The café au lait policy was a power structure employed in Brazil during the Old Republic (1889-1930), which consisted of the political predominance of coffee growers in São Paulo and farmers in Minas Gerais, who took turns holding the presidency of the country.
Since the time of the Empire, the coffee aristocracy dominated the political life of the country, in order to defend its economic interests.
During the first republican governments, coffee growers who did not directly participate in the military coup that proclaimed the Republic were discriminated against.
As a result, the political influence of coffee producers only became significant after the third republican government, when Prudente de Moraes, the first civilian president, assumed the presidency.
To learn more:
- First Republic
- Old Republic
- Proclamation of the Republic
- Brazil Republic
- Oligarchy
Coffee with Milk Policy:Summary
The roots of São Paulo and Minas Gerais leadership in Brazilian politics during the Old Republic were to be found in the republican Constitution itself, promulgated on February 24, 1891.
The 1891 Constitution determined the federative form with wide autonomy of the states and their proportional representation in the Chamber of Deputies, that is, each state elected a number of Federal Deputies proportional to the number of its inhabitants.
The states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais had more than a third of the Brazilian population and formed the largest electoral colleges in the country.
They only needed to attract another state, to which the vice presidency would be handed over, to maintain their dominance at the federal level.
The national political supremacy of these two states was conventionally called the "Coffee with Milk Policy", which was only defined in its complete lines, from the Governors' Policy, which consisted of a mutual exchange of favors between state rulers (oligarchies ) and the Federal Government.
The “Coffee with Milk Policy” was characterized by the leadership of the political leaders of the Paulista Republican Party (PRP) and the Mineiro Republican Party (PRM).
From the administration of Prudente de Moraes to Washington Luís, only three elected presidents (Hermes da Fonseca, Epitácio Pessoa and Washington Luís) did not come from the states of Minas Gerais or São Paulo.
To learn more:Prudente de Moraes and Washington Luís
Revolution of 1930
The Coffee with Milk Policy, as the domination of São Paulo and Minas Gerais by the federal government became popularly known, only ended with the Revolution of 1930, which destroyed the political institutions of the Old Republic. Note that the name of the policy refers to coffee from São Paulo and milk from Minas Gerais.
To learn more:Revolution of 1930