First Brazilian Republic

Brazil, 1889–1930. Draft, not yet reviewed

The First Brazilian Republic, also referred to as the Old Republic, was the Brazilian state in the period from 1889 to 1930. The Old Republic began with a coup d'état led by Deodoro da Fonseca that deposed Emperor Pedro II in 1889, and ended with the Revolution of 1930 that installed Getúlio Vargas as a new president. In the Oligarchic Republic from 1894 to 1930, political power was highly decentralized and was dominated by state-level oligarchies. The economy was predominantly agrarian and heavily dependent on coffee exports.

Seat of power: Rio de Janeiro

Rulers

Deodoro da Fonseca

President of Brazil, 1889–1891

Fonseca took office as provisional president after heading a military coup that deposed Emperor Pedro II and established the First Brazilian Republic in 1889, disestablishing the Empire. After his election in 1891, he stepped down the same year under great political pressure when he dissolved the National Congress.

Portrait of Deodoro da Fonseca: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Floriano Peixoto

President of Brazil, 1891–1894

Floriano Peixoto defeated a naval officers' rebellion against him in 1893-1894 and the Federalist Revolution in the States of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná. His government was marked by an increased centralization of power.

Portrait of Floriano Peixoto: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Prudente de Morais

President of Brazil, 1894–1898

Morais was elected in 1894, being the first civilian president of the country, the first to be elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of Brazil's 1891 Constitution, and the first to serve a full term. His government also faced the War of Canudos, a peasant revolt in Bahia's hinterland crushed by the Brazilian Army in 1897, and an assassination attempt that same year.

Portrait of Prudente de Morais: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales

President of Brazil, 1898–1902

Austere financial reforms were adopted during his tenure under Minister of Finance Joaquim Murtinho. He obtained a funding loan from Britain, which suspended the interest charge from previous loans. He created the Instituto de Manguinhos (now the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation), which was mainly focused on the creation of vaccines against the bubonic plague.

Portrait of Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves

President of Brazil, 1902–1906

Alves was elected in 1902, becoming the third consecutive São Paulo native to hold the presidency. During his term, Rodrigues Alves promoted a series of urban renewals and sanitation campaigns in Rio de Janeiro, then the Brazilian capital, which led to the outbreak of the Vaccine Revolt in 1904.

Portrait of Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Afonso Pena

President of Brazil, 1906–1909

Pena was the first politician from Minas Gerais to win the presidency, ending the series of politicians from São Paulo who had held the presidency since 1894. He was the only member of Emperor Pedro II's cabinet to become president of Brazil and the first Brazilian president to die in office.

Portrait of Afonso Pena: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Nilo Peçanha

President of Brazil, 1909–1910

He assumed the presidency in 1909 following the death of President Afonso Pena and served until 1910. Despite controversies involving his racial identity, Peçanha is frequently considered as Brazil's first Afro-Brazilian president.

Portrait of Nilo Peçanha: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Hermes da Fonseca

President of Brazil, 1910–1914

Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca was a Brazilian field marshal and politician who served as the eighth president of Brazil between 1910 and 1914. Fonseca supported the proclamation of the Republic by his uncle Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca, and was invited by him to be a field assistant and military secretary after the seizure of power.

Portrait of Hermes da Fonseca: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Venceslau Brás

President of Brazil, 1914–1918

Brás won the 1914 presidential election with 91.6% of the vote. Brás called for Brazil to enter World War I in order to maintain the dignity of the nation. The Brazilian National Congress voted to declare war on the Central Powers on 26 October.

Portrait of Venceslau Brás: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Delfim Moreira

President of Brazil, 1918–1919

Delfim Moreira, elected vice president under Rodrigues Alves in 1918, provisionally ruled the country as the Brazilian Constitution provided for new elections in case of disability of the president before completing two years in office. His short tenure was known as the republican regency, since the government Minister of Transportation and Public Works, Afrânio de Melo Franco, stood out in the president's decision-making.

Portrait of Delfim Moreira: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Epitácio Pessoa

President of Brazil, 1919–1922

His government was marked by the beginning of the tenentist movement that would culminate in the Revolution of 1930, which brought Getúlio Vargas to power. Pessoa also served as Minister of Justice, justice in the Supreme Federal Court, Attorney General, a two-term Federal Deputy, a three-term Senator, Chief of the Brazilian delegation for the Treaty of Versailles, and a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice.

Portrait of Epitácio Pessoa: Governo do Brasil/Musso, Public domain, file

Artur Bernardes

President of Brazil, 1922–1926

His administration was unpopular in the cities, especially in Rio de Janeiro, and from July 1924 onwards he was attacked by conspiracies and armed uprisings by tenentist rebels. Bernardes' attitude towards the opposition was uncompromising and authoritarian. Hundreds of rebel military personnel and civilians died in the bombing of São Paulo and the penal colony of Clevelândia.

Portrait of Artur Bernardes: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Washington Luís

President of Brazil, 1926–1930

Washington Luís belonged to the Republican Party of São Paulo (PRP) and served as the last president of the First Brazilian Republic. Facing the crisis generated by the Great Depression in the United States, the president lost almost all his support. Just three weeks before the end of his term, Luís was overthrown in a coup d'état during the Revolution of 1930.

Portrait of Washington Luís: Governo do Brasil, Public domain, file

Culture

At local level, the country was dominated by a form of machine politics known as coronelism, in which the political and economic spheres were centered around local agrarian oligarchs, known as a "colonels", who dispense favors in return for loyalty and controlled elections, commonly by conducting electoral fraud.
The country was also marked by a series of rebellions and revolutions against the ruling oligarchies, including the Federalist Revolution, the Naval Revolts, the Canudos and Contestado Wars, the Revolt of the Lash, and the Tenentist movements.
The Republic of the Sword (1889-1894) was a military dictatorship under Marshals Deodoro da Fonseca and Floriano Peixoto.

Picture

The Theatro Municipal is an opera house in Rio de Janeiro, built in the early twentieth century.

Image: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.