Question of Palmas
The question of the zone of Palmas (or, of the zone of the Missions), was held between 1890 and 1895, between the governments of the Argentine and the Brésil, which disputed this territory, now Brazilian.
Argentina asserted at the time the western area of the current Brazilian States of the Paraná and Santa Catarina, seeking to establish the border on the level of the rivers Chapecó and Chopim, on the basis of treated of Madrid (1750). Little before the proclamation the Republic in Brazil (1889), the Chancellerie S of the two countries had concluded an agreement aiming at solving the dispute by the recourse to a external arbitration.
At the time of the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic, Quintino Bocaiúva, Minister for the Foreign relations of the Provisional government, signed the Traité of Montevideo (January 25th 1890), which shared the area between Brazil and Argentina.
Considering that the diplomat had exceeded his attributions, by making excessive territorial concessions, the Brazilian Congrès did not ratify the terms of the treaty (1891) and the question was subjected to the arbitration of the president of the the United States, Grover Cleveland (1893-1897). This last made a decision entirely favorable to Brazil, the February 5th 1895, fixing the border between the two countries on the rivers Peperi-Guaçu and Santo Antônio. The town of Clevelândia, in the State of the Paraná, located in the zone of the litigation, accepted its name in homage to the US president.
The resolution of the question of Palmas in favor of Brazil is largely due to the action, as lawyer of Brazil starting from 1893, of Jose Maria da Silva Paranhos Júnior. This last, baron de Rio Branco, was chosen by the president Floriano Peixoto (1891-1894) to replace the Baron Aguiar de Andrade, died in the course of procedure. Rio Branco gave to president Cleveland a presentation accompanied by a documentation gathered in 6 volumes, " The question of the limits between Brazil and the Argentine" Republic; ( has questão limits between O Brasil E has República Argentina , in Portuguese), in 1894, which carried the decision. ----