During the independence war, and in the following decades after, the Riograndense Republic gained independence from Portuguese BrasilBrazil, the country saw a significant influx of migrants coming from the British colony of Carolina. Initially most migrants were war volunteers along their families, but after independence most migrants immigrated for cultural, political & religious reasons. These immigrants established themselves in the western state of Missões and to this day Spanish is still an official language in the state (but not as widely spoken like it was in the past). In total, the Riograndense Republic has the received the second largest amount of hispanophone immigrants from Carolina (beaten by Paraguay).
