Rebels in western Brazil, northwestern Bolivia, and…

Rebels in western Brazil, northwestern Bolivia, and southeastern Peru declare the Free State of Acre in 1899.

It will last less than four years.

For forty years, after around 1860, Acre has been overrun by Brazilians, who mak
e up the vast majority of the population.

The territory of Acre had been assigned to Bolivia in 1867 by the Treaty of Ayacucho with Brazil.

The rubber boom of the late nineteenth century has attracted many Brazilian migrants to the region.

In 1899-1900, the Spanish journalist and former diplomat Luis Gálvez Rodríguez de Arias leads an expedition that seeks to seize control of what is today Acre from Bolivia.

The expedition is secretly financed by the Amazonas state government and aimes to incorporate Acre into Brazil after its independence from Bolivia.

Gálvez declares himself president of the First Republic of Acre on July 14, 1899, and sets up his capital at Puerto Alonso, which he renames Pôrto Acre.