Rasga-listas

The rasga-listas (English: list tearers or list rippers) were resistance movements to the 1874 lottery law for compulsory military service in the Empire of Brazil. In 1875, when enlistment for the lottery was due to begin, the rebels managed to turn the law into a "dead charter", postponing the lottery indefinitely. The law abolished the forced recruitment practiced by the Armed Forces until then. The old model, known as "blood tribute", was violently conducted by a State with limited administrative and extractive capacity over the population, being a cause of popular rejection of military service. A balance between the State, local authorities and free workers protected workers inserted in patronage networks from recruitment, restricting military service to the "rabble" of society. The system captured few recruits and proved ineffective during the Paraguayan War (1864–1870). The lottery was a European-inspired modernizing reform intended to make recruitment more rational and egalitarian. A large part of the population did not consider equality in the lottery to be fair and did not trust its directors. The lottery did not change the exempt position of the rich, but it tightened the state's demands on the poor population, removing patronage protection. Its beneficiaries, both landowners and workers, did not accept the threat to their way of living with the old recruitment system.

Armed mobs of rebels stormed the draft boards and tore up their lists to stop the process. The rebels exhibited great capacity for collective action and were limited in their use of violence. The movement was popular, with support from local elites and prominent female participation (as in the Women's Mutiny). Its geographic reach was vast, occurring in ten provinces of the current Southeast and Northeast regions, with the greatest strength in Minas Gerais and in the northeastern agreste. Its character was legitimist and reactive, defending established rights and the "natural order" against the threat of the new law. It was typical of the interior revolts that took place in Brazil from 1870 onwards, reacting to modernizing reforms. In the Northeast, it was contemporary and had a similar geography to the Quebra-Quilos Revolt. A new Lottery Law, passed in 1908, was finally implemented in 1916.