The Contingent Power of the Yaco River in the Federal Territory of Acre (1904-1920)

ABSTRACT The article analyzes the role of the rivers belonging to the Purus and Juruá basins, especially the Yaco River, in the political disputes around the state autonomy of Acre and in the choice of their future capital between 1904 and 1920. Acre was divided into four political independent units (departments of Alto Acre, Alto Purus, Alto Juruá and Tarauacá), which disputed political hegemony over the entire territory. Periodicals published in the departments, in Belém do Pará and in the federal capital are analyzed, as well as reports written by the mayors of the region, to map the presence of the rivers in the political events of the time. Yaco River was an agent of uncertainty, acting decisively in the resolution of conflicts, in the political relations of the federal government with the local elites, in the outbreaks of diseases that marked the external image, and in the definitive choice of the capital of the territory, with the great flood of 1915.