THE First Republic is the period of history of Brazil which happened from 1889 to 1930, having started with the Proclamation of the Republic which took place on November 15, 1889 and ended with the deposition of Washington Luis as a consequence of the 1930 Revolution. This period is known by many as the Old Republic, but among historians the term used to refer to this period is the First Republic.
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Proclamation of the Republic
The First Republic began with the Proclamation of the Republic, which took place on the day November 15, 1889. The overthrow of the monarchy occurred due to the loss of political support, making this regime unpopular among Brazil's elites. The military, dissatisfied with the monarchy for some time, and a portion of civil society, especially the oligarchs of São Paulo, organized a movement to overthrow the monarchy.
On November 15, led by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, the military removed the Visconde de Ouro Preto from the Ministerial Cabinet. Throughout the day, political movements led
José do Patrocínio to proclaim the Republic in the City Council of Rio de Janeiro. This marked the beginning of the First Brazilian Republic.Periodization
The First Republic, as already mentioned, extended from 1889 to 1930. A specific period of the First Republic, from 1889 to 1894, is also known as Republic of the Sword. This name is due to the fact that the two presidents Brazilians (Deodoro da Fonseca and Floriano Peixoto) were military. The Republic of the Sword, however, is a period incorporated into the First Republic.
The entire First Republic can be divided into three major phases, as established by Professor Marcos Napolitano|1|:
Consolidation (1889-1898): period marked by the consolidation of the political and economic structures of the First Republic. It was marked by crises in politics and the economy.
Institutionalization (1898-1921): period in which the political structure of the First Republic was properly consolidated. Here, policies such as that of governors and café au lait were defined.
Crisis (1921-1930): period in which the political structures of the First Republic went into crisis due to the incorporation of new actors into Brazilian politics. Conflicts between oligarchies also contributed to the end of the First Republic.
Mind Map - First Republic
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Features
The First Republic, in addition to the Old Republic, is also well known as oligarchic republic and that's because this period was marked by the predominanceof theoligarchies about our country. Oligarchies were political forces that based their power on their possessions, that is, on land (oligarchs were, in general, large landowners).
The predominance of oligarchies over Brazilian politics began to be consolidated in 1894, when Prudent of Morals was elected president. the election of PrudentinMorals it also marked the end of the aforementioned period known as the Republic of the Sword. The predominance of oligarchies resulted in some characteristics that are considered great marks of the First Republic.
These features are the bossiness, O patronage it's the colonelism. These three symbolize the power of the country's agrarian elites manifested in land ownership, in addition to manifesting the power of the colonels on the interior regions of Brazil and the exchange of interest, a fundamental element for the support of oligarchies in the power.
Other very important features of this period were the policies that supported the structures in the political sphere in Brazil. Here we are talking about governors' policy and of the latte policy. These policies were very important because they reduced conflicts between the oligarchies, but they did not end them.
Governors Policy
Governors' policy, also known as state policy, was created during the government of Sales Fields, president of Brazil between 1898 and 1902. It was with the policy of the governors that the Brazilian political functioning in the First Republic was structured. Through this policy, it was possible to carry out a alliance between executive and legislative.
Historian Boris Fausto defined the policy objectives of the governors as follows:
Its objectives can be summarized as follows: to reduce as much as possible political disputes within each state, giving prestige to the strongest groups; reach a basic agreement between the Union and the States; put an end to the existing hostility between the Executive and the Legislative, taming the choice of deputies|2|.
In practice, this policy worked as follows: the Federal Government would support the most powerful oligarchy in each state. In return, the government demanded that each oligarchy support the Federal Government's proposals in the legislature.
Thus, oligarchies should elect deputies willing to act in favor of the government in the legislature. With the support of the most powerful oligarchy, the Federal Government hoped that political conflicts would spill over as little as possible at the federal level and be reduced only to the state level.
The functioning of the governors' policy depended considerably on the figure of the colonel, as it would be he who, at the regional level, would mobilize the necessary votes to elect the right candidates, according to the interests of each oligarchy.
The colonel used his financial power to pressure people to vote for a particular candidate. This intimidation of voters is known as “halter vote”. In addition to intimidation, the minutes fraud recording votes was a common practice.
Latte Policy
The café au lait policy is a classic concept when referring to the First Republic. This policy gained strength in Brazil, especially from 1913, with the signing of the Fine Gold Pact, between the oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. This concept refers to the rotation of candidates launched for the presidency by these two oligarchies.
According to this pact, paulistas and mineiros alternated in the presidency of the republic. The name "coffee with milk" refers to the fact that São Paulo was the biggest coffee producer in Brazil, while Minas Gerais was the biggest milk producer.
The use of this concept to explain the First Republic has been criticized by historians, because the oligarchies of Minas Gerais and São Paulo were important, but the functioning of the political game of that period did not pass exclusively through them, since there were other oligarchies in the parents.
Economy
In the economic field, Brazil continued to rely heavily on coffee. His biggest producer in Brazil was the state of São Paulo. At the beginning of the 20th century, growers began to increase the amount of coffee produced, which led to a drop in the price of this product, as the market was crowded with the product. Aiming to defend their interests, the coffee growers gathered in the Taubate Agreement.
In this agreement, it was decided that the Brazilian government would buy surplus coffee bags with the objective of controlling the price of this product in the international market. This would guarantee the farmers' profits and solve the coffee price issue. In addition, it was decided that the State would make a loan of 15 million pounds in order to be able to purchase the excess of these bags.
In the First Republic there was also a littledevelopmentindustrial, especially in the State of São Paulo. Industrial development in São Paulo was, in part, financed by the prosperity of the coffee business and the city of São Paulo concentrated much of this industrial growth.
Industries received large numbers of immigrant workers and industrial growth resulted in the emergence of the labor movement in Brazil, especially from 1917, when the Russian revolution.
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Decay of the First Republic
The First Republic began its decadent phase in the 1920s. The entry of new actors into national politics, such as the lieutenants, contributed to its end. O wearofcovenant that kept the oligarchies minimally at peace also contributed to the end of this period of Brazilian history. In the 1920s, the tenentistas were a force that shook the structure of the First Republic.
This happened because the tenentistas claimed the end of the oligarchic structures that were established in the country. Throughout the 1920s, the lieutenants carried out a series of revolts across the country like the Revolt of 18 at Fort Copacabana, a Paulista Revolt of 1924 and the About Column.
It is important to mention that the First Republic was a period marked by tensionssocial that resulted in conflicts in different regions of Brazil. Here we can mention the Straw War, Armada Revolt, Contested War, Vaccine Revolt, Revolt of the whip etc. Read this text to learn more about First Republic revolts.
The trigger for the end of the First Republic was the 1930 presidential election. On that occasion, the president Washington Luis decided to break with the Pacto de Ouro Fino and instead of launching a candidate from Minas Gerais, it chose to launch JuliusAbout, candidate from São Paulo. This deeply displeased the Minas Gerais oligarchy, which allied with the Rio Grande do Sul oligarchy and the lieutenants, and together launched GetulioVargas as a presidential candidate.
Getúlio Vargas was defeated, but members of his electoral ticket, unhappy with the defeat, began to conspire against the government. The excuse used by the members of the Liberal Alliance (Vargas plaque) to start an armed revolt against the government was the murder of João Pessoa, vice president of Vargas. The assassination of João Pessoa, however, was not related to the electoral dispute between Júlio Prestes and Vargas.
The revolt against the government, named as 1930 revolution, began on October 3, 1930, and, in the same month, on the 24th, resulted in the ousting of Washington Luís from the presidency. Júlio Prestes was prevented from assuming the presidency of the country and, in November of the same year, Getúlio Vargas was sworn in as the country's provisional president. That was the end of the First Republic, and the beginning of It was Vargas, a period that spanned fifteen years.
Summary
The First Republic began with the Proclamation of the Republic on November 15, 1930.
The inauguration of Getúlio Vargas as president, after the Revolution of 1930, marked the end of that period.
The policy of governors and the policy of coffee with milk were important practices of this period.
The First Republic can be divided into Sword Republic and Oligarchic Republic.
Other important characteristics of this period were bossiness, clientelism and coronelismo.
The Taubaté Agreement was an important event, as it guaranteed the interests of São Paulo coffee growers.
|1| NAPOLITANO, Marcos. First Republic: consolidation and crisis (Lecture 2, part 1). To access, click on here.
|2| FAUSTO, Boris. History of Brazil. São Paulo: Edusp, 2013, p. 222-223.
*Image credits: Boris15 and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/primeira-republica.htm
