| |
| 10. Brazil |
| |
| Brazil initiated its independence under a monarchical system, which was instrumental in maintaining unity and preserving a social structure based on slavery. Brazil's population was sharply divided into a minority of wealthy slaveholders and a vast majority of slaves and poor people of color. Rural areas were predominant, and the central government coordinated entrenched regional elites. | 1 |
| |
| 1822–31 |
| |
| THE REIGN OF PEDRO I. Brazilian liberals sought to limit the emperor's power. Dom Pedro I dissolved the constituent assembly and proclaimed a strongly centralist constitution with greater powers for the monarch. | 2 |
| |
| 1824 |
| |
| In northern provinces, the republican Confederation of the Equator was violently suppressed. | 3 |
| |
| 1825–28 |
| |
| War between Brazil and Argentina resulted in the independence of the Cisplatine Province (Banda Oriental), which eventually became Uruguay (See Uruguay). The war caused financial havoc in Brazil, and mercenary troops mutinied in Rio (1828). | 4 |
| |
| 1826 |
| |
| Britain pressured Brazil into a treaty ending the slave trade by 1830 and granting the British advantageous commercial terms from Brazil. The emperor's close association with Portuguese residents caused deep disaffection among Brazilian elites. Plebeians, including slaves, staged anti-Portuguese riots in cities. Opponents of Pedro I denounced the emperor's involvement in Portugal's dynastic struggles. In 1831, he abdicated in favor of his 5-year-old son, who would become Pedro II (1825–1891). | 5 |
| |
| 1831–40 |
| |
| The regency. During this period an “Additional Act” gave wider powers to the provinces (1834), and separatist tendencies emerged. The War of the Farrapos (1835–45), in Rio Grande do Sul, was inspired by federalist ideas. Revolts also erupted in the Amazon (Cabanagem), Maranhão (Balaiada), and Pernambuco (War of the Cabanos). These usually began as elite disputes but grew into social rebellions as slaves, smallholders, and urban poor joined the uprisings. | 6 |
| |
| 1840–89 |
| |
| THE REIGN OF PEDRO II. Frightened by the prospect of prolonged social conflict, liberals and conservatives called for the early coronation of Pedro II to promote stability. Coffee boom enriched conservatives in Rio de Janeiro Province. The central government regained full control of the imperial administrative structure. Eager to expand coffee exports, planters purchased African slaves in record numbers from the illegal slave trade. British threats of military action forced Brazil to definitively prohibit the slave trade (1850). In 1872, Brazil had 10,112,000 inhabitants. | 7 |
| In 1864, Brazil invaded Uruguay to support its allies, the colorados. López, the Paraguayan dictator, rushed to help his own allies, which created conditions for the WAR OF THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE (1865–70) (See 1865). Brazil gained substantial territory as a result of the war, but the conflict proved much longer and costlier in lives and money than originally expected. The war with Paraguay also gave military officers a more prominent role in public life. | 8 |
| Antislavery agitation and debate resumed with the end of the war, resulting in the Rio Branco Law (1871), which freed all children of slaves born after that date. Abolitionists like Joaquim Nabuco organized a national campaign to emancipate slaves in the 1880s. Free black Brazilians participated prominently in the campaign. Slaves increasingly rebelled against their masters and fled with the help of antislavery activists. In 1885 the Saraiva Cotegipe Law gave freedom to slaves over age 65, with no compensation for owners, but specified harsh penalties for those who helped runaways. The imperial government ordered the military to hunt fugitive slaves, but this outraged the military, which in 1887 formally refused to comply. On May 15, 1888, the GOLDEN LAW, abolishing slavery without compensation to owners, was passed. | 9 |
| Meanwhile, the Republican Party gained strength. Founded by dissident liberals in 1870, with support in São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, and the city of Rio de Janeiro, it gained sympathy from military men disillusioned with imperial politics and from federalists who wanted provincial autonomy. Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca (1827–1892) led a military coup d'état, forcing the emperor into exile. The republic was proclaimed on Nov. 16, 1889. | 10 |
| |
| 1889–1930 |
| |
| THE FIRST REPUBLIC. A constituent assembly promulgated a constitution in 1891, according to which the United States of Brazil became a federal republic. It enfranchised only literate male Brazilians. Deodoro da Fonseca was named president, but a naval revolt and his own autocratic policies led to his resignation (Nov. 23). Vice president Marshal Floriano Peixoto (1839–95) became president (1891–94). Local oligarchies struggled for greater power. The “colonels,” rural bosses who manipulated elections at the local level, sought state and national funds for patronage in their areas of influence. State governors became the main power brokers at the national level to decide on the presidency. States of São Paulo and Minas Gerais attained dominance over the federal government. São Paulo developed a strong export-oriented economy, based on coffee and immigrant labor, bought with states subsidies. In the northeast, traditional sugar elites went into decline. Impoverished northeasterners migrated to the Amazon, where the boom in rubber production (1890–1910) created a constant demand for new workers. Brazil had a population of 14,334,000 in 1890. | 11 |
| The new political system fostered frequent conflicts between the federal government and local potentates. Civil war broke out in Rio Grande do Sul (1893–95). In the drought-stricken northeastern backlands, a messianic peasant movement, led by Antonio Conselheiro, founded a communal settlement at Canudos (1893). Seen as a threat by republican officials, Canudos was assaulted by three unsuccessful military expeditions before being wiped out (with massacres of the surviving residents) by a fourth military campaign. In the south, the messianic Contestado movement (1912–15) gathered displaced landowners, squatters, and peasants opposed to colonization projects promoted by a railroad company. The central government violently suppressed it as well. Members of the educated elite justified military violence, describing these religious movements as fanatical and barbaric. | 12 |
| |
| 1894–1910 |
| |
| Administrations of Prudente de Morais Barros (1894–98), Manoel de Campos Salles (1898–1902), Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves (1902–6), Affonso Penna (1906–9), and Nilo Peçanha (1909–10). State and federal government revenues, mainly from coffee and wild rubber exports, rose. The valorization agreement of 1906 provided government price supports for coffee. The city of São Paulo emerged as an industrial center. Workers there started to organize and develop a labor press under the influence of immigrant anarchists from Italy and Spain. In Rio, then Brazil's largest city, the working class was predominantly of Brazilian origin. An incipient middle class began to develop in the cities. | 13 |
| Boundary controversies with Argentina (1895), France (1900), Bolivia (1903), Britain (1904), and Holland (1906) were adjusted by arbitration or direct negotiation, resulting generally in the expansion of Brazilian territory. | 14 |
| |
| 1911–14 |
| |
| Hermes da Fonseca (1855–1923) assumed the presidency. Factional struggles led to armed federal interventions and imposition of pro-Hermes governors. Cities of Salvador and Manaus were bombarded by federal armies. A financial crisis resulted from the drop in rubber and coffee prices. Brazil proclaimed neutrality at the outbreak of World War I. (See Brazil) | 15 |
| |
| |
