THE History of the Brazilian Republic it began in 1889 with the Proclamation of the Republic and followed the entire subsequent period, until the 21st century. The spread of republican ideals dates back to the colonial period, such as during the Inconfidência Mineira and the Conjuração Baiana, at the end of the 18th century. Although ideals and revolts sought to overcome the monarchy, it was only at the end of the 19th century, with the the end of slavery, the agrarian elites of the country accepted to organize the Brazilian state along the lines republicans.
The fact that the Republic was born as an acceptance of the elites and that it was carried out through the sword of the Brazilian army shaped a character authoritarian and excluding the Brazilian State, guaranteeing the privileges of the ruling classes and the denial of rights to the exploited classes during long time. The army's participation in national political life was also a constant in the country's republican history, which can be divided into some phases.
First Republic
The Old Republic, or First Republic, is the first period of this history, between the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889 and the Revolution of 1930. Initially, it was characterized by the presidency of two army marshals, which earned it the name of the Republic of the Sword. After these two terms, the rural elite in São Paulo and Minas Gerais came to hold the power of the federal government, guaranteeing the power of the agrarian oligarchy, which gave historians grounds for calling this period the Republic Oligarchic.
It was during this period that the country experienced a series of urban and rural revolts resulting from the social and political changes that the country underwent. The War of Canudos, of 1896-1897, and the Revolta da Vacina, of 1904, should be highlighted. It was during this period that Brazil began its industrialization, changing the urban landscape of some cities and creating the conditions for the formation of the working class in national territory.
These changes resulted in new political and social pressures, which the oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais could no longer control. The 1930 Revolution was the culmination of this process, which resulted in the period known as the Vargas Era.
It was Vargas
The 1930 Revolution raised Getúlio Vargas to power, remaining as president until 1945. During his Provisional Government (1930-1934), the new president managed to circumvent conflicts between national elites, mainly with the victory over the oligarchy and industrial bourgeoisie of São Paulo during the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932.
The promulgation of the Constitution in 1934 and the opening of a democratic process sealed the agreement between the various fractions of the national ruling class. However, they could not contain the dissatisfaction of the popular sectors. It is in this sense that one can understand the emergence of the Brazilian Communist Party and the attempt to overthrow the Vargas government, through what became known as the 1935 Communist Intentona.
The PCB's attempt served as a pretext for Vargas to carry out a coup d'état in 1937, ending the constitutional period and inaugurating the Estado Novo. Even containing the forces of integralism, the Estado Novo marked yet another period of extreme authoritarianism in the Brazilian State.
A new constitution was adopted and Congress was closed. As a way to contain popular dissatisfaction and manage to increase the consumption power of the domestic market, Vargas enacted a series of laws which guaranteed some rights to the urban working class, in addition to providing a level of income that would boost the effort to industrialization.
Industrialization added to measures to rationalize public administration characterized the effort to modernize the Brazilian state, guaranteeing the conditions for strengthening both the industrial bourgeoisie and the technocracy of state companies and the administration public.
Fourth Republic
By the end of World War II, in 1945, Vargas was weakened. A coup commanded by General Eurico Gaspar Dutra removed him from power. A new constitution was adopted in 1946, guaranteeing the holding of direct elections for president of the republic and for state governments. The National Congress returned to function and there was an alternation in power.
However, it was a period of strong political instability. The social changes resulting from urbanization and industrialization projected new political forces that intended to deepen the process of modernization of society and the Brazilian State, which relieves the elites conservative. The period was marked by several coup attempts, including the suicide of Getúlio Vargas in 1954.
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JK's government managed to bring about an accelerated industrial development in some areas, but it could not solve the problem of social exclusion in the city and countryside. These measures of social change would form the basis of the proposals of the Government of João Goulart. The Brazilian state was moving towards solving long-repressed demands, such as agrarian reform. Faced with the danger posed to their economic and political interests, the ruling classes once again orchestrated a coup d'état, with the deposition by the army of João Goulart, in 1964.
Military dictatorship
Begun on April 1, 1964, the Military Dictatorship was one of the most repressive periods in the history of the Republic. Countless political groups were disbanded, and their members tortured and killed. What differentiated the period was the systematization of state repression combined with the incentive to economic development.
The repressive state structure, preventing the exercise of political opposition through police institutions, guaranteed the social stability necessary for foreign investments. It was the period of the Brazilian economic miracle and the attempt to transform the country into a world power.
The dictatorship existed until 1985 when popular pressure for political opening took the streets of the country, mainly in the Diretas Já campaign. Even with thousands of people on the streets, the reform of the state was carried out “slowly and gradually”, as the military wanted.
On the working class side, a vigorous union movement emerged in the 1970s, especially after the strikes in the ABC Paulista between 1978 and 1980. This union movement would become one of the features of the later period.
The New Republic
The New Republic began with the government of José Sarney and remains until the present day, with the first term of President Dilma Rousseff. Sarney was elected through indirect voting and during his government a new Constitution was drafted, enacted in 1988, which guaranteed direct and free elections to all elected positions. The division of powers was maintained and a new liberal democratic perspective opened up in the country.
The first directly elected president since 1960 was Fernando Collor de Melo, in 1989. However, corruption scandals made him resign in 1992. After that resignation, the mandates of two governors marked the political history of the Republic. The first was Fernando Henrique Cardoso who, with the Real Plan, was able to guarantee the economic stability necessary for foreign investments. These investments were possible as a result of privatizations carried out in specific sectors of the economy, such as telecommunications, mining and steel. On the other hand, such measures represented the downsizing of the functions of the Brazilian State, marking the period of neoliberalism in Brazil.
FHC ruled until 2002, when he was replaced by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The Republic's first president of workers' origin sought to characterize his government by the distribution of income, made possible by the economic stability of the previous period. The distribution of income occurred through policies such as Bolsa Família, which, in addition to a minimum income, guaranteed the obligation of a minimum educational level to almost the entire school-age population, a federal standardization of administrative procedures and economic stimulus to extremely poor regions of the territory national.
Despite the political stability of the two governments mentioned above, cases of corruption were also present, such as the accusations of buying votes for re-election during the FHC government, in 1998, and the monthly allowance scandal, during the Lula government, in 2005.
The alternation of power also guaranteed the election of the first woman to the presidency of the Republic, in 2010. This is one of the most striking facts in recent Brazilian republican history.
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* Image Credit: Rodolpho Bernardelli
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
