The First Brazilian Republic, also referred to as the Old Republic (, ), officially the Republic of the United States of Brazil, was the Brazilian state in the period from 1889 to 1930. The Old Republic began with the
coup d'état that deposed emperor
Pedro II in 1889, and ended with the
Revolution of 1930 that installed
Getúlio Vargas as a new president. During the First Republic, the country's presidency was dominated by the most powerful states of
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
and
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
. Because of the power of these two states, based on the production of coffee and dairy, respectively, the Old Republic's political system has been described as "
milk coffee politics". At local level, the country was dominated by a form of
machine politics
In the politics of Representative democracy, representative democracies, a political machine is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a hi ...
known as ''
coronelism'', in which the political and economic spheres were centered around local bosses, who controlled elections. They would often conduct mass electoral fraud.
The country was also marked by a series of
rebellions and revolutions against the ruling oligarchies, which culminated into the
Revolution of 1930, when the
Liberal Alliance, a force of urban middle-class, planters from outside São Paulo and military reformists composed mostly by
junior officers (known as
''Tenetism''), deposed ruling president
Washington Luís (representative of the São Paulo oligarchies) and led to the ascension of
Getúlio Vargas as president, heralding the start of the
Vargas Era.
Overview
On November 15, 1889, Field Marshal
Deodoro da Fonseca deposed
Emperor Pedro II, declared Brazil a republic, and reorganized the government.
According to the
new republican Constitution enacted in 1891, the government was a
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.
When these pri ...
al
democracy
Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
, but democracy was nominal. In reality, the elections were rigged, voters in rural areas were pressured or induced to vote for the chosen candidates of their bosses (see
coronelismo) and, if all those methods did not work, the election results could still be changed by one sided decisions of Congress' ''verification of powers commission'' (election authorities in the República Velha were not independent from the executive and the Legislature, dominated by the ruling oligarchs). This system resulted in the
presidency of Brazil alternating between the oligarchies of the dominant states of
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
and
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
, who governed the country through the
Republican Party of São Paulo (PRP) and the
Republican Party of Minas Gerais (PRM). This regime is often referred to as "''
café com leite''", 'coffee with milk', after the respective agricultural products of the two states.
The Brazilian republic was not an ideological offspring of the republics born of the
French or
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
s, although the Brazilian regime would attempt to associate itself with both. The republic did not have enough popular support to risk open elections. It was a regime born of a ''coup d'état'' that maintained itself by force.
[Hudson, Rex A. ''Brazil: A Country Study''. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1997, pg.22] The republicans made
Deodoro president (1889–91) and, after a financial crisis, appointed
Marshal
Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used fo ...
Floriano Vieira Peixoto Minister of War to ensure the allegiance of the military.
Republic of the Sword, 1889-1894
The history of the Old Republic was dominated by a quest for a viable form of government to replace the monarchy. This quest lurched back and forth between state autonomy and centralization. The constitution of 1891, establishing the United States of Brazil (Estados Unidos do Brasil), granted extensive autonomy to the provinces, now called States. A federal system was adopted, and all powers not granted in the Constitution to the Federal Government belonged to the States. It recognized that the central government did not rule at the local level. The Empire of Brazil had not absorbed fully the regional provinces, and now they reasserted themselves.
Into the 1920s, the federal government in Rio de Janeiro was dominated and managed by a combination of the more powerful states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, and to a lesser extent Pernambuco and Bahia.
The officers who joined Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca in ending the Empire had made an oath to uphold it. The officer corps would eventually resolve the contradiction by linking its duty to Brazil itself, rather than to transitory governments.
The Republic was born rather accidentally: Deodoro had intended only to replace the cabinet, but the republicans manipulated him into founding a republic.
Dictatorial rule (1889-1891)
It was inevitable that the transition from Monarchy to Democracy would not be immediate, and the military dictatorship was intended to last 5 years, though Deodoro de Fonseca's clique was more patriotic and better endowed than the average clique. Deodoro de Fonseca faced a multitude of challenges too numerous and too weighty in his initial 2 year rule.
Many of the tasks which the new government were faced with were solved by executive decree, which drew opposition from republicans and non-republican alike. The governments' first decree was a decree stating that until a constitution was adopted, a federal republic would govern.
Then, all in rapid succession, a series of decrees allowing those who had literacy and enjoyed civil and political rights to vote, liberalization of naturalisation, transferring power from provincial assemblies to state organs, reform of the civil law, and separation of church and state.
The government also began to tackle numerous problems in the country, such as financial concerns, the maintenance of domestic order, and foreign relations.
Ruy Barbosa was the main handler of the financial problems, and his term as Minister of Finance was a difficult one. In the last years of the imperial regime, many financial problems had propped up. Ruy Barbosa attempted to generate money in order to meet these demands by printing money,
and allowing certain banks to triple the nation's credit and other business concerns to "up" their capitalization. This plan was called the "Encilhamento"
This bred mass speculation, and fortunes were lost and gained in days the days after this was implemented.
However, soon after, inflation quickly rose,
and foreign investors and banks pulled out of brazil.
It would be several years before Brazil regained the trust of foreign bankers.
The constitution of 1891
The Constituent Assembly, which drew up the constitution of 1891, was divided between two factions. One group sought to limit executive power, which was dictatorial in scope under President Deodoro da Fonseca; the other was the Jacobins, radical authoritarians who opposed the paulista coffee oligarchy and who wanted to preserve and intensify presidential authority. The constitution created by this assembly established a federation that was officially governed by a president, a bicameral National Congress (Congresso Nacional; hereafter, Congress), and a judiciary.
The laws regarding voting rights were extremely restrictive; only the literate were able to vote in a country where less than 5% of population was literate,
and though there was no specific law that forbidden women from voting, there was also no law that allowed them to vote, hence, women, in practice, did not vote.
Voting was also made voluntary, which meant that there was little incentive or reason to vote, especially to people living in rural areas of Brazil with little government presence.
Even in the most competitive presidential elections, (excluding the final election of the old republic, the Election of 1930) the vote counts would never be above a million.
The Oligarchical System
Regardless of the constitution, the real power was held by the states, and by local potentates called "colonels."
The colonels largely controlled Brazil's internal politics through a system of unwritten agreements known as coronelismo. Coronelismo, which supported state autonomy, was called the "politics of the governors". Under it, the local oligarchies chose the state governors, who in turn selected the president.
This informal but real distribution of power emerged, the so-called politics of the governors, to take shape as the result of armed struggles and bargaining. The populous and prosperous states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo dominated the system and swapped the presidency between them for many years. The system consolidated the state oligarchies around families that had been members of the old monarchical elite. And to check the nationalizing tendencies of the army, this oligarchic republic and its state components strengthened the navy and the state police. In the larger states, the state police were soon turned into small armies. The Head of the Brazilian army ordered that it would doubled so they could defend them.
1891-1895
With a new constitution, the first election in Brazilian history was held in 1891.
The candidates were Deodoro de Fonseca, and Floriano Peixoto, The formers' Minister of War. Deodoro de Fonseca was elected President, and Floriano Peixoto was elected Vice President. Though the latter won 156 votes and the former won 129.
Deodoro de Fonseca had difficulty adjusting to sharing power with Congress and dissolved it in November of the same year.
This provoked revolts in the Navy and in Rio Grande Do Sul, and de Fonseca, in hopes to mollify the opposition, resigned to allow Vice President, Floriano Peixoto to take over the presidential position.
Floriano Peixoto ruled with an iron first, and was nicknamed: "The Iron Marshal". Upon taking office, he ousted all state governors that had supported de Fonseca, this triggered violence in many parts of the country.
One of the bloodiest of these struggles was the civil war in
Rio Grande Do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
, which quickly spread to neighbouring states such as
Santa Catarina and
Parana, which pit former Monarchist liberals against republicans.
Peixoto's rule was also marked by the first instance of American intervention in Brazilian affairs;
while the civil war in Rio Grande Do Sul was raging, a navy revolt in Guanabara Bay began, and Peixoto's diplomat to the United States, Salvador de Mendonca, with the help of American businessesman Charles Flint, assembled a fleet of ships with American crews, which managed to put down the revolt.
The United States' Government was interested in Brazilian commerce, and the survival of the republic, and authorised this mission, even sending a few cruisers as an escort.
This instability and violence of the was related to the absence of consensus among the elites regarding a governmental model, as the armed forces were divided over their status, relationship to the political regime, and institutional goals. The lack of military unity, and the disagreement among civilian elites about the military's role in society, explain partially why a long-term military dictatorship was not established. Although the military did not directly control Brazil, military men were very active in politics; early in the decade, ten of the twenty state governors were officers.
Military
Because the monarchy had been overthrown by the Brazilian military, the history of the outset of republic in Brazil is also the story of the development of the Army as a national regulatory and interventionist institution.
[Smallman, Shawn C. "Fear & Memory: in the Brazilian Army & Society, 1889–1954" The University of North Carolina Press 2002 pages 17–22] With the monarchy suddenly eliminated, the Army was left as the country's only long-lasting and powerful national institution. Although the Roman Catholic Church continued its presence throughout the country, it was not national but rather international in its personnel, doctrine, liturgy, and purposes. The Army assumed this new position strategically; the monarchy had become unpopular with Brazil's conservative economic elite after the abolition of slavery, and the Army capitalized on that shift in opinion to amass support for itself within the upper class. Thanks to their success in this area, the Army's prestige managed to eclipse even other military institutions, like the Navy and the National Guard. The Navy's attempts to prevent such hegemony were defeated militarily during the early 1890s.
[Ibidem - Smallman 2002] Although it had more units and men in Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul than elsewhere, the Army's presence was felt throughout the country. Its personnel, its interests, its ideology, and its commitments were national in scope.
However, the army was not a united institution. The army was distinctly divided into two factions. The faction under Deodoro de Fonseca, and the faction under Floriano Peixoto. The key difference between the two factions being the latter's followers adopted positivism and the formers' did not.
Foreign Relations
5 days after the overthrow of the empire, Argentina and Uruguay recognised the new republic, with Chile following suit by the before end of 1889. The next year, most of Latin America and the United States had recognised the new republic, together with most other nations
, though it was coldly received in Europe at first due to the lack of a constitution.
Britain still had reservations about the founding of the republic even after the promulgation of the constitution.
First civilian presidencies, 1895-1910
Floriano Peixoto's resignation marked the end of the first phase of the old Republic, the
Republic of the Sword, where Brazil was ruled militarily, without a civilian president.
After Peixoto's resignation, he handed over the presidency to
Prudente de Morais, the first civilian president of Brazil. His first actions in office were to negotiate an end to the federalist revolt in the south and grant amnesty to the rebels while lowering the influence of the military in politics.
No military men would take office until Hermes de Fonseca in 1910, and the role of the military in politics was greatly reduced. The Clube Militar, an organisation responsible for the coordination of military involvement in politics was shut down between 1896 and 1901.
During his presidency, he opposition between the political elite of the states and the radical Jacobins was amplified.
The Jacobins were mainly made out contingents from the lower middle class, military men, and workers, who had been affected by rising costs of living.
They believed that a strong, centralized republic would be able to fend off monarchist threats, which they believed where in every corner of the republic. The were also staunchly anti-Portuguese, and would violently disrupt Portuguese commerce in Rio De Janeiro.
Economy
Around the start of the 20th century, the vast majority of the population lived in communities that were essentially semi-feudal in structure, though accumulating capitalist surpluses for overseas export. Because of the legacy of Ibero-American
slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
, abolished as late as 1888 in Brazil, there was an extreme concentration of such landownership reminiscent of feudal aristocracies: 464 great landowners held more than 270,000 km
2 of land (''
latifúndios''), while 464,000 small and medium-sized farms occupied only 157,000 km
2.
After the
Second Industrial Revolution
The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, was a phase of rapid Discovery (observation), scientific discovery, standardisation, mass production and industrialisation from the late 19th century into the early ...
in the advanced countries,
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
responded to mounting European and North American demand for primary products and foodstuffs. A few key export products—
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
,
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
, and
cotton
Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...
— thus dominated agriculture. Because of
specialization, Brazilian producers neglected domestic consumption, forcing the country to import four-fifths of its grain needs. As in most of
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
, the economy around the start of the 20th century therefore rested on certain
cash crop
A cash crop, also called profit crop, is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate a marketed crop from a staple crop ("subsi ...
s produced by the ''fazendeiros'', large estate owners exporting primary products overseas who headed their own patriarchal communities. Each typical ''
fazenda'' (estate) included the owner's chaplain and overseers, his indigent peasants, his sharecroppers, and his indentured servants.
Brazil's dependence on factory-made goods and loans from the technologically and economically superior North Atlantic diminished its domestic industrial base. Farm equipment was primitive and largely non-mechanized; peasants tilled the land with hoes and cleared the soil through the inefficient slash-and-burn method. Meanwhile, living standards were generally squalid. Malnutrition, parasitic diseases, and a lack of medical facilities limited the average life span in 1920 to twenty-eight years. Because of the
comparative advantage
Comparative advantage in an economic model is the advantage over others in producing a particular Goods (economics), good. A good can be produced at a lower relative opportunity cost or autarky price, i.e. at a lower relative marginal cost prior t ...
system and lack of an open market, Brazilian industries could not compete against the technologically superior Anglo-American economies. In this context
the Encilhamento (a
Boom & Bust process that first intensified, and then crashed, in the years between 1889 and 1891) occurred, the consequences of which were felt in all areas of the Brazilian economy throughout the subsequent decades.
The middle class was not yet active in political life. The patron-client political machines of the countryside enabled the coffee oligarchs to dominate state structures to their advantage, particularly the weak central state structures that effectively devolved power to local agrarian oligarchies. Known as ''
coronelismo'', this was a classic
boss system under which the control of patronage was centralized in the hands of a locally dominant oligarch known as a coronel, who would dispense favors in return for loyalty.
Thus, high illiteracy rates went hand in hand with the absence of universal suffrage by secret ballot and the demand for a free press, independent from the then dominant economic influence. In regions where there was not even the
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
, far from major centers, the news could take 4 to 6 weeks longer to arrive. In those circumstances, for lack of alternatives, along the last decade of the 19th century and the first of the 20th, a free press created by European immigrant anarchists started to develop, and, due to non-segregated conformation (ethnically speaking) of Brazilian society, spread widely, particularly in large cities.
During this period, Brazil did not have a significantly integrated national economy. Rather, Brazil had a grouping of regional economies that exported their own specialty products to European and North American markets. The absence of a big internal market with overland transportation, except for the mule trains, impeded internal economic integration, political cohesion and military efficiency. The regions, "the " as the British called them, moved to their own rhythms. The Northeast exported its surplus cheap labor and saw its political influence decline as its sugar lost foreign markets to Caribbean producers. The
wild rubber boom in
Amazônia lost its world primacy to efficient Southeast Asian colonial plantations after 1912. The nationally oriented market economies of the South were not dramatic, but their growth was steady and by the 1920s allowed
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
to exercise considerable political leverage. Real power resided in the coffee-growing states of the Southeast—
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
,
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
, and
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
— which produced the most export revenue. Those three and
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
harvested 60% of
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
's crops, turned out 75% of its industrial and meat products, and held 80% of its banking resources.
Disease and Epidemics
The early years of the First Republic were marked by poor sanitation and healthcare in many cities. The capital, Rio De Janeiro was in an especially unhealthy state as it was wedged between many water bodies, most importantly, a sharply rising ocean.
Hence, flooding would occur during the rainy season, and because of the ineffectiveness of the drainage system, the city's land would still remain marshy even after the flood. Even worse, this led to pockets of stagnant water, which made ideal breeding places for mosquitos carrying yellow fever and malaria.
1910s and World War I
Preceding
Political dynamics
Following the creation of the republic in 1889, there were many political and social rebellions that had to be subdued by the regime, such as the Two
Naval Revolts (1891 & 1893–94), the
Federalist Rebellion[ :pt:Página principal] (1893–95),
War of Canudos (1896–97),
Vaccine Revolt (1904),
Revolt of the Whip (1910) and the Revolt of Juazeiro ("Sedição de Juazeiro", 1914).
The
Contestado War, a rebellion pitting settlers against landowners, also raged from 1912 to 1916. Therefore, with the onset of
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Brazilian elites were interested in studying the events of the
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...
with more attention than those related to the War in Europe.
By 1915 it was also clear that the Brazilian elites were dedicated to making sure Brazil followed a conservative political path; they were unwilling to embark upon courses of action, whether domestically (i.e. adopting the secret ballot and universal suffrage) or in foreign affairs (making alliances or long-term commitments), that could have unpredictable consequences and potentially risk the social, economic, and political power held by the Brazilian elite. This course of conduct would extend throughout the 20th century, an isolationist foreign policy interspersed with sporadic automatic alignments against "disturbing elements of peace and international trade".
Ruy Barbosa was the main opposition leader, campaigning for internal political changes. He also stated that, due to the natural conflict between Brazilian commercial interests and the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
' strategic ones (demonstrated for example in the German submarine campaign as well as in the Ottoman control over the Middle East), Brazilian involvement in the war would be inevitable. So he advised that the most logical way to proceed would be to follow the United States, which was working for a peace agreement but at the same time since the sinking of the
RMS ''Lusitania'' was also preparing for war.
Social Dynamics
The formation of the operary class takes its place at the end of 19th century, and it was related with the ongoing changes caused by the expansion of the coffee economy. Because of that expansion, the "progress" of the capitalist economy sufficed the conditions for the establishment of a ''nucleus'' of service and fabril workers at
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
. Beyond that, many immigrants from Europe had arrived, and between them were the refugees of the
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...
, bringing
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
and
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
ideas. Because of those ideas, problems for the very conservative regime of large estate owners emerged. Further on, masses of industrial workers became unhappy with the ''status quo'' and began engaging in massive protests, mostly in
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
and
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
. After a
General Strike in 1917, the government attempted to brutally repress the labor movement in order to prevent new movements from beginning. This repression, supported by legislation, was very effective in preventing the formation of labor unions considered to be really free by the workers involved.
War
There were two main lines of thought regarding Brazil's joining the war: One, led by Ruy Barbosa, called for joining the
Entente; another side was concerned about the bloody and fruitless nature of trench warfare, nurturing critical and pacifist feelings in the urban worker classes. Therefore, Brazil remained neutral in
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
until 1917. However, as denunciations of corruption exacerbated internal problems in the state, President
Venceslau Brás began feeling the need to divert public attention from his government; this goal could be accomplished by focusing on an external enemy and thus stoking a sense of unity and patriotism.
During 1917, the German Navy sank Brazilian civilian ships off the French coast, creating such an opportunity. On October 26 the government declared war on the
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,; ; , ; were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulga ...
: Germany,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
, and the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
. Soon after, the navy was ordered to capture Central Powers' ships found on the Brazilian coast, and three small military groups were dispatched to the
Western Front. The first group consisted of medical staff from the Army, the second consisted of Army sergeants and officers, and the third consisted of military
aviator
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they a ...
s, both of Army and Navy. The Army's members were attached to the
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...
, and the Navy's aviators to the British
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
. By 1918 all three groups were already in action in France.
By that time Brazil had also sent a
Naval fleet
A fleet or naval fleet is a large formation of warships – the largest formation in any navy – controlled by one leader. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land.
Purpose
In the modern sense, fleets are usually, but no ...
, the Naval Division in War Operations or ''DNOG'',
[Maia, Prado "D.N.O.G. (Divisão Naval em Operações de Guerra), 1917–18: uma página esquecida da história da Marinha Brasileira" ("D.N.O.G. - Naval Division in War Operations, 1917–1918: A forgotten page in the history of the Brazilian Navy") .l. Serviço de Documentação Geral da Marinha, 1961 (General Documentation Service of Brazilian Navy) OCLC 22210405] to join the Allies' Naval Forces in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
.
During 1918, protests broke out against the military recruitment; this, in conjunction with the news of
the ongoing revolution in Russia, only strengthened the isolationist sentiment among the Brazilian elites. In addition, the devastating advent of
Spanish flu further prevented the Brás administration from getting involved more deeply. Ultimately, the armistice in November 1918 prevented the government from carrying out
its plan for war. Despite its modest participation, Brazil gained the right to partake in the
Paris Peace Conference.
Developments under the Old Republic, 1910s-1920s
In the early twentieth century, demographic changes and structural shifts in the economy threatened the primacy of the agrarian oligarchies. Under the Old Republic, the growth of the urban middle sectors, though slowed by dependency and entrenched oligarchy, was eventually strong enough to propel the middle class into the forefront of Brazilian political life. In time, growing trade, commerce, and industry in
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
undermined the domination of the republic's politics by the landed gentries of that state (dominated by the coffee industry) and
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
, dominated by dairy interests, known then by observers as the politics of ''
café com leite''; 'coffee with milk'.
Economy
Long before the first revolts of the urban middle classes to seize power from the coffee oligarchs in the 1920s, Brazil's intelligentsia and farsighted agro-capitalists, dreamed of forging a modern, industrialized society inspired by
positivism
Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...
— the "world power of the future". This sentiment was later nurtured throughout the Vargas years and under successive populist governments, before the 1964 military junta repudiated Brazilian populism. While these populist groups were somewhat ineffectual under the Old Republic, the structural changes in the Brazilian economy opened up by the Great War strengthened these demands.
The outbreak of
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in August 1914 was the turning point for the dynamic urban sectors. Wartime conditions prevented Britain from exporting goods to Brazil, thus creating space for Brazil's domestic manufacturing sector to grow. These structural shifts in the Brazilian economy helped to increase the ranks of the new urban middle classes. Meanwhile, Brazil's manufacturers and those employed by them enjoyed these gains at the expense of the agrarian oligarchies. This process was further accelerated by the declining world demand for
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
during World War I. The central government, dominated by rural gentries, responded to falling world coffee demand by bailing out the oligarchs, reinstating the valorization program. Valorization, government intervention to maintain coffee prices by withholding stocks from the market or restricting plantings, had some successes in the short term; however, coffee demand plunged even more precipitously during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, creating a decline too steep for valorization to reverse.
Paradoxically, economic crisis spurred industrialization and a resultant boost to the urban middle and working classes. The depressed coffee sector freed up the capital and labor needed for manufacturing finished goods. A chronically adverse balance of trade and declining rate of exchange against foreign currencies was also helpful; Brazilian goods were simply cheaper in the Brazilian market. The state of
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
, with its relatively large capital base, large immigrant population from Southern and Eastern Europe, and wealth of natural resources, led the trend, eclipsing
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
as the center of Brazilian industry. Industrial production, though concentrated in light industry (food processing, small shops, and textiles) doubled during the war, and the number of enterprises (which stood at about 3,000 in 1908) grew by 5,940 between 1915 and 1918. The war was also a stimulus for the diversification of agriculture. Growing wartime demand of the Allies for staple products— for instance,
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
,
beans
A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are tradition ...
, and
raw materials— sparked a new boom for products other than
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
or
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
. Foreign interests, however, continued to control the more capital-intensive industries, distinguishing Brazil's industrial revolution from that of the rest of the West.
Demographic changes
From 1875 until 1960, about 3 million Europeans emigrated to Brazil, settling mainly in the four southern states of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. Immigrants came mainly from Portugal, Italy, Germany, Spain, Japan, Poland, and the Middle East. The world's largest Japanese community outside Japan is in São Paulo. In contrast, Brazil's indigenous population, located mainly in the northern and western border regions and in the upper Amazon Basin, continued to decline during this same period; largely due to the effects of contact with the outside world such as commercial expansion into the interior. Consequently, indigenous full-blooded Amerindians now constitute less than 1% of Brazil's population.
Socio-economic Development
With manufacturing on the rise and the coffee oligarchs imperiled, the old order of ''
café com leite'' and ''
coronelismo'' eventually gave way to the political aspirations of the new urban groups: professionals, government and
white-collar worker
A white-collar worker is a person who performs professional service, desk, managerial, or administrative work. White-collar work may be performed in an office or similar setting. White-collar workers include job paths related to government, co ...
s, merchants, bankers, and industrialists. Increasing support for industrial
protectionism
Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations ...
marked 1920s Brazilian politics with little support from a central government dominated by the coffee interests. Under considerable middle class pressure, a more activist, centralized state adapted to represent the interests that the new bourgeoisie had been demanded for years — one that could utilize a state interventionist policy consisting of tax breaks, lowered duties, and import quotas to expand the domestic capital base. Manufacturers, white-collar workers, and the urban proletariat alike had earlier enjoyed the respite of world trade associated with
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. However, the coffee oligarchs, relying on the decentralized power structure to delegate power to their own patrimonial ruling oligarchies, were uninterested in regularizing Brazil's personalistic politics or centralizing power.
Getúlio Vargas, leader from 1930 to 1945 and later for a brief period in the 1950s, would later respond to these demands.
During this time period, the state of
São Paulo
São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
was at the forefront of Brazil's economic, political, and cultural life. Known colloquially as a "locomotive pulling the 20 empty boxcars" (a reference to the 20 other states) and still today Brazil's industrial and commercial center, São Paulo led this trend toward industrialization due to the foreign revenues flowing into the coffee industry.
Prosperity contributed to a rapid rise in the population of recent working class Southern and Eastern European immigrants, a population that contributed to the growth of
trade unionism,
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
, and
socialism
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
. In the post-World War I period, Brazil was hit by its first wave of general strikes and the establishment of the
Communist Party in 1922.
Meanwhile, the divergence of interests between the coffee oligarchs— devastated by the Depression— and the burgeoning, dynamic urban sectors was intensifying. According to prominent Latin American historian Benjamin Keen, the task of transforming society "fell to the rapidly growing urban bourgeois groups, and especially to the middle class, which began to voice even more strongly its discontent with the rule of the corrupt rural oligarchies". In contrast, the labor movement remained small and weak (despite a wave of general strikes in the postwar years), lacking ties to the peasantry, who constituted the overwhelming majority of the Brazilian population. As a result, disparate social reform movements would crop up in the 1920s, ultimately culminating in the Revolution of 1930. The 1920s revolt against the seating of
Artur Bernardes as president signaled the beginning of a struggle by the urban bourgeoisie to seize power from the coffee-producing oligarchy.
This era sparked the
Tenente revolts as well. Junior military officers (''tenentes'', or lieutenants), who had long been active against the ruling coffee oligarchy, staged their own revolt in 1922 amid demands for various forms of social modernization, calling for agrarian reform, the formation of cooperatives, and the nationalization of mines. Though ultimately unsuccessful, the Tenente revolts illustrated the conflicts that would go on to underpin the Revolution of 1930.
Fall of the Old Republic
The 1930 general election
The
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
set off the tensions that had been building in Brazilian society for some time, spurring revolutionary leaders to action.
The elections of 1930 pitted
Júlio Prestes, of the pro-establishment
Republican Party of São Paulo, against
Getúlio Vargas, who led a broad coalition of middle-class industrialists, planters from outside São Paulo, and the reformist faction of the military known as the ''
tenentes''.
Together, these disparate groups made up the
Liberal Alliance. Support was especially strong in the provinces of
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
,
Paraíba
Paraíba ( , ; ) is a states of Brazil, state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and it is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Paraíba i ...
and
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
, because in nominating another Paulista to succeed himself, outgoing President
Washington Luís had violated the traditional alternation between Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Vargas campaigned carefully, needing to please a large range of supporters. He used populist rhetoric and promoted bourgeois concerns. He opposed the primacy of São Paulo, but did not challenge the planters' legitimacy and kept his calls for social reform moderate.
The election itself was plagued by
corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...
and denounced by both sides: when the victory of Prestes with 57,7% of votes was declared, Vargas and the Liberal Alliance refused to concede defeat, sparking tensions in the country. On July 26, 1930, vice-presidential candidate
João Pessoa of the Liberal Alliance was assassinated in
Recife
Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...
, sparking the beginning of the
Brazilian Revolution.
The Revolution
The 1930 revolution began in Rio Grande do Sul on October 3 at 5:25pm. Osvaldo Aranha telegraphed Juarez Távora to communicate the beginning of the Revolution. It spread quickly through the country. Eight state governments in the northeast of Brazil were deposed by revolutionaries.
On the 10th of October, Vargas launched the manifesto, "Rio Grande standing by Brazil" and left, by rail, towards
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
, the national capital at the time.
It was expected that a major battle would occur in
Itararé (on the border with
Paraná), where the federal troops were stationed to halt the advance of the revolutionary forces, led by Colonel
Góis Monteiro. However, on October 12 and 13, the Battle of Quatiguá took place (possibly the biggest fight of the revolution), although it has been little studied. Quatiguá is located to the east of Jaguariaíva, near the border between São Paulo state and Paraná. The battle did not occur in Itararé since the
generals Tasso Fragoso and
Mena Barreto and
Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...
Isaiah de Noronha ousted President
Washington Luís on October 24 and formed a joint government.
At 3pm on November 3, 1930, the
junta handed power and
the presidential palace to Getulio Vargas; the new administration abrogated the 1891 Constitution, dissolved the National Congress and started to rule by decree, ending the Old Republic. A Constituent Assembly was convened in 1934, following the failed
Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932: the Assembly enacted a new Constitution and
elected Vargas as new President of Brazil, starting the
Second Brazilian Republic.
Notes
Bibliography
*Cardim; Carlos Henrique "A Raiz das Coisas. Rui Barbosa: o Brasil no Mundo" (The Root of Things. Ruy Barbosa: Brazil in the World) Civilização Brasileira 2007
*
McCann, Frank D. "Soldiers of the Patria, A History of the Brazilian Army, 1889–1937"
Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It is currently a member of the Ass ...
2004
* (Portuguese)
*Rex A. Hudson, ed. Brazil: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1997.
*Scheina, Robert L. "Latin America's Wars Vol.II: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900–2001" Potomac Books, 2003 Chapter 5 "World War I and Brazil, 1917–18"
*Vinhosa, Luiz Francisco Teixeira "A diplomacia brasileira e a revolução mexicana, 1913–1915" (Brazilian diplomacy and the Mexican Revolution, 1913–1915) FLT 197
on Google Books
External links
* (Portuguese
site of ''GrandesGuerras'' (WorldWars) Magazine* (Portuguese
Official Siteof
Brazilian Army
The Brazilian Army (; EB) is the branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible, externally, for defending the country in eminently terrestrial operations and, internally, for guaranteeing law, order and the constitutional branches, subordina ...
* Frederik Schulze:
Brazil, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
{{Brazil topics
Modern history of Brazil
19th century in Brazil
20th century in Brazil
1889 establishments in Brazil
1930 disestablishments in Brazil
Former countries of the interwar period
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...