The Old Republic, also known as the First Republic or Oligarchic Republic, is the period between 1889 and 1930, in the history of Brazil.
It was a moment of important political, social and economic changes, where the country was no longer rural to urban, monastic to republican.
That's why it's a content that's always charged for college entrance exams and Enem. With that in mind, we have prepared a series of ten questions with commented feedback for you to review the content and test your knowledge on the topic. Good study!
question 1
“Brazil enters the 20th century with 17,318,556 million inhabitants (...) and a recent element is part of them, the more than 800,000 European immigrants who entered the country in recent decades alone.” (100 Years of the Republic - An Illustrated Portrait of the History of Brazil. 1889-1903. vol.1. Ed. April. São Paulo, 1989)
Immigration marked the physiognomy of Brazil and the immigrant contingents, at this time, came mainly from the following countries:
a) Italy and Germany
b) Spain and Ireland
c) United States and Japan
d) Italy and France
Correct alternative: a) Italy and Germany
Due to the unification war, many Italians and Germans had to leave their lands and look for another country to live. Several of them went to Argentina, the United States and Brazil.
b) WRONG. The migration of Spaniards only took place intensely after World War I and that of Irish people was never expressive in Brazil.
c) WRONG. The Japanese were a nationality that migrated with force to Brazil, but not the Americans.
d) WRONG. The Italians came in big waves to Brazil to settle in the country, but not the French, who came on time and never in significant numbers.
question 2
The Old Republic (1894-1930) was characterized by:
a) For a period of complete peace throughout the national territory.
b) By the alternation of power between the state parties carried out by universal male suffrage.
c) For a social ascension of the freedmen by the law of May 13, 1888.
d) For the domination of state agrarian elites, especially those of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.
Correct alternative: d) For the domination of state agrarian elites, especially those of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.
The state oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais dominated the political scene in Brazil throughout the period of the Old Republic or First Republic, from 1889-1930.
a) WRONG. There was never a period of complete peace in the country, as there were several uprisings during this period.
b) WRONG. Minas Gerais and São Paulo dominated the political scene in Brazil during this period and there was no alternation of power between the different Brazilian states.
c) WRONG. Those freed by the Lei Áurea (signed on May 13, 1888) were not incorporated into the Republic as full citizens.
question 3
Look carefully at the poster below:
Check the correct alternative about the economy in Brazil during this period:
a) The main economic activities were coffee growing and rubber manufacturing, with no room for industry.
b) There is a movement of migration from the city to the countryside, due to the railway network developed since the century. XIX.
c) Coffee was the main export product and the first industries were established in large cities.
d) The main industrial activity of this period was heavy.
Correct alternative: c) Coffee was the main export product and the first industries were established in large cities.
a) WRONG. Despite coffee and rubber being the main export products in this period, the industry was beginning to take its first steps in Brazil.
b) WRONG. The migration movement took place from the countryside to the city and not the other way around.
d) WRONG. The main industrial activity at this time was transformation and not heavy.
question 4
"At the end of a confused dawn, from the 14th to the 15th of November, 1889, several opposition military groups gathered in front of the Ministry of the Army of Rio de January (where the imperial government was meeting) and their protest culminated in the proclamation of the Republic by the country's most important military figure, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca." (100 Years of the Republic - An Illustrated Portrait of the History of Brazil. 1904-1918. vol.2. Ed. April. São Paulo, 1989)
The beginning of the Republic in Brazil has been described, since its foundation, as a “proclamation”. However, historians increasingly prefer the term "coup d'état" because:
a) The republic was implanted by groups supported by international forces.
b) There was no popular participation and was directed against a constitutional government.
c) The primary intention was to overthrow Viscount Ouro Preto's cabinet and not proclaim a new regime.
d) It was carried out during the night and not in daylight.
Correct alternative: b) There was no popular participation and was directed towards a constitutional government.
A coup d'état is defined when a legitimately constituted government is violently removed and without citizen participation, as was the case in the Republic of Brazil.
a) WRONG. The Republic was not implemented with the help of foreign groups.
c) WRONG. The military's primary intention was this, but the reason why it is considered a coup d'etat is not explained in this sentence.
d) WRONG. This sentence is incomplete, as the fact that the monarchy was overthrown by day or night would not be enough to qualify as a coup d'état.
question 5
The revolts of Canudo and Contestado, during the Old Republic, despite taking place in distant points of the national geography, are similar in their causes. Check the correct alternative that expresses this coincidence:
a) Both Canudos, in Bahia, and Contestado, in the south, fought for the overthrow of the republican regime.
b) Both revolts were caused by people who felt excluded from the Republic and who did not notice improvements in their living conditions.
c) It was an uprising organized by former slaves who asked for equal civil rights with whites.
d) Both events were led by military personnel who inflated the poor population against the newly established Republic.
Correct alternative: b) Both revolts were caused by people who felt excluded from the Republic and who did not feel any improvement in their living conditions.
The Canudos and Contestado revolts were the response of the marginalized population against the new regime that it did nothing to improve the situation of the latifundios in the countryside and that it perpetuated terrible conditions of life.
a) WRONG. Although there were anti-Republican elements in these revolts, this was not the main reason for the uprising.
b) WRONG. These revolts were not carried out exclusively by ex-slaves and they always had, on paper, the same rights as whites.
d) WRONG. The leaders of both movements were popular and not military.
question 6
Tenentismo dominated the Brazilian political scene in the 1920s. One of the movements that we can see its influence is:
a) Chibata Revolt
b) Vaccine Revolt
c) Armada Revolt
d) Revolt of the Fort 18
Correct alternative: d) Revolt of the Fort 18
This revolt was carried out by lieutenants quartered in Rio de Janeiro, in 1922, who revolted and asked for greater political participation by army officers, just as tenentism preached. They ended up arrested and shot.
a) WRONG. This uprising was carried out by sailors against bad working conditions and physical punishment in the Navy, in November 1910, in Rio de Janeiro.
b) WRONG. Popular revolt against the imposition of mandatory vaccination, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1904.
c) WRONG. Occurred in Rio de Janeiro, in 1891-1894, against the governments of Marechal Deodoro and Floriano Peixoto.
question 7
The São Paulo Art Week, in 1922, caused an inflection in the arts of Brazil, because:
a) Introduced concepts from the European avant-garde in the Brazilian artistic scene.
b) It reaffirmed the aesthetics of socialist realism in the work of artists such as Tarsila do Amaral and Anita Mafalti.
c) It imposed the nationalist reflection linked to the right-wing movements that began to emerge in Europe such as fascism.
d) It consecrated the aesthetics of nostalgia by privileging the past as the subject of artistic works.
Correct alternative: a) Introduced concepts from the European avant-garde in the Brazilian artistic scene.
The Week of Modern Art in 1922 was a great exhibition of Brazilian artists who had incorporated the ideas of the European avant-garde into Brazilian art.
a) WRONG. Socialist realism had not yet been created and therefore did not participate in the 1922 Art Week.
c) WRONG. Fascism was in its infancy in Europe and although there were already some supporters in Brazil, it did not participate in this event.
d) WRONG. Modernism looked to the future, not the past.
question 8
Unhappy with the candidates supported by President Washington Luis, a group of oligarchs dissidents created an electoral ticket called Liberal Alliance, headed by Getúlio Vargas that promised reforms.
Julio Prestes, natural successor to the president, ended up winning the elections, but the Liberal Alliance and part of the Army took up arms in the event called the “Revolution of 30”. Mark the consequence of this uprising for Brazil:
a) Institution of the Estado Novo.
b) Beginning of the military dictatorship.
c) End of government of state oligarchies.
d) Rise of a center-left regime.
Correct alternative: c) End of government by state oligarchies.
The coup d'état led by Getúlio Vargas, in 1930, inaugurated a period of political centralization and removal of the state oligarchies from the federal government in Brazil.
a) WRONG. The Estado Novo would start in 1937 and not in 1930.
b) WRONG. The military dictatorship started in 1964 and not in 1930.
d) WRONG. The government that began with the Revolution of 1930 was not of the center-left, but nationalist and right-wing.
question 9
"This is a strategy widely used in coronelista political habits, in which, for example, voters exchanged their vote for a favor, as a good material (shoes, clothes, hats, etc.) or some type of service (medical care, medicines, burial funds, school enrollment, scholarships etc.)."
Adapted from JusBrasil. Consulted on 08/05/2020.
The excerpt above describes an electoral practice in the Old Republic called:
a) secret vote
b) halter vote
c) Census vote
d) open vote
Correct alternative: b) halter vote
Halter voting was a recurrent practice in the First Republic. "Halt" is an instrument used to submit an animal and the "colonels" did exactly that with the electorate, indicating which candidate they should vote for in the elections. In return, they got something they needed immediately, as described in the text.
a) WRONG. The secret ballot does not fit the description in the text, which speaks of exchanging favors for votes.
c) WRONG. It was a practice that existed in Empire Brazil and in some republics where the right to vote was conditional on income, something that is not mentioned in the text.
d) WRONG: Assumes a non-secret vote, where everyone knows which candidate was voted.
question 10
When the First World War (1914-1918) breaks out, Brazil loves a posture of neutrality. However, three years later, he decides to declare war on Germany. Check the alternative that explains this posture of Brazil:
a) Brazil follows the position of neutrality of the United States, but changes its opinion when it is attacked by the Germans.
b) The Brazilian government prefers not to go against the large German colony in the south of the country and declares neutral, however opts for belligerence when merchant ships are attacked by submarines Germans.
c) Brazil prefers neutrality following the recommendations of the chancellors of America. However, it enters the war when its territorial waters are threatened by the proximity of the German Navy.
d) The country chooses neutrality because of the business it had with Germany, but declares war when it sinks Brazilian ships.
Correct alternative: d) The country chooses neutrality because of the business it had with Germany, but declares war when it sinks Brazilian ships.
Brazil had a good relationship with the German Empire and would have no reason to declare war on it. However, when German submarines sink Brazilian merchant ships, they move to the belligerent state and enter into the confrontation.
a) WRONG. Brazil changed its mind because Brazilian merchant ships were sunk and therefore declared war on Germany.
b) WRONG. The fact of having a large colony of Germanic origin did not influence Brazil's decision to remain neutral in the conflict.
c) WRONG. The chancellors' recommendation only came in World War II and Brazil was not threatened by the German Navy.
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