O tenentism was a political and military movement carried out by young Brazilian officers during the period of First Republic. This officer corps was generally composed of lieutenants and captains who were dissatisfied with the Brazilian political system, especially with the practices of the political game imposed by the oligarchies.
The emergence of tenentism in the 1920s contributed to the destabilization of the political order existing in the First Republic. The emergence of this movement dates back to the electoral campaign of the 1922 elections. In these elections, the oligarchy of São Paulo and Minas Gerais launched Artur Bernardes as a presidential candidate and faced the competition of Nilo Peçanha, supported by the oligarchies of Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.
Nilo Peçanha's candidacy was known as Republican Reaction, and his ticket sought to win the vote of the urban middle classes. It was during this electoral campaign that the image of Artur Bernardes as an anti-military politician became popular because of fake letters that were aired with supposed criticisms made by him to military.
Although it was disclosed at the time that the documents were fakes, the military's relationship with Artur Bernardes was deeply strained. The situation definitely worsened when the elected president Artur Bernardes ordered the closing of the Military Club and the Hermes da Fonseca prison. From then on, a movement of revolt and opposition within the army against the governments of the First Republic began.
The action of the tenentista movement extended from 1922 to 1927 and, during this period, a series of rebellions took place. The first major revolt of the tenentistas took place on July 5, 1922, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and became known as Copacabana Fort Revolt or Revolt of 18 at Fort Copacabana.
The rebellious lieutenants in Copacabana wanted to recover the honor of the military, claiming that they were being repressed by the government of Artur Bernardes. During this revolt, the lieutenants were surrounded at Fort Copacabana and, at one point, 18 officers, in an act of desperation, decided to march down the Avenida Atlantica towards the troops of the government. Only two officers of the eighteen survived: Siqueira Campos and Eduardo Gomes.
After this episode, the impetus for the revolt spread to other officers in different parts of Brazil. There were tenentista rebellions in Manaus in 1924, which became known as CommuneinManaus. There was also the RevolutionPaulistain1924, which later started the Costa-Prestes column, when the tenentista troops led by Miguel Costa joined with the lieutenants led by Luís Carlos Prestes.
The Costa-Prestes column appeared in 1925 and was considered the greatest tenentist movement of the period. The officers led by MiguelCoast and LuísCarlosAbout they marched in the interior of Brazil for more than two years, fighting against the troops of President Artur Bernardes. In all, the Costa-Prestes column marched for 25,000 kilometers and crossed twelveStates. The movement ended in 1927, when they went into exile in Bolivia.
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What was the ideology of the lieutenants?
First of all, they were absolutely contrary to the political practices of the period of the First Republic. so they fought against the power of the oligarchies, especially in the interior of Brazil, where social inequalities were more pronounced.
The tenentistas' project was considered as a salvationist movement, as they claimed to act in defense of republican institutions. In addition, there was great dissatisfaction among military personnel with the little investment made in the corporation, in their view.
The tenentistas considered the political condition in which Brazil found itself as the great cause of the existing shortages. As they fought against the oligarchies, naturally, they were against the existence of federalism in Brazil, claiming that this system allowed the political fragmentation of Brazil, which generated the concentration of power in nuclei regional.
The lieutenants, in general, defended a project for Brazil based on the liberalism, however, it is important to point out that within the group there were officers who embraced other ideologies, like communism. In addition, they advocated the formation of a republicauthoritarian to promote the necessary changes. Thus, as historians Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling put it, lieutenants were "liberal in social issues and authoritarian in politics"|1|.
In the economic field, defended themodernization and industrialization of the country and the end of the policy that prioritized coffee in the Brazilian economy. Finally, it is noteworthy that, on social issues, they defended "the reform of public education, the mandatory nature of primary education and the moralization of politics"|2|. In addition, "they also denounced the miserable living conditions and the exploitation of the poorest sectors"|3|.
The lieutenants, however, did not have an action plan and did not know how to implement the reforms they advocated. Thus, the struggles organized by them, as historians classify, were characterized more by action than by discourse. The tenentismo was responsible for launching important names in the political framework of Brazil in the following decades and was directly linked with the 1930 revolution, which ended the First Republic and placed Getúlio Vargas in power.
|1| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloisa Murgel. Brazil: a biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 347.
|2| and |3| Idem, p. 348.
*Image credits: Alexandre Rotenberg and Shutterstock
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
