Inconfidência Mineira (; "Minas Gerais Conspiracy") was an unsuccessful separatist movement in Brazil in 1789. It was the result of a confluence of external and internal causes in what was then a Portuguese colony. The external inspiration was the independence of thirteen of the British colonies in North America following the American Revolutionary War, a development that impressed the intellectual elite of particularly the captaincy of Minas Gerais. The main internal cause of the conspiracy was the decline of gold mining in that captaincy. As gold became less plentiful, the region's gold miners faced increasing difficulties in fulfilling tax obligations to the crown (the tax over gold was one-fifth). When the captaincy could not satisfy the royal demand for gold, it was burdened with an additional tax on gold, called "derrama".