DeodorantgivesFonseca he was the first president of Brazil and assumed this position soon after the Proclamation of the Republic, event that happened in November 15th of 1889. Deodoro da Fonseca's administration is part of the consolidation period, since it was the first republican government in our country. He was in the presidency for two years and resigned due to disputes with the legislature.
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Historical context
The government of Deodoro da Fonseca was initiated shortly after Brazil became a republic. This event took place on November 15, after Deodoro himself led a small troop that dismissed the Ministerial Cabinet occupied by the Viscount of Ouro Preto. At the end of that day, the republic was proclaimed by JosephofSponsorship.
The Proclamation of the Republic was an event that resulted from the dissatisfaction, above all, of the military with the monarchy. They were dissatisfied by multiple factors, above all because they considered themselves wronged by the way they were treated by the monarchic regime. From the 1870s onwards, a republican movement was articulated which, with the support of São Paulo coffee growers, managed to overthrow the monarchy.
The great involvement of the military in the movement made them become protagonists in the first years of the Brazilian republic, and, therefore, Deodoro da Fonseca was appointed to preside over the government provisional. His government, however, was not without problems and challenges, the result of a (Republican) regime implemented on the basis ofimprovisation.
How was the government of Deodoro da Fonseca?
![After the Proclamation of the Republic, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca was named provisional president of Brazil.[1]](/f/15d26836f4336f385272379963b2ab06.jpg)
The government of Deodoro da Fonseca was, to say the least, controversial. This administration was inserted within the transition phase and, because of that, the transformations that the country faced were intense, as well as the tensions inherent to them. This command was strongly marked by a large crisispoliticsand economical.
In the first months of the republic, there was a very big dispute between positivists and liberals about the directions the country would take. The positivists (many of them were part of the army) argued that the country should be governed by a republicauthoritarian that would promote its modernization by force. Liberals, in turn, defended the need to form a Constituent Assembly, which would draw up a liberal constitution focusing on the federalism and in the freedomsindividual. As we will see throughout this text, the liberal exit was the victorious one.
Another important point is to specify that the government of Deodoro had a phaseprovisional is phaseconstitutional, this started after the new Constitution of Brazil was promulgated.
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Provisional Government
Once the new government was established, the first major concern was to erase symbols and institutionslinked tomonarchy. Thus, monarchical institutions, such as the Ministerial Cabinet and the Council of State, were abolished, and toponyms (names of public places) that had association with the monarchy were replaced.
The new regime too abolished the Constitution of 1824, and the administrative positions were occupied by republicans of diverse trends. The idea was clearly to exclude the monarchy from the imagination of the population and weaken it politically, since monarchists would not enjoy any political involvement with the new regime.
Other changes that took place over the 15 months of the provisional government were the separation of state and church affairs and the GreatNaturalization, the naturalization of all immigrants who were in Brazil at the time. This determination was instituted after the Decree No. 58-A, of December 14, 1889.
During the provisional government a terrible economic crisis that affected the country throughout the 1890s and became known as Stranding. This crisis was the result of the economic and banking reform promoted by the Minister of Finance, Rui Barbosa. In this reform, the minister authorized private banks to issue unbacked paper money. This generated a gigantic financial speculation crisis and resulted in highinflationary in the country.
![The Encilhamento was a crisis caused by the economic and banking reform carried out by Rui Barbosa, Minister of Finance.[2]](/f/208164ffa5db6c35dea353d3d334beba.jpg)
The political directions that the country has taken led to the call for an election to form a constituent Assembly, the institution responsible for drafting a new constitution for Brazil. This call came out on June 22, 1890, through the decree no. 510. The election was scheduled for September 15, and the Constituent Assembly elected to take office on November 15, 1890.
Constitution of 1891
THE Constitution of 1891 it was enacted on February 24, 1891 and instituted considerable changes for the country. First, it is important to say that she was of liberal orientation, but reinforced the exclusive character of elites that governed the country, as it did not address issues relating to social rights and limited citizenship in Brazilian territory.
The Constitution of 1891 was directly inspired by the United States Constitution. That established a significant change that generated profound changes in the country, such as the federalism. With this novelty, the former provinces, now named states, began to enjoy significant political freedom.
It was the institution of federalism that made the oligarchies and the colonels gain significant political powers in the First Republic. Another important point about the Constitution of 1891 is that it was inspired by an “essentially conservative liberalism”, as established by historian Maria Efigênia Lage de Resende|1|.
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This is because on the issue of political rights, that is, on the issue of citizenship, the Constitution of 1891 deleted a considerable part of the Brazilian population. She determined that the illiterate had no right to vote because it was understood that the population's access to this right would be harmful for the country.
You social rights nor were they addressed in the 1891 Constitution. This disinterest of the rulers of the First Republic demonstrated in the constitution was reinforced by statements made by presidents, such as Washington Luis (1926-1930), which considered social rights “a case of the police”, and Sales Fields (1898-1902), who said that the government of the republic departed from the states above the crowd, that is, for Campos Sales the opinion of the population (and their rights) did not matter|2|.
Therefore, it is clear that the intent of those who drafted the first republican constitution was secure your own interests, to the detriment of collective interests. For this reason, the right to political participation was restricted to a minority in the country.
Anyway, some of the main determinations of the Constitution of 1891 were:
Institution of federalism;
Institution of presidentialism, in which the president would have the right to a four-year term without the possibility of re-election;
Official separation between State and Church;
Guarantee of some individual freedoms, such as freedom of assembly;
Universal male suffrage, although there were limitations already mentioned;
Establishment of three branches: Executive, Legislative and Judiciary.
constitutional government
The constitutional government began with the realization of a electionindirect a day after the 1891 Constitution was promulgated. In this election, the parliamentarians who formed the Constituent Assembly had to voteseparatelyforpresident and vice president. Candidates for each position were:
Deodoro da Fonseca and Prudente de Morais, for the presidency;
Floriano Peixoto (supported by Prudente) and Eduardo Wandenkolk (supported by Deodoro), for the vice-presidency.
The result of this election determined the victory of Deodoro da Fonseca with 129 votes and of florianofish with 153 votes. Our country's first constitutional government was formed by representatives from different electoral slates. The constitutional government of Deodoro was quite troubled because he wanted govern without the Legislature interfering in their wills.
O authoritarianism de Deodoro undermined the president's position and led the country into political crisis less than a year after he was elected. In addition to the president's ambition of wanting to govern in a centralized manner, the political crisis also includes disputes that existed in the country's political frameworks between deodorists (President's supporters) and florianists (Vice supporters).
In addition to being authoritarian, we can say that Deodoro was also unable to perform the function. Certain political decisions made by him contributed to damage his position in the presidency. One of the main ones was the naming of “indenist” for the presidency of states and other government positions. Indenistas were not popular among historic Republicans (those converted to the ideal since 1870).
This unpopularity of the Indenistas is due to the fact that they were former royalists who converted to republicanism after the abolition of slavery, on the 13th of May. The main case was the Baron Lucena, former monarchist appointed to the Ministry of Labour. Dissatisfied with the government, the lawmakers ended up acting to try to remove the president's powers.
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End of the Government of Deodoro da Fonseca
Cornered by parliamentarians, Deodoro decided to radicalize and, following his authoritarian tendency, decided to close the National Congress, on November 3, 1891. This started a political crisis that brought the country to the brink of civil war. That's because the act of Deodoro violated articles of the 1891 Constitution and the reaction was immediate.
There was resistancecivil the president's attitude, as in the case of the railway workers from Central do Brasil who went on strike. In addition armed (Navy) rebelled against the president and returned the guns of warships to Rio de Janeiro. The sailors began to demand the resignation of the governor and the reopening of Congress and threatened to bomb the capital, Rio de Janeiro.
Pressured and fearing the start of a war, Deodoro da Fonseca resigned from the presidency in day November 23, 1891. With that, Floriano Peixoto assumed it in an agreement made with the oligarchs of São Paulo.
Grades
|1| RESENDE, Maria Efigênia Lage de. The political process in the First Republic and oligarchic liberalism. In.: FERREIRA, Jorge and DELGADO, Lucilia de Almeida Neves. republican Brazil: the time of oligarchic liberalism: from the Proclamation of the Republic to the 1930 Revolution. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 2018. P. 89.
|2| NEVES, Margarida de Souza. The scenarios of the Republic: Brazil at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. In.: FERREIRA, Jorge and DELGADO, Lucilia de Almeida Neves. republican Brazil: the time of oligarchic liberalism: from the Proclamation of the Republic to the 1930 Revolution. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 2018, p.89.
Image credits
[1]Kiev. Victor and Shutterstock
[2]FGV/CPDOC
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/governo-deodoro-fonseca.htm
