old republic it is the period in the history of our country that extended from 1889 to 1930. The milestones that stipulate the beginning and end of this period are the Proclamation of the Republic and the 1930 revolution. This period is best known among historians as FirstRepublic, as it is the first period of the Republic in Brazil.
Summary
→ The Old Republic is called the First Republic by historians.
→ This period began with the Proclamation of the Republic, which made Deodoro da Fonseca assume the presidency.
→ The period from 1889 to 1894 is also known as the Republic of the Sword.
→ The Old Republic had a total of thirteen presidents and two others who could not assume the presidency.
→ The bossiness, clientelism and coronelismo are important characteristics of this period.
→ The policy of the governors and the coffee with milk policy were important practices in the political arrangement of the oligarchies.
→ Brazil experienced an embryonic industrial advance in this period, which resulted in the birth of the labor movement in the country.
→ The social inequality and corrupt politics of this period led to revolts in different parts of the country.
→ The 1930 Revolution was the event that precipitated the end of this period and inaugurated the Vargas era.
Historical context
The Old Republic started in 1889, when the Proclamation of the Republic took place on the day November 15th. This event began in the morning of the day cited when the military led by the marshal Deodoro da Fonseca dropped the Viscount of Ouro Preto of Ministerial Office. Following the day, José do Patrocínio, councilor in Rio de Janeiro, proclaimed the Republic.
After the Proclamation of the Republic, Deodoro da Fonseca was chosen as provisional president. In 1891, the marshal was elected president of Brazil for a four-year term, but he resigned from the position and was succeeded by his deputy, Marshal Floriano Peixoto, who remained in the position until the year of 1894. This period from 1889 to 1894, when the country was ruled by two military presidents, is known as Republic of the Sword.
Presidents of the Old Republic
Altogether, the Old Republic extended from 1889 to 1930 and had thirteenpresidents who assumed functions. During this period, it also happened that two elected presidents did not take office, for health or political reasons. The presidents of the period were:
1. Deodoro da Fonseca (1889-1891);
2. Floriano Peixoto (1891-1894);
3. Prudent of Morals (1894-1898);
4. Sales Fields (1898-1902);
5. Rodrigues Alves (1902-1906);
6. Alfonso Pena (1906-1909);
7. Nilo Peçanha (1909-1910)
8. Hermes da Fonseca (1910-1914);
9. Venceslau Brás (1914-1918);
10. Delfim Moreira (1918-1919);
11. Epitacio Pessoa (1919-1922);
12. Artur Bernardes (1922-1926);
13. Washington Luis (1926-1930).
The two presidents who were elected and did not take office were RodriguesAlves (second term) and JuliusAbout. Rodrigues was elected for a second term in 1918, but before taking office, he died because of the Spanish flu. His deputy, then, took over, so that a new election was scheduled (and in it Epitácio Pessoa was elected). Júlio Prestes, on the other hand, was prevented from assuming the presidency due to the 1930 Revolution.
Also access:World War I and the Spanish Flu: visible and invisible enemies
Mind Map - First Republic
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Features
The great brand of the Old Republic and by which everyone knows it is the domain that the oligarchies exercised in the country. Oligarchies were small groups (most of them were associated with agriculture and livestock) that held great economic and political power. The control of oligarchies in Brazil took place through practices known as bossiness, colonelism and patronage.
Let's look at a simple definition of each of these concepts:
- bossiness: is the name given to the control exercised by certain people, over others, because they have a large landholding. In the case of the Old Republic, the large landowners exerted influence over the local population.
- Colonelism: practice in which the colonel (large landowner) exercised his dominion over local populations, so to win the votes that were necessary to serve the interests of the established oligarchy and the Government Federal. Winning the vote of the local population happened, for example, through the distribution of public offices that were under the colonel's control or also through intimidation.
- patronage: is the exchange of favors that is practiced between two politically unequal actors. This practice does not need the figure of the colonel to happen, as every politically superior entity who performs a favor to another inferior policy, in exchange for a benefit, is practicing the patronage.
Another important point about the First Republic is with regard to two well-known practices: a latte policy and the governors' policy, two mechanisms that supported the political dominance of the oligarchies.
Governors Policy
The governors' policy (or state policy) was created during the government of Sales Fields and it structured the functioning of all Brazilian politics during the period of the Old Republic. His role was responsible for consolidating an alliance between Executive and Legislative throughout the Old Republic.
In this policy, the Federal Government gave its support to the most powerful oligarchy of each state as a way to reduce local disputes between different oligarchies. In exchange for the support, the oligarchies had the duty to elect deputies and guide them to support the Executive's agendas in the Legislative.
For the governors' policy to work, the colonel he was an essential figure, since the entire arrangement to win votes to elect the deputies of the oligarchy was made by this figure. The colonel, as a local power figure, used his financial power to exert pressure on voters to vote for the desired candidate. Candidate intimidation became known as “voteinhalter”.
The colonels, in turn, did not get the amount of votes desired only by the bullying but also through the electoral manipulation. Two very common practices were: use the dead person registry (so that the same person could vote several times) and manipulate the election minutes.
Latte Policy
THE latte policy it is one of the best known concepts of that period and refers to the agreement that existed between the oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais regarding the choice of presidents. This agreement stipulated that the cited oligarchies would rotate candidates who would run for president.
An important point regarding the coffee with milk policy is that historians have pointed out limits to its use, since the performance of this The practice of relaying did not extend throughout the Old Republic, as representatives of other oligarchies were also elected in the course of this time course.
Also access:Learn more about the “isms” of the First Republic
Socioeconomic characteristics
The Old Republic was a period in which Brazil sketched an industrial development, even if quite shy. You reflections of industrial development of the country gave themselves in a way concentrated, especially the city of Sao Paulo, which had a great population jump in the period.
The industrial and urban development that has taken place in parts of Brazil has led to the development of a labor movement, which had outstanding performance in the late 1910s. Despite the development of an embryonic industrywas in the country, our economy remained extremely dependent on coffee exports and remained so until the 1950.
revolts
When it comes to social rights, the Old Republic is marked as a period in which these rights were largely disrespected. the disrespect to social rights and the existence of a evident inequality they made this period also a struggle for many who sought a more dignified life condition and who were dissatisfied with the actions taken by governments.
There is even a phrase that is generally attributed to President Washington Luís and that sets the tone for the way the issue was handled in the Old Republic. The supposed phrase said by the president was: "Social issue is a police case." The existing tensions resulted in several revolts, such as:
1. Straw War;
2. Armada Revolt;
3. Vaccine Revolt;
4. Revolt of the whip;
5. Contested War;
6. Copacabana Fort Revolt;
7. Paulista Revolt of 1924;
8. About Column.
Also access:Find out what was the practice of sticking during the First Republic
end of the old republic
Getúlio Vargas and allied military during the 1930 Revolution.**
The politics of the Old Republic went into crisis because the political structure that supported the oligarchies in power began to crumble. The decadence of politics in the Old Republic is related to power struggles between the oligarchies and the emergence of opposition movements, which struggled to impose an alternative to the oligarchic.
Directly, the end of the Old Republic is linked to the dispute in the 1930 presidential election. In this dispute, paulistas and mineiros broke with their agreement, as the former did not want to carry out the relay, as stipulated by the café au lait policy. Thus, São Paulo launched JuliusAbout, and the miners allied with other oligarchies and launched GetulioVargas as a candidate for the presidency.
After being defeated, the Vargas slate — called Liberal Alliance — rebelled when Vargas' deputy called João Pessoa, was murdered. The assassination of João Pessoa was not related to the electoral dispute that year, but was used as a justification for the uprising against the president WashingtonLuís.
The result of this revolt, known as 1930 revolution, went to overthrow of the president Washington Luis in october 1930 and preventing Julio Prestes from assuming the presidency. The following month, Getúlio Vargas took over as provisional president of Brazil and began a term that would extend for fifteen years.
Exercise solved
The question below was taken from the Enem held in 2018. Here's the question:
Rodrigo had been appointed by the opposition as supervisor of one of the polling stations. He put the revolver in his waistband, a box of bullets in his pocket, and walked to his post. The voters' roll call began at seven in the morning. Planted by the door, the Trindade's henchmen offered ballots with the names of the official candidates to all incoming voters. These, almost entirely, docilely took the papers and deposited them in the urn, after signing the authentic one. Those who refused to do so had their names blatantly written down.
VERISMOST, E. The time and the wind. São Paulo: Globo, 2003 (adapted).
Erico Veríssimo thematizes in a fictional work the following characteristic aspect of political life during the First Republic:
a) Forced identification of illiterate men.
b) Legal monitoring of legislative claims.
c) Explicit repression of the exercise of rights.
d) Advertising aimed at the population of the countryside.
e) Police closure of unionized workers.
ANSWER: LETTER C
The question refers to a practice known as “voto de halter”, which is the one in which voters are coerced to vote for a certain candidate. Within the halter vote, those who did not comply with the orientation of the oligarchy suffered reprisals, which included physical aggression or even dismissal from their jobs, if they held a position that was under the influence of the colonel. The existence of fraud in the elections of that period can be seen in presidential votes, in which the winner's candidate, several times, had more than 90% of the votes. Thus, as we can identify, the halter vote is a practice of repression against a right (to vote).
*Image credits: MarkauMark and Shutterstock
**Image credits: FGV/CPDOC
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/republica-velha-1889-1930.htm
