First Brazilian Republic facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Republic of the United States of Brazil República dos Estados Unidos do Brasil
1889–1930
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Ordem e Progresso "Order and Progress"
Anthem:  Hino Nacional Brasileiro "Brazilian National Anthem"
Brazil at its largest territorial extent, including Acre
Capital	Rio de Janeiro
Common languages	Portuguese
Government	Military dictatorship (1889–1894) Oligarchic federal presidential republic (1894–1930)
President
• 1889–1891	Deodoro da Fonseca (first)
• 1926–1930	Washington Luís (last)
Vice President
• 1891	Floriano Peixoto (first)
• 1926–1930	Melo Viana (last)
Legislature	National Congress
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	Chamber of Deputies
Historical era	19th–20th century
• Proclamation of the Republic	15 November 1889
• Republican Constitution	24 February 1891
• Naval Revolts	1893–1894
• Federalist Revolution	1893–1895
• Civilian rule	15 November 1894
• Revolution of 1930	3 November 1930
Population
• 1890	14,333,915
• 1900	17,438,434
• 1920	30,635,605
Currency	Real
ISO 3166 code	BR
Preceded by Succeeded by Empire of Brazil Vargas Era

The First Brazilian Republic, also known as the Old Republic (República Velha in Portuguese), was a time in Brazilian history from 1889 to 1930. It began when Emperor Pedro II was removed from power in 1889. The Old Republic ended with the Brazilian Revolution of 1930, which brought Getúlio Vargas into power as the new president. During this period, Brazil was largely controlled by powerful landowners. These landowners used a system called coronelism to influence politics and the economy. The most powerful groups were the coffee industry in São Paulo and the dairy industry in Minas Gerais. Because of their strong influence, this political system was often called "milk coffee politics."

Brazil's Early Republic Years

The Proclamation of the Republic, a painting by Benedito Calixto.

On November 15, 1889, a military leader named Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca removed Emperor Pedro II from power. He then declared Brazil a republic and changed how the government worked.

Brazil's new constitution, created in 1891, said the government was a constitutional democracy. However, in reality, democracy was not truly practiced. Elections were often unfair. People in rural areas were pressured to vote for certain candidates by their powerful bosses. If these methods didn't work, election results could even be changed by decisions made by the Congress. This system meant that the presidency usually switched between leaders from the powerful states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. These states controlled the country through their political parties. This way of governing was known as "café com leite" or 'coffee with milk' politics. This name came from the main products of these two states: coffee from São Paulo and milk from Minas Gerais.

First Brazilian flag after the empire fell, used for a few days in November 1889.

The Brazilian republic was not born from popular support like the French or American revolutions. It started with a coup d'état (a sudden takeover of power) and stayed in power by force. The republicans made Deodoro president from 1889 to 1891. After some money problems, they appointed Field Marshal Floriano Vieira Peixoto as Minister of War. This was to make sure the military stayed loyal to the new government.

How Powerful Landowners Ruled

The military officers who helped end the Empire had sworn loyalty to it. They later decided their duty was to Brazil itself, not just to any government. The Republic started almost by accident. Deodoro only wanted to change the government leaders, but republicans convinced him to create a republic.

The early years of the Old Republic were about finding a good way to govern after the monarchy. This involved a back-and-forth struggle between states having a lot of power and the central government having more control. The 1891 constitution created the United States of Brazil. It gave a lot of freedom to the provinces, which were now called States. A federal system was set up, meaning states had all powers not given to the main government. The old Empire of Brazil had not fully controlled all regions, and now these regions became even stronger. Until the 1920s, the federal government in Rio de Janeiro was mostly run by powerful states like São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, and to a lesser extent, Pernambuco and Bahia.

Since the military overthrew the monarchy, the Army became a very important national group. With the monarchy gone, the Army was the only strong, long-lasting national institution. The Roman Catholic Church was present everywhere, but it was an international organization. The Army took on this new role. The monarchy had become unpopular with rich Brazilians after slavery was ended. The Army used this to gain support from the upper class. Because of their success, the Army became more important than other military groups, like the Navy and the National Guard. The Navy's attempts to stop this were defeated in the early 1890s. The Army had more soldiers in Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul, but its influence was felt across the country. Its goals and ideas were national.

In the late 1800s, many countries expanded voting rights. But Brazil actually limited who could vote. In 1874, about one million people could vote out of 10 million. By 1881, this number was cut to only 145,296. This reduction was one reason the Empire lost support, but the Republic didn't fix it. By 1910, only 627,000 people could vote out of 22 million. In the 1920s, only about 2.3% to 3.4% of the population could vote.

The problems in the 1890s happened because leaders couldn't agree on how to govern. The military was also divided. This is partly why a long-term military rule didn't happen. Even though the military didn't directly control Brazil, military men were very active in politics. Early on, ten out of twenty state governors were officers. The group that wrote the 1891 constitution was split. One group wanted to limit the president's power, which was very strong under President Deodoro da Fonseca. The other group, called the Jacobins, wanted to keep the president's power strong. The constitution created a federation with a president, a two-part Congress, and a court system. However, the real power was held by the states and by local powerful people called "colonels." These colonels controlled Brazil's local politics through a system called coronelismo. This system supported state power and was called the "politics of the governors." Under it, local powerful families chose the state governors, who then chose the president.

This informal way of sharing power, known as the politics of the governors, came about after fights and agreements. The large and rich states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo controlled this system. They took turns having their leaders become president for many years. This system made the powerful families in each state even stronger. To keep the army from becoming too powerful, this republic strengthened the navy and state police. In bigger states, the state police became like small armies. The head of the Brazilian army even ordered it to be doubled in size for defense.

Brazil's Economy and Society

Around the early 1900s, most people lived in communities that were almost like old feudal systems. They produced goods to sell to other countries. Because slavery had only ended in Brazil in 1888, a few very rich landowners owned huge amounts of land. For example, 464 big landowners had over 270,000 square kilometers of land. Meanwhile, 464,000 small and medium farms only had 157,000 square kilometers.

After the Second Industrial Revolution in richer countries, Latin America started producing more raw materials and food for Europe and North America. Brazil's agriculture focused on a few main products like coffee, sugar, and cotton. Because of this focus, Brazilian farmers didn't grow enough food for their own country. Brazil had to import four-fifths of its grain. Like most of Latin America, Brazil's economy in the early 1900s relied on cash crops. These were grown by fazendeiros, who were large estate owners. Each fazenda (estate) was like its own community, with the owner, his workers, and their families.

Brazil's need for factory-made goods and loans from richer countries meant it didn't develop its own industries much. Farm tools were simple and not mechanized. Peasants used hoes and burned land to clear it. Living conditions were generally poor. Many people suffered from bad nutrition and diseases. In 1920, the average life span was only twenty-eight years. Brazilian industries struggled to compete with more advanced economies. This period also saw the "Encilhamento," a time of rapid economic growth followed by a crash between 1889 and 1891. Its effects were felt in Brazil's economy for decades.

The middle class was not very active in politics yet. The coronelismo system in the countryside allowed the coffee powerful families to control state governments for their own benefit. This was a classic "boss system" where a local powerful leader, the coronel, gave favors in exchange for loyalty.

Because many people couldn't read or write, and voting wasn't secret or universal, it was hard for a free press to develop. In areas far from big cities, news could take weeks to arrive. In these conditions, anarchist newspapers started by European immigrants became popular, especially in large cities.

During this time, Brazil didn't have one strong national economy. Instead, it had many regional economies. Each region exported its own special products to Europe and North America. There wasn't a big internal market or good transportation between regions. This made it hard for the economy to connect, for politics to be unified, and for the military to be effective. The regions, sometimes called "the Brazils" by the British, developed at their own pace. The Northeast exported cheap labor, and its political power decreased as its sugar lost markets to other countries. The wild rubber boom in Amazônia ended after 1912 when plantations in Southeast Asia became more efficient. The market economies in the South were not as dramatic, but they grew steadily. By the 1920s, Rio Grande do Sul gained a lot of political influence. Real power was in the coffee-growing states of the Southeast: São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro. These states produced most of Brazil's export money. These three, plus Rio Grande do Sul, grew 60% of Brazil's crops, made 75% of its industrial and meat products, and held 80% of its banking money.

Brazil and World War I

Before the War

After the republic was created in 1889, Brazil faced many rebellions. These included two Naval Revolts (1891 & 1893–94), the Federalist Rebellion (1893–95), War of Canudos (1896–97), Vaccine Revolt (1904), Revolt of the Whip (1910), and the Revolt of Juazeiro (1914). The Contestado War, a fight between settlers and landowners, also lasted from 1912 to 1916. So, when World War I began, Brazilian leaders paid more attention to the Mexican Revolution than to the war in Europe.

By 1915, it was clear that Brazil's leaders wanted to keep a conservative political path. They didn't want to make big changes at home, like allowing secret ballots or universal voting. They also avoided making long-term alliances in foreign affairs. This was because they didn't want to risk their social, economic, and political power. This approach continued throughout the 20th century. Brazil mostly stayed out of international conflicts, only getting involved when peace or trade was disturbed.

Since the late 1800s, many immigrants from Europe arrived in Brazil. They brought new ideas like communism and anarchism. These ideas caused problems for the very conservative government of the large landowners. As more industrial workers appeared, they became unhappy with the system. They started large protests, especially in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. After a General Strike in 1917, the government tried to stop the labor movement. This harsh action, supported by new laws, was very effective in preventing real labor unions from forming.

Ruy Barbosa was a main opposition leader. He pushed for political changes within Brazil. He also argued that Brazil would have to join the war. He believed this was because German submarine attacks and Ottoman control in the Middle East hurt Brazilian trade. He suggested that Brazil should follow the United States, which was preparing for war after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

Brazil Enters the War

President Venceslau Brás declares war on the Central Powers in October 1917.

There were two main ideas about Brazil joining the war. One, led by Ruy Barbosa, wanted to join the Entente. The other side worried about the bloody trench warfare. This led to critical and peaceful feelings among city workers. So, Brazil stayed neutral in World War I until 1917. However, as news of corruption made government problems worse, President Venceslau Brás felt he needed to distract the public. He could do this by focusing on an outside enemy, which would create a sense of unity and patriotism.

In 1917, the German Navy sank Brazilian civilian ships near the French coast. This gave President Brás the chance he needed. On October 26, the government declared war on the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. Soon after, the navy was ordered to capture Central Powers' ships in Brazilian waters. Three small military groups were sent to the Western Front. One group was medical staff from the Army. The second was Army sergeants and officers. The third group was military aviators from both the Army and Navy. The Army members joined the French Army, and the Navy aviators joined the British Royal Air Force. By 1918, all three groups were fighting in France.

By that time, Brazil had also sent a Naval fleet, called the Naval Division in War Operations (DNOG), to join the Allies' naval forces in the Mediterranean.

In 1918, protests against military recruitment broke out. This, along with news of the revolution in Russia, made Brazilian leaders want to stay out of the war even more. Also, the terrible Spanish flu epidemic stopped the Brás government from getting more deeply involved. In the end, the armistice in November 1918 prevented Brazil from carrying out its full war plan. Despite its small role, Brazil earned the right to take part in the Paris Peace Conference.

Changes in Population

From 1875 to 1960, about 3 million Europeans moved to Brazil. They mostly settled in the four southern states: São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. Immigrants mainly came from Portugal, Italy, Germany, Spain, Japan, Poland, and the Middle East. The largest Japanese community outside Japan is in São Paulo. In contrast, Brazil's native population, mostly in the northern and western border regions and the upper Amazon Basin, continued to shrink. This was largely due to contact with the outside world and commercial expansion into their lands. As a result, pure-blooded Amerindians now make up less than 1% of Brazil's population.

How Brazil Changed During the Old Republic

In the early 1900s, changes in population and the economy started to challenge the power of the landowning families. During the Old Republic, cities grew, and a middle class emerged. Even though its growth was slow, this middle class eventually became strong enough to play a big role in Brazilian politics. Over time, more trade, business, and industry in São Paulo weakened the control of the republic's politics by the landowners. These landowners were dominated by the coffee industry in São Paulo and the dairy industry in Minas Gerais. This system was known as the politics of café com leite or 'coffee with milk'.

President Artur Bernardes (1922–1926) and his government ministers in 1922.

Long before the middle classes started to challenge the coffee powerful families in the 1920s, smart Brazilians and forward-thinking farmers dreamed of a modern, industrial society. They were inspired by positivism, an idea about progress through science. They wanted Brazil to become a "world power of the future." This idea grew stronger during the Vargas years and later governments. The changes in Brazil's economy caused by World War I made these demands even stronger.

World War I, which started in August 1914, was a turning point for Brazil's growing urban areas. The war made it difficult for Britain to export goods to Brazil. This created an opportunity for Brazil's own factories to grow. These economic changes helped increase the number of people in the new urban middle classes. Meanwhile, Brazilian manufacturers and their workers benefited from these changes, while the landowning families suffered. This process sped up because the world demand for coffee dropped during World War I. The central government, controlled by rural landowners, helped the powerful families by bringing back a program to keep coffee prices high. This program, called valorization, involved the government buying coffee or limiting new plantings to control prices. It worked for a short time. However, coffee demand fell even more sharply during the Great Depression, a drop too big for valorization to fix.

Strangely, the economic crisis actually helped Brazil's industries grow. This led to a boost for the urban middle and working classes. The struggling coffee industry freed up money and workers needed for making finished goods. It also helped that Brazilian goods were cheaper in Brazil because of trade issues. The state of São Paulo led this trend toward industrialization. It had a lot of money, many immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, and rich natural resources. São Paulo became Brazil's industrial center, taking over from Rio de Janeiro. Industrial production, mostly in light industries like food processing and textiles, doubled during the war. The number of businesses grew by 5,940 between 1915 and 1918. The war also encouraged farmers to grow different crops. The Allies' demand for basic products like sugar, beans, and raw materials sparked a new boom for products other than just sugar or coffee. However, foreign companies still controlled the bigger, more expensive industries. This made Brazil's industrial growth different from that in other Western countries.

The Fight for Change

As factories grew and the coffee powerful families faced problems, the old system of café com leite and coronelismo began to give way. New urban groups, like professionals, government workers, merchants, bankers, and factory owners, wanted more political power. In the 1920s, there was growing support for protecting Brazilian industries, but the central government, controlled by coffee interests, offered little help. Under pressure from the middle class, people wanted a more active, centralized government. This new government would represent the interests of the new middle class. They wanted policies like tax breaks, lower duties, and import limits to help local businesses grow. Manufacturers, office workers, and city laborers had all benefited from the break in world trade during World War I. However, the coffee powerful families, who relied on a decentralized power structure, were not interested in making Brazil's politics more organized or centralizing power. Getúlio Vargas, who would lead Brazil from 1930 to 1945, and again in the 1950s, would later respond to these demands.

During this time, the state of São Paulo was at the forefront of Brazil's economy, politics, and culture. It was often called a "locomotive pulling the 20 empty boxcars" (referring to the other 20 states). Even today, São Paulo is Brazil's industrial and business center. It led the way in industrialization because of the money coming in from the coffee industry.

This prosperity led to a rapid increase in the number of working-class immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. This new population helped grow trade unionism, anarchism, and socialism. After World War I, Brazil experienced its first wave of general strikes. The Communist Party was also formed in 1922.

Meanwhile, the differences between the coffee powerful families, who were badly hurt by the Depression, and the growing, active urban groups became stronger. According to historian Benjamin Keen, the job of changing society "fell to the rapidly growing urban middle classes, who started to speak out even more strongly against the rule of the corrupt rural powerful families." In contrast, the labor movement remained small and weak, even with strikes after the war. It didn't have strong ties to the farmers, who were most of Brazil's population. As a result, different social reform movements appeared in the 1920s. These eventually led to the Revolution of 1930. The revolt in the 1920s against Artur da Silva Bernardes becoming president marked the start of the urban middle class's fight to take power from the coffee-producing powerful families.

This era also saw the Tenente revolts. These were revolts by junior military officers (tenentes, or lieutenants). They had long been against the ruling coffee powerful families. They staged their own revolt in 1922, demanding social changes. They called for land reform, the creation of cooperatives, and the government taking control of mines. Even though these revolts didn't succeed, they showed the conflicts that would lead to the Revolution of 1930.

The End of the Old Republic

The 1930 Election

The Great Depression made the tensions that had been building in Brazil even worse. This pushed revolutionary leaders to act.

The 1930 elections were between Júlio Prestes, from the powerful Republican Party of São Paulo, and Getúlio Vargas. Vargas led a large group of supporters. This group included middle-class factory owners, farmers from outside São Paulo, and the reformist part of the military called the tenentes.

Together, these different groups formed the Liberal Alliance. Vargas had strong support in the states of Minas Gerais, Paraíba, and Rio Grande do Sul. This was because the outgoing President Washington Luís had chosen another leader from São Paulo to follow him. This broke the tradition of the presidency switching between Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Vargas campaigned carefully to please all his supporters. He used popular speeches and supported the interests of the middle class. He was against São Paulo's dominance, but he didn't challenge the farmers' power. He kept his calls for social reform moderate.

The election itself was full of corruption. Both sides complained about it. When Júlio Prestes was declared the winner with 57.7% of the votes, Vargas and the Liberal Alliance refused to accept the defeat. This caused a lot of tension in the country. On July 26, 1930, João Pessoa, the vice-presidential candidate for the Liberal Alliance, was killed in Recife. This event sparked the beginning of the Brazilian Revolution.

The Revolution Begins

The 1930 revolution started in Rio Grande do Sul on October 3 at 5:25 PM. Osvaldo Aranha sent a telegram to Juarez Távora to announce the start of the Revolution. It quickly spread across the country. Eight state governments in Brazil's northeast were removed by the revolutionaries.

On October 10, Vargas released a statement called "Rio Grande standing by Brazil." He then left by train for Rio de Janeiro, which was the capital at the time.

A major battle was expected to happen in Itararé, on the border with Paraná. Federal troops were stationed there to stop the revolutionary forces, led by Colonel Góis Monteiro. However, on October 12 and 13, the Battle of Quatiguá took place. This was possibly the biggest fight of the revolution, though it has not been studied much. Quatiguá is located east of Jaguariaíva, near the border between São Paulo and Paraná. The battle in Itararé didn't happen because generals Tasso Fragoso and Mena Barreto and Admiral Isaiah de Noronha removed President Washington Luís from power on October 24. They then formed a temporary government.

At 3 PM on November 3, 1930, the military leaders handed power and the presidential palace to Getúlio Vargas. The new government canceled the 1891 Constitution, closed the National Congress, and began to rule by decree. This officially ended the Old Republic. A new assembly was called in 1934, after the failed Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932. This assembly created a new Constitution and elected Vargas as the new President of Brazil, starting the Second Brazilian Republic.