Ragamuffin War
During the Ragamuffin War, Rio Grande became a city and the province's capital all at once. In 1835, revolutionary General Bento Gonçalves da Silva forced Antônio Rodrigues Fernandes Braga, the provincial president, to flee from Porto Alegre to Rio Grande, a journey of about 200 km. The city remained the province's seat of government until the revolution's end in 1845.