"as their seats in the senate were constrained by their small population in comparison to the other southeastern states."

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This is simply not true, the demographic census of 1872 shows Bahia and Pernambuco being the second and the third most populated provinces, the first one being Minas Gerais. SP, RJ, MG and ES accounted for 3.6 million people roughly in 1872, the Northeast provinces accounted for 4.6 million people. The northeast part of brazil had objectively more people than any other region in 1870s. 2804:2728:17CD:BD01:D1E9:7D07:29AB:3859 (talk) 19:10, 26 September 2023 (UTC)Reply