The War of Canudos took place at northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, from November, 1896, to October, 1897. The conflict had its origins in the settlement of Canudos, in the semi-arid backlands ("sertão" or "caatinga", in Portuguese) in the northeast tip of the state (then province) of Bahia.
After a number of unsuccessful attempts at military suppression, it came to a brutal end in October 1897, when a large Brazilian army force overran the village and killed most of the inhabitants.
Some authors, such as Euclides da Cunha (1902) estimated the number of deaths in the War of Canudos as being of ca. 31,000 (25,000 residents and 6,000 attackers), but the real number was most probably lower (around 15,000, according to Levine, 1995).
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Brazil
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“The war is dreadful. It is the business of the artist to follow it home to the heart of the individual fighters—not to talk in armies and nations and numbers—but to track it home.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)