names, such as The Football (soccer) War, The Whiskey Rebellion, King Phillip’s War (the “King” in fact was a Native American chief named Metacomet), The Boxer Rebellion, Social War (357 BC-355 BC, and another by that name 91 BC-88 BC), Third Sacred War, Red Eyebrows Rebellion, Star Wars (no joke, these were Mayan wars), War of the Three Henries, War of the Three Sanchos (this sounds vaguely racist), War of Hum (hmmm…), War of the Two Peters (no comment), War of the Eight Saints, Epiphany Rising, Percy Rebellion, Hunger War, Flower War (Aztecs), War of the Roses, War of the Priests, Mad War (aren’t they all), Poor Conrad Rebellion, Little War (Hungary), counts Feud, Cologne War, Cudgel War, Beaver War, Peach Tree War, War of Devolution (?), War of the Reunions, Darien Scheme, First Fox War (What does the fox say?), Pomeranian War (right after the Basset Hound Revolt?), Kettle War, Theater War, Quasi-War, War of Knives, War of the Oranges, Rum Rebellion, Caucasian War (apparently a segregated war), Liberal War, Black War (actually against Black Aborigines), Baptist War, Pastry War, Sheepeater War, Ghost Dance War, Acre War, War of the Golden Stool, Holy Man’s Rebellion, Green Corn Rebellion, War of the Insane, Women’s War, Sand War, The Troubles, Dirty War, Pool Department Insurgency, and of course, RENAMO Insurgency. ( Note: All of these are real.)
It seems lately we give our wars much more mundane, uninspired names, but of course, by any name, all these battles, wars, and insurgencies are serious business. Some just sound goofy. Question for students (and subscribers): What other goofy sounding conflicts can you think of? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Pesavento, Sandra Jatahy. A revolução farroupilha. Brasiliense, 1990.
The featured image in this article, Charge of the Cavalry by Guilherme Litran (Júlio de Castilhos Museum, Porto Alegre), depicting the Riograndense army, is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="11793 https://www.historyandheadlines.com/?p=11793">14 Comments
I found it funny to read all the goofy battle names. I researched some more and found the “Battle of Pinkie”: the last major battle between Scotland and England. Another funny battle name was the “October Uprising,” as it was fought in November. This was due to the Julian calendar differences, but it is still humorous.
This article made me laugh even though it should not have because it talked about battles. Some of the names though, most of which I had never heard, were funny and I wonder how people came up with them. It would be neat to know how and why they came up with these names. Some of my favorite names were Beaver War and War of the Oranges.
Of all the different, random names of wars listed, the one that struck me and made me laugh out loud was “Star Wars.” I cannot believe that there was actually a Mayan set of wars called that. War is definitely not a laughing matter, but some of these names were hilarious.
First off I would like to say the best name on the war list is “The first fox war”. History has been long and amazing on how many wars our world has been through and even more amazing how silly the majority of these names are.
Wow I never knew so many wars were named so ridiculously! The ragamuffin war is such a silly and pitiful name. I can’t imagine being one of the fallen soldiers having died in a war names ragamuffin. After reading all the names of silly wars I was also struck by how many wars there have been throughout history. I wonder if anyone has ever tried to tally up all the known wars. Can’t we all just get along?
This list of names of war do seem absurd! Especially the Star Wars. I wonder who names these wars and what their credentials are.
My favorite on that long list of goofy war names is the Green Corn Rebellion in Oklahoma. I agree with Morgan on this one, how about a little peace and tranquility? A long list of war names like that really makes you think about how many people have been killed for the sake of war throughout the history of mankind.
I wonder if these wars were named with funny names in order to forget that they were actual wars where people died. By picking funny names, I think more about the names than the soldiers who fought and died in them.
How do wars get named? Are they named during the war or by historians after? I sure hope it is not during the war. I am just imagining some general sitting down and saying, “I can’t believe we lost another battle in the War of the Golden Stool.”
Uprisings by civilians are always inspiring! Strength is numbers is truly a remarkable concept.
Another war or rebellion for a new form of government. Just goes to show how much government means to people in a country. Despite the funny name of the war, this was a serious matter and a lot of lives were lost.
I use the word Ragamuffin all the time to make fun of my friends and I never knew that it was an actual war! It is questionable why wars that cost lives would have such insensitive names!?
I never really thought about how wars are names, I just always assumed that some big event or the town in which they were placed normally influenced the name. But some of these names seem to almost be comical, I am hoping that the names came after the war was over.
I don’t often think of comedy when I think of battles, or anything regarding wars but the battle names were quite funny. My favorite name was “Ragamuffin”.