It is named “Republic Old ” to the period of Brazilian history between 1889 and 1930. It began with the coup of November 15 , led by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca , and ended with the Revolution of 1930 – coup against the oligarchic structure of the Republic, led by Getúlio Dornelles Vargas .
The “15th of November” and the “Republic of the Sword”
The Republic began in Brazil with a civil-military uprising coordinated by men like Benjamin Constant and Deodoro da Fonseca (the latter was a monarchist, but was convinced by the former to lead the coup against the Empire days before the 15th of November). The new model adopted was the presidential and federative , inspired in part by the experience of the United States of America and, in part, by the positivist ideals of Auguste Comte .
The federative system implied the transformation of the imperial provinces into autonomous states of the Federation, coordinated by the central power of the Union, which, in turn, would have the president of the Republic as its main representative. . This entire structure would be guaranteed by the first Republican Constitution , promulgated in 1891. As noted by historians Lilia M. Schawrcz and Heloisa M. Starling, in the work Brasil:Uma Biografia :
The 1891 Constitution defined the institutional bases of the new regime – presidentialism, federalism and the bicameral system – and implemented a series of changes to clearly mark the break. The Church was separated from the State, and civil registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced. The federalist proposal, in turn, organized the new regime on a decentralized basis, giving the former provinces, now transformed into states, greater autonomy and fiscal control, and overturning the belief in monarchical centralism as an agent of national cohesion. [1]
However, before this model could actually be put into practice, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, given the prestige he had among the members of the Army and the others who “proclaimed the Republic, ruled Brazil provisionally until the elections of 1891. After the elections (which were indirect - that is, only the members of Parliament voted), Deodoro continued as president, being Floriano Peixoto , another marshal, the vice. Floriano would assume the post after Deodoro had tried to govern the country dictatorially with the coup of November 3, 1891. These first republican years became known as “República da Espada ”, due to the fact that the two presidents have been military and have exercised, each in their own way, the government with an “Iron Hand”.
The “Governors’ Policy” and the “Oligarchic Republic”
Starting in 1894, with the election of the first civilian president, Prudente de Morais , began the process of transforming the “República da Espada” into “República Oligarchic ”. It was in the government of Morais that regional rebellions took place, such as the Revolution Federalist , in Rio Grande do Sul, and the War from Straws , in the Bahian hinterland. The characteristic system of the Oligarchic Republic was only really structured in the government of the fourth president of the Republic, Campos Sales , elected in 1898.
It was after the Campos Sales government that the “governors' policy was defined ”, that is, the most powerful states of the federation, notably Minas Gerais and São Paulo, began to instrumentalize the power of the Union for the benefit of their own interests. The president of the republic would be a representative of the Nation as a whole, but an agent of the oligarchies.
The alternation of power in the presidency between leaders of the oligarchies of Minas and São Paulo became known as the “coffee with milk policy ”. The expression is due to the fact of the economic preponderance that coffee had in the São Paulo economy and milk, in the Minas Gerais economy at the time.
At the base of this political “pact” between oligarchies was the political and social control, at the local level, exercised by the figure of the “colonel ”. The phenomenon of coronelismo guaranteed the perpetuation of oligarchies because of the establishment of relations of favor and dependence with the population. The vote, which was open, was seen as a bargaining chip, and not as a democratic right of the citizen, as the authors of Brasil:Uma Biografia assert again. :
The colonel was thus a fundamental part of the oligarchic system. He mortgaged his support to the state government in the form of votes, and, in return, the government guaranteed power over his dependents and rivals, especially through the cession of public offices, which ranged from police chief to primary school teacher. And in this way the Brazilian Republic was destabilized at the beginning of the 20th century, on the basis of a lot of exchange, borrowing, favoritism, negotiation and repression. Seen from this angle, and as the satirical newspapers of the time said, the country was nothing more than a large farm. [2]
Modernization, Modernism and Revolts
It was also during the Old Republic that Brazil underwent essential transformations, from the point of view of urban and industrial modernization. During the first decades of the 20th century, there were major reforms in the urban centers of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, actions of sanitary and hygienist medicine – mainly coordinated by Oswaldo Cruz –, the growth in the number of factories and salaried workers, etc. It was in this climate that typical urban revolts appeared, such as the Vaccine Revolt , the Rebellion of the Fort 18 from Copacabana, the Revolt of 1924 (this ended up also resulting in the formation of the Column Ready ) and the Revolt of the Whip. The Modern Art Week 1922 it was also one of the episodes that marked – from a cultural point of view – the Old Republic.
NOTES
[1] Schawrcz, Lilia M. and Starling, Heloisa M. Brazil:A Biography. São Paulo:Companhia das Letras, 2015. pp 329-30.
[2] ibid . P. 322
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