Print Page - O Império Eterno

I'm writing a timeline about the Empire of Brazil and so forth. This starts with the War of the Triple Alliance.

General notes:
The use of the term Parliament would be historically inaccurate, as the real term was General Assembly. But Parliament is easier.
The Prime Minister was President of the Council, but Prime Minister is easier.

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The War with Paraguay

The Brazilian Empire had lost the east bank of the crucial Río de la Plata with the independence of the Cisplatina Province as the Republic of Uruguay in 1828. However, Brazilian businessmen, especially the Empire's richest man, the Visconde de Mauá, had important financial interests and the Viscount was practically Uruguay's bank.

Brazil supported the Colorado Party against its rival, the Whites (Partido Blanco). The Whites were supported by the Argentinian dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas. Claiming the right to control all traffic on the Río de la Plata, de Rosas alarmed Brazil but also France and the United Kingdom, who suffered from the terms imposed by de Rosas. Encouraged by France and Britain, and supported by the Colorados and Argentinian liberals, the Brazilians defeated de Rosas in the Platine War in 1852.

But even with Brazilian support, the Colorados lost the internal conflict in Uruguay to the Whites, formerly allies of de Rosas. But with de Rosas in exile, the Whites turned to Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano López, who boasted the strongest standing army in the region.

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By 1860, with the support of the new liberal government in Buenos Aires, the Empire conspired to replace the Whites with a Colorado regime. The two countries agreed to support each other in the eventuality that the Whites turned to Solano López for support. However, Brazil acted preemptively and sent troops into Uruguay to depose the White regime. Paraguay reacted by seizing Brazilian vessels on the Rio Paraguai and by attacking the province of Mato Grosso. Solano López, mistakenly expecting help from the Argentine opposition (caudillos), sent his forces into the Argentine Province of Corrientes to attack the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay. Solano López found himself at war with both Argentina and Brazil. By 1865, the Allies had driven the Paraguayans out of Rio Grande do Sul and forced Solano López to fight a defensive war within Paraguay.

Fiercely defending their homeland, the Guaraní-speaking Paraguayans defeated the Allies at the Battle of Curupaity in September 1866. Facing opposition at home, Argentine President Bartolomé Mitre let the Brazilians solider on against a Paraguayan army nearly double, if not triple, their size. Solano López failed to counter-attack after his victory at Curupaity.

Facing defeat, Dom Pedro II assigned Marshal Luís Alves de Lima e Silva to command the Brazilian forces on October 10, 1866. Lime e Silva pursued the Paraguayans to Asunción, which fell to Brazil in early 1869. Solano López fled and was finally killed by the new Brazilian commander, the Emperor's son-in-law, Luís Filipe Gastão de Orléans, Count d'Eu; in March 1870. Brazil occupied a totally annihilated Paraguay until 1878 and installed an ally of the Empire, Cirilo Antonio Rivarola, as President of Paraguay.

Next: Political developments in Brazil and elections

Crucial Political Years

The Emperor and his entourage had come to butt heads with the Liberal government and President of the Council Zacarias de Góis during the war years. In snap elections in December 1866, the Liberals had won a majority in both chambers. In July 1868, when Paraguayan defeat seemed certain, the divisions became very clear between Conservatives and Liberals and between Emperor and de Góis. de Góis' Liberals supported an immediate armistice with Paraguay and more lenient peace terms, while the Emperor and the Conservatives wanted nothing less than unconditional Paraguayan surrender and the annihilation of the López regime in Asunción.

Dom Pedro had the constitutional power to dismiss the President of the Council at will and there was no necessity for a cabinet to have a legislative support. Dom Pedro flirted with the idea of dismissing Zacarias de Góis and replacing him with a Conservative ally, Joaquim José Rodrigues Torres. However, rumours of such a move sparked considerable outraged from the Liberal Party's radical wing, which supported responsible government and a much reduced Moderating Power. In the end, the Emperor did not dismiss de Góis.

When the war came to an end in 1870, the Parliament's three-year term also came to an end; and a disputed electoral campaign ensued. The Liberal Party sought to campaign on the party's leadership during the war years, but the Conservatives disputed that record and campaigned on a staunchly nationalist platform, calling for a military occupation of Paraguay, but also advocated a fixed tariff at 40% and internal improvements.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 62
Liberal 47
Republicans 1

Senate¹

Conservative 29
Liberal 11

Due to record-high levels of support from veterans and military officers, the Conservatives swept to power in Rio de Janeiro with José Maria da Silva Paranhos as Prime Minister. The Republican Party, formed by the radical wing of the Liberal Party concentrated in Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo, won its first seat in the Chamber.

José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Viscout of Rio Branco, a former Liberal, was a member of the Conservative Party's reformist wing. His cabinet included competent and young politicians, including the abolitionist João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira in Finances.

The government worked to stimulate the growing national industry by raising the tariff on foreign products to 40% while eliminating import taxes on new raw materials. During this period, the Brazilian economy; dominated largely by coffee, sugar cane and dairy products; diversified as an industrial sector developed.

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Paranhos, despite pressure from abolitionist voices in the legislature, resisted important changes in the slave labour laws that would anger the slave owners, an important constituency. However, in 1871, the Paranhos government passed the Free Stomach Law (Lei do Ventre Livre) which freed all newborns born from slaves at age 8, though owners had the option of using their labour until they reached 21. This very conservative law, opposed by the Republicans as being symbolic more than practical, was nonethless opposed by the coffee-growing elite of Brazil in the Provinces of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. In the Chamber, the law passed with 65 in favour and 45 opposed - 30 of which were from the provinces of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The vote split more along provincial and economic lines than along party lines, with the 45 opponents including Conservatives as well as Liberals. In the Senate, the law's passage was much easier, with 33 in favour and only 7 opposed, all but two of which represented the three aforementioned provinces.

Internal improvements at being at the centre of the Viscount of Rio Branco's electoral campaign in 1870 and he did follow suit on his ambitious agenda. His government ordered the constructions of thousands of kilometres of railway lines, and inaugurated a telegraphic line linking Brazil with the Old Continent. He also carried out the country's first national census in 1872, which established the country's free population at 8,419,672 (around 85% of the total population, 15% being slaves). Ethnically, the census reported, 39% were mulattoes, 38% were white, 11% black and 5% caboclos (white and Indian mix).

The Conservative government also introduced a liberal judicial reform with a more liberal Criminal Code and extended habeas corpus.

In foreign policy, Brazil swallowed important amounts of Paraguayan territory, as did Argentina. In Asunción, Brazilian occupation forces, the largest force of occupation in the country, overshadowed Buenos Aires' troops. The Brazilians and Argentines installed a government led by the Paraguayan Legion, a group of cosmopolitan and American-educated liberal democrats, which sought to institute a democratic and liberal regime in the poor and ravaged country. However, the Legion was unsuited to govern and the occupiers, despite their squabbles, ruled behind the scenes and kept the supporters of former President Solano López as far away from power as possible.

In Brazil, the country prepared for the 1873 general elections. The Liberal Party, recently divided on the abolitionist question between its liberal democrat wing and it's coffee wing, sought to downplay the issue by adopting a very ambiguous stance on the question and focusing on a reformist agenda. The Conservatives, too, were split on the abolitionist question. After all, plantation owners made up 50% of each party's membership. Only the Republicans could adopt an unambiguous stance on slavery.

¹ The Senate was, basically, nominated by the Emperor.

Next: 1873 elections and aftermath

Era of Crisis

The Liberals and Conservatives avoided the question of slavery during the election, both being happy with the current status and both defending the Free Stomach Law. As was common, the Liberals and Conservatives had very little divergences, and their only major disagreements were on the question of institutional reform, the Liberals supporting a very conservative and gradual reform of the state apparatus, while the Conservatives rejected any liberalization or decentralization. The Republican Party sought to appeal to the small urban, abolitionist educated class, though there was little taste, even among them, for such a radical party. In the end, the voters elected Conservative electors, which in turn re-elected a Conservative-dominated legislature.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 61 (-1)
Liberal 47 (nc)
Republicans 2 (+1)

Senate

Conservative 30 (+1)
Liberal 10 (-1)

Emperor Dom Pedro II kept the Viscout of Rio Branco in office for a second term. However, the government soon faced two crises.

Firstly, the Brazilian throne, which, according to the Constitution of 1824, was linked to the Catholic Church in Brazil; came into conflict with the Vatican. Pope Pius IX had adopted the dogma of papal infallibility, which came to odds with the Brazilian throne's control over the Catholic Church in Brazil. Furthermore, the Church opposed the Freemasons, of which the Viscount of Rio Branco was a prominent member. In 1874, the President of the Council had two bishops arrested and sentenced to four years of hard labour, a move which shocked Rome but also Petrópolis. The move divided the population and the political class. The population was split between those who opposed the Viscount's actions and those who supported him, the latter being seculars, intellectuals and Freemasons. The Liberals, once again, took an ambiguous stance on the issue and contented itself by saying that the parliamentary opposition had no say in the affairs of the Church in Rome or Rio.

The second crisis faced by the Conservative government was the rising strength of the Brazilian military following the War with Paraguay. Prior to the war, they were politically negligible but the war had inflated their ranks excessively and the officers became important players in Brazilian politics. The Emperor and the Viscount of Rio Branco, both civilians, failed to understand the military's growing importance. Facing a tough economic situation, the government of the Viscout of Rio Branco froze wages, slowed promotions to a crawl. The military establishment demanded promotions, a higher status, higher wages and a military reform including obligatory military service - they noted that the quality of the military was on the decline. The military, which had carried the Conservatives to victory in 1870 and 1873, turned away from the government. The Liberals, saw the opportunity and jumped on the military bandwagons' by supporting the military's demands.

Next: How do these crises end? If they do...

Stable Governance

In August 1875, shortly before the scheduled 1876 elections, Emperor Dom Pedro II fired the President of the Council, the Viscount of Rio Branco. The Emperor knew that the President of the Council was growing unpopular with the population, the military and hardline Catholics in particular. In his place, he named a popular war hero, Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias (a Conservative) as President of the Council. At the same time, he dissolved the Chamber of Deputies in September 1875.

The campaign, once again, was uneventful due to the lack of practical ideological differences between the parties. The personality of the Duke of Caxias worked wonders for the Conservatives within the military community, and even the previously unhappy officers grew warmer to the governing Conservatives. The Liberals, who lacked a clear platform once again, led a campaign which varied from province to province. In Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo, the Liberal candidates for the Chamber and Provincial Legislature played on those provinces modern liberal democratic sentiments by promising an electoral reform and decentralization. In the cotton-growing Northeast, the Liberals played on the slaveholders' opposition to abolitionism by portraying the Conservative Party as the enemy of the plantation owner. Only the Republicans had a clear program.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 68 (+7)
Liberal 41 (-6)
Republicans 1 (-1)

Senate

Conservative 31 (+1)
Liberal 9 (-1)

The Conservatives won a strong victory on the back of a failed Liberal strategy and strong support from the population and military for the personality of the new President of the Council, the Duke of Caxias.

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President of the Council: Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias (Conservative)

Serving both as President and Minister of War, the Duke of Caxias knew how to please the military interests of which he was a member. He increased military pay, unfroze promotions and increased the defense budget. In addition, he made sure that the cadets stayed in ranks and outside of the reach of conspiring Republicans. In this mission, he surrounded himself with loyal monarchist officers: Polidoro Jordão, Manuel Marques de Sousa and Manuel Luís Osório. However successful within the officers' corps, the military reform only worsened Brazil's deficit.

Outside of the military realm, the Duke of Caxias maintained the same policy as that of his predecessor. No decentralization, electoral reform or abolition of slavery.

At the same time, a significant extra-parliamentary republican current was developing. In 1876, a number of important figures of the civil society influenced by positivist ideals signed a Republican Manifesto (Manifesto Republicano) and established the newspaper A República in Rio de Janeiro. Their attempts to infiltrate positivism in the military and specifically within the cadets and young officers were met by strong resistance from a military which was increasingly monarchist.

At the same time, the Liberals were slowly but surely reforming and increasing in popularity. Under the leadership of a former President of the Province of São Paulo, José Antônio Saraiva. The Viscount did not make slavery a major issue (though he was against the slave trade and had some abolitionist ideas), but rather presented himself as a reformist.

The 1878 elections provided a better chance for the Liberals than ever before. The economic outlook was weak, the government generally perceived as poor, and there was a desire for institutional reform.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 65 (+24)
Conservative 45 (-23)
Republicans 0 (-1)

Senate

Conservative 29 (-2)
Liberal 11 (+2)

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José Antônio Saraiva became President of the Council. His cabinet was not homogeneous, and was specifically noted for the inclusion of Manuel Luís Osório as Minister of War. Manuel Luís Osório was a well-liked officer within the Army but also a noted monarchist. He had been a close ally of the defeated Conservative President, the Duke of Caxias (who faded into retirement).

With the military's desires kept under control with a military officer as their Minister, the Liberal cabinet could embark on certain administrative reforms. Firstly, the government passed the Saraiva Law, which amended the electoral law to allow for a more democratic electoral system. Voters now directly elected an electoral college which elected deputies to the Chamber of Deputies. In addition, the vote was extended to former slaves and non-Catholics, although the illiterates lost their vote.

The government did little in regards to slavery, maintaining the status-quo. Certain Liberal deputies but also intellectuals founded the Brazilian Society against Slavery in 1880, which was dedicated to the abolition of slavery. Its leader was the famous abolitionist author, Liberal deputy, and monarchist; Joaquim Nabuco.

Next: Crisis, reform and progress

Crisis, Reform and Progress

In early 1880, the Minister of War, Manuel Luís Osório, died. His death was a major blow for the government and it hurt the government's military strategy. The President of the Council, José Antônio Saraiva. The President's choice for the job was a little-known military professor and journalist (and also a rumoured Conservative), Antônio Eleutério de Camargo. The officers were unhappy about the choice, but many still saw him as preferable to a "civil parliamentarian", which the military resented.

Five months before the 1881 elections, the unofficial Conservative leader and former President of the Council, Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias, died. This death came not only as a major setback for the Conservatives, which had maintained a sizeable share of the Triple Alliance War veterans' vote with the character of the Duke of Caxias, but also to the monarchist sentiment in the military. After Manuel Luís Osório, the Duke of Caxias' death was an important blow to the "monarchist caucus" of the military and the progress made by the monarchist camp in the military threatened to come undone by these deaths.

Left without a strong leader, the Conservatives proved no match to the Liberals in the 1881 election for the Chamber, the first held under the direct system provided by the Saraiva Law. The number of seats in the Chamber was increased from 110 to 150.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 95 (+30)
Conservative 55 (+10)

Senate

Conservative 28 (-1)
Liberal 12 (+1)

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José Antônio Saraiva continued as President of the Council. His cabinet remained largely the same as the pre-election cabinet, and Antônio Eleutério de Camargo kept the War Ministry. At the War Ministry, de Camargo mantained a policy of neutrality and status-quo: he resisted pressures from the officers to increase funding even more and pressures from parliamentarians to prevent officers from intervening in political matters. Indeed, since the Paraguayan conflict, the officers had started to win election to the Chamber and Senate and intervened in political matters. Their intervention was opposed by a number of civilian parliamentarians, both Liberal and Conservative.

However, the main issue facing the Saraiva government was the eternal question of slavery. There was a mounting polarization on the issue. On one side, abolitionist concentrated in the Republican Party but also in the Liberal caucus (Joaquim Nabuco) demanded abolition of an institution they saw as "backwards". On the other hand, conservative plantation owners grew worried about these calls for abolition or reform and became increasingly reactionary. To deal with the divisive issue, Dom Pedro II named the Minister of Justice, Sousa Dantas, to draft a report concerning slavery. The report was due in 1884. Rodolfo Epifânio de Sousa Dantas, his son, was named Minister of Justice to replace Dantas, who wished to involve himself fully in his commission.

Meanwhile, various municipalities nationwide took the first steps in the process of abolition. Acarapé in Ceará became, on January 1 1883, the first municipality to abolish slavery. On September 30 of the same year, Mossoró in Rio Grande do Norte abolished slavery, due to the work of an influential businessman in the area, Joaquim Mendes.

The government continued the old agenda of national development. As exports rose and median income increased, so did literacy. In addition, the telephone, a new American invention, entered Brazil. In 1883, the first municipal telephone system was inaugurated in Fortaleza, Ceará.

Shortly before the 1884 elections, Saraiva announced his resignation, following backroom pressure from certain Liberals. Two candidates to succeed Saraiva were discussed. Franklin Dória (former Minister of War) represented the older, more right-wing faction of the Liberal Party. On the other hand, Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira (former Minister of Justice) represented the modern, progressive wing of the Liberal Party. Pereira, however, was a former republican and his name appeared on the 1876 Republican Manifesto. In the end, Franklin Dória was elected by acclamation.

Next: Dantas Report and 1884 Elections

Era of Division

The Sousa Dantas Report on the slavery problem was due in June 1884, however, the Liberal government tried to delay its publication as much as possible since it knew that its publication would have important effects on the 1884 elections. Finally, in July 1884, the report was released after the Emperor's intervention. The elections were due for August 1884.

The report recommended abolition through a gradual process. Firstly, it demanded stricter application of the Law of the Free Womb passed in 1871 by the Paranhos Conservative cabinet. Secondly, it set 60-years old as the age limit for a slave, after which the owner would need to free the slave. Controversially, the report did not mention compensations to owners following abolition.

That same year, Ceará abolished slavery (March 25) and was soon followed by Amazonas (July 10).

The 1884 election was focused on the issue of slavery, and the slave owners attacked the Liberal government for its abolitionist policies. They turned to the Conservatives, although the Conservative parliamentary leadership also supported gradual abolitionism. In a close election, the Liberals held power while the Republicans re-entered the Chamber.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 80 (-15)
Conservative 68 (+13)
Republicans 2 (+2)

Senate

Conservative 28 (-)
Liberal 12 (-)

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Franklin Dória kept his cabinet, but his staunch abolitionist policy became unpopular within the Liberal caucus and the Conservatives became more and more opposed to his policies. In addition, the military started to oppose him since he wished to restrict the officer's involvement in politics. The Emperor finally decided to fire Dória's cabinet (January 1, 1885) and replaced him with an old Liberal Senator João Lustosa da Cunha Paranaguá, Marquis of Paranaguá. His government was one of conciliation and it did not take any stance on slavery, at risk of dividing his party once more. Franklin Dória became Minister of Foreign Affairs, far from the realm of abolition.

The cabinet of conciliation divided the party's left-wing, led by Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira who did not agree with the government's cautious policy towards slavery and urged abolition as soon as possible. Even Sousa Dantas, now Minister of Finance in the Paranaguá cabinet, showed his dissatisfaction with the cabinet's slavery policy.

The Liberals were divided, and the Emperor finally decided to force the government to a snap election. The Liberals went into the campaign divided, and were faced by a new Conservative leader, João Maurício Wanderley, Baron of Cotegipe. The Baron of Cotegipe had served in Conservative cabinets in the past and represented the moderate and progressive wing of the Conservative Party. With his personality and cross-party support, and the division of the Liberals and the absence of a real Liberal leader, the Baron of Cotegipe led the Conservative Party to one of its largest landslides in Brazilian history.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 99 (+31)
Liberal 49 (-31)
Republicans 2 (-)

Senate

Conservative 31 (+3)
Liberal 9 (-3)

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Slave owners had turned to the Conservatives hoping that they would lead a conservative policy vis-a-vis slavery. They were sorely mistaken. With support from his friend, ally and former Liberal Prime Minister José Antônio Saraiva; the Baron of Cotegipe played a major role in the passing of the Saraiva-Cotegipe Law (passed on . The Law, also known as the Law of the Sexagenarian, freed all slaves above the age of 60 with some compensation to owners. The law was more symbolic, since few slaves lived to age 60 and if they did, their masters would be more than happy to free them at 60. However, the symbolism shocked and slave owners started resisting any attempts to free slaves. Most anti-abolition protests were peaceful, but in 1887 the abolitionist Carlos de Lacerda was attacked and seriously wounded in a Rio theater.

The slavery question divided the Conservative caucus and in March 1887, the Emperor fired João Wanderley and replaced him with a new figure, the Conservative João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira. João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira was an abolitionist and represented the Conservative Party's most progressive faction. With support from Liberals and the regent, Princess Isabel, he was determined to have the issue of slavery and abolition solved during his term.

Next: Crossroads

The Golden Law

Slavery's economic viability was in sharp decline by 1888, and a growing number of slave owners were intelligent enough to realize that the institution was living its final years. In addition, abolitionism had made gains in all layers of Brazilian society, from the urban liberal elites (many of which leaned Republican) to the circles of influences of the Imperial Family but also the military. Indeed, the military, notably Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, were influenced by abolitionist thought and they refused to pursue runaway slaves, always increasing in number. In addition, many saw the abolition of slavery as the only option to attract European immigrants to Brazil to develop Brazil's new industrial centres. These people, concentrated in societies destined to attract European immigrants, argued that potential immigrants saw a slave-based economy as regressive and were not attracted to Brazil.

Princess Isabel had become a strong supporter of the abolitionist cause, as was Conservative Premier João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira and his Minister of Agriculture, Senator Rodrigo Augusto da Silva. However, abolition split the Conservatives into three distinct caucuses: one favoured rapid and instant abolition (this faction included the Premier), the other favoured gradual abolition (the leader of this faction was the Baron of Cotejipe), and the last group resisted all attempts to abolish slavery in the near future (this group included the Baron of Aracati. In practice, the real division was between the first two caucuses, as radical anti-abolitionists had seen their sway over the parties and society diminish during the decade.

In addition, the abolitionist current represented by the Premier had the crucial support of the three bases of society: the military, the Imperial Family and the Catholic Church (which now supported abolition, for the first time in years).

With the close support of the Regent, Princess Isabel, and Senator Rodrigo da Silva, the cabinet started work on the draft of a law abolishing slavery in January 1888. The debates in the Chamber were passionate and emotive.

On May 10, the Senate was presented with the final text of the Golden Law (Lei Áurea). To please the powerful slave-owning elite in Minas Gerais and São Paulo and to please the supporters of gradual abolition somewhat, the law provided from financial compensation to slave owners. The government argued that despite the burden on tax payers in Brazil and the debt it would create, the compensation would help the slave-owners either diversify their plantations or work out alternate arrangements. In addition, the potential of high immigration from Europe and the growing exports of coffee from Brazil would, in the long-term, make compensation a feasible compromise.

The Senate and the Chamber approved the law by a wide margin and on May 13, Princess Isabel signed the law freeing the nation's 723,719 slaves.

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Mass held to commemorate abolition, May 22 1888 in Rio de Janeiro

However, that same month, the Chamber had come to the end of its three-year term and faced elections. Despite the passage of the law, the Conservatives were very divided and a scandal related to the compensation funds soon emerged involving the João Alfredo government. In addition, the Liberals were resurgent under the leadership of Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo, Viscout of Ouro Preto who had been Minister of Finance in the Saraiva cabinet.

The Viscout of Ouro Preto was a convinced monarchist and recent convert to the abolitionist cause. However, his campaign promised more in the way of institutional reform, such as a radical program of de-centralization, electoral reform and Senate reform. Despite being an abolitionist party, the Liberals soon appealed to the discontent slave-owners who had long demanded de-centralization. They knew that in a de-centralized Brazil, they could effectively control their interests through strong power in the various states.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 87 (+38)
Conservative 57 (-42)
Republicans 6 (+4)

Senate

Conservative 26 (-5)
Liberal 14 (+5)

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Next: Refooooooooooorm

Reformist Era

In early July 1888, following a convincing win in the general elections and the personal support of the Emperor Dom Pedro II, the Viscount of Ouro Preto acceded to the Presidency of the Council and formed a Liberal reformist cabinet. He named former Liberal President of the Council Franklin Dória as Minister of the Empire responsible for Political Reforms.

The Liberal government understood that large-scale political and institutional reforms were needed, partly to reform a "broken system" but also to appeal more to two groups ever stronger: the Republicans and the discontent plantation owners who had lost their slaves.

In November 1888, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate approved the Dória Law (Lei Dória), a major electoral reform which extended the vote to the illiterate and freed slaves. In addition, it controversially removed the old clause which prevented politicians from standing for election in their home state. By removing this clause, local barons were given more control and influence over their electoral turf.

However, the government's main program focused around two points: the reform of the Senate, which was then composed of Life Senators appointed by the Emperor from a list of three names chosen by the provinces; and most importantly perhaps, decentralization. The proposition for Senate reform was met by staunch opposition from Senators, notably the Conservatives who still dominated the Senate. However, the reform received the support of former Conservative Premier João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira, who had been swayed by the Emperor to support the Liberal reform. Senator Rodrigo Augusto da Silva, the architect of the Golden Law also supported the reform.

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President of the Council: Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo, Viscount of Ouro Preto (Liberal)

In June 1889, the Senate approved, due to the Emperor's personal intervention, the government's Senate Reform Law (Lei de Reforma do Senado). The law imposed term limits on Senators, who were now limited to a nine-year term after which they could be re-nominated for another term. Despite pressures from Dória, the Senate did not approve any provision concerning a reform of the nomination process in the provincial legislatures. It was, of course, too early to put into question the very nomination of the Senators by the Emperor.

However, despite these reformist moods, there was growing republican agitation. On July 14, 1889; the centennial of the storming of the Bastille, massive republican demonstrations were held in Rio and São Paulo and La Marseillaise accompanied the republican slogans. The Minister of War, Rufino Aeneas Gustavo Galvão, put the military on high alert.

On November 15, a group of young positivist officers led by Benjamin Constant, marched on the government in Rio. There was chaos and confusion in Rio as the future of the Empire seemed uncertain. However, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, who had met with the Viscount of Ouro Preto that morning concerning a military reform, was ordered to quell the positivist rebellion and by nightfall, the republican coup-d'etat. Prudente de Morais and Campos Sales, two Republican deputies condemned the positivist coup and supported legal means to achieve a republican form of government.

In December, the Viscount proceeded to a cabinet shuffle in which Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, the "man of November 15" was rewarded with the important position of Minister of War. The nomination of the popular and well-regarded military leader was especially well received in military circles, who had always been reluctant to support 'civilian' governments. As Minister, da Fonseca proceeded to quash any positivist or republican thought in the military.

With the situation under control and order restored, the government was free to proceed to its important provincial decentralization reform. The cabinet had the crucial support of the two most important provinces: São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The Liberal and Conservative Parties in these provinces, dominated by wealthy plantation owners, desired de-centralization to allow for more power to these plantation owners.

The Decentralization Law (Lei de Descentralização) easily passed in both chambers in January 1890 thanks to the votes of the paulista and mineiro caucuses, although members from smaller provinces, who stood to lose from decentralization, voted against. The law gave provinces the power to control education, internal commerce and the power to raise taxes. However, the provinces could not regular inter-state commerce and raise tariffs. In addition, the provincial President, until then nominated by the Emperor, was to be elected by the provincial legislature. Therefore, the provinces gained responsible government.

Economically, despite a lost harvest for plantation owners in 1889, the economic growth cancelled out any loses for owners and coffee exports rebounded spectacularly in 1890 to arround 5.6 million 60-kg bags.

The United States organized the first Pan-American Conference in Washington D.C. in a bid to increase commerce with the Latin American continent and develop a continental outlook. Eager to prove itself as the leader of South America like the United States was to North America, Brazil's delegation was headed by the talent lawyer, journalist and former Liberal cabinet minister Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira. He was accompanied by the current Foreign Minister and José Francisco Diana and assisted by the Brazilian Minister plenipotentiary to Washington, Salvador de Mendonça. The conference proved a success for Brazil. It also placed Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira back on the spotlight and made him a potential candidate to succeed the Viscount of Ouro Preto as President of the Council.

Internally, the government led a crack down on positivist groups which threatened the monarchy. A number of republicans who had refused to pledge that they would use non-violent means to achieve their political aims were killed or exiled. Among these was Quintino Bocaiuva, a signatory of the Republican Manifesto. The Republican Party, on its side, was not banned despite Conservative pressures to do so, put its leadership put under tight control and surveillance.

By the time of the 1891 elections, the Empire had been consolidated despite republican and positivist agitation. However, the base was satisfied with the decentralization reform and the educated liberal elite had been satisfied with the Senate and electoral reform. The leaderless Conservatives proved little match to the popular Liberals, who handily won. The Liberals won a landslide in Minas Gerais and São Paulo.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 99 (+12)
Conservative 47 (-10)
Republicans 4 (-2)

Senate

Conservative 20 (-6)
Liberal 20 (+6)

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Era of Stability

The Liberals had won a clear mandate against a weak and divided Conservative Party and the discredited Republicans. The Viscount of Ouro Preto was reconfirmed in his function as President of the Council and kept largely the same cabinet.

However, the government was soon embroiled in a scandal. The Minister of War, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca quickly grew unpopular with the civilian politicians, who reproached his authoritarianism and his unchecked ambition. Many were worried that the ambitious authoritarian Minister of War might be planning an internal coup against the Viscount of Ouro Preto, seen as weaker and tired. Pressured by the caucus, the President of the Council demanded and received the resignation of the Minister of War. He was replaced by an unknown civilian public servant, José Simeão de Oliveira. However, the ambitious Marshal left the Liberal Party at the spur of the moment and joined the Conservative Party on December 4, 1891.

His move went largely unnoticed, as Emperor Dom Pedro II died at age 66 on December 5, 1891. His death left the nation in grief and in shock, and his funeral proved to be one of the largest ever public demonstrations in Brazil to date. He was remembered for leading Brazil through nearly 60 years of growth, prosperity, stability and important reforms.

It was Dom Pedro's only surviving offspring, his daughter and former Regent Princess Imperial Isabel who acceded to the throne of the Empire. She was married to a French aristocrat, Gastão d'Orléans, Count of Eu since 1864 and the couple had already given birth to three children, Dom Pedro de Alcântara Orléans e Bragança (1875), Dom Luís de Orléans e Bragança (1878) and Dom Antônio Orléans e Bragança (1881).

()
Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Isabel I of Brazil

As the grief and emotion of December 1891 settled down, the government was shaken by a series of republican revolts in the south of the country, which weakened the power of the monarchy in the south though they were all quickly crushed. In addition, a conservative reactionary slaveholder's revolt in Bahia was quickly crushed.

The Brazilian economy grew at a relatively rapid and stable rate. However, the government focused on encouraging the industrialization of Brazil. In June 1892, the Liberal government passed a tariff revision which increased tariffs on foreign manufactured goods but lowered tariffs on materials needed for industrial production. Slowly but surely, small light industry, mostly manufacturing, popped up in the urbanized areas of the Empire, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Linked with the industrialization of Brazil, socialism first developed in Brazil in 1892. The first socialist party, the Socialist Workers' Party (Partido socialista operário, PSO) was founded in São Paulo in 1893. The PSO was a republican party, but unlike the old Republicans, it was not a liberal elite party but a working-class movement which favoured a Marxist revolution. The PSO was founded by Silvério Fontes.

The Minister of War, a civilian bureaucrat, José Simeão de Oliveira was disliked by the military elite, especially by the Brazilian Navy. They resented his liberal elitism and his refusal to raise the military's pay. The Conservatives, led by Admiral Luís Filipe de Saldanha da Gama and Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, positioned themselves as the party of the military.

Contested within his own cabinet for his weak governing, the Viscount of Ouro Preto was under increasing pressure to resign. Warned of a resurgent Conservative Party, the President of the Council finally handed his resigned to the Empress in December 1893. The Liberal Party divided itself in the contest to choose the next Liberal leader and Premier. Former cabinet minister Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira, the leader of the progressive movement within the party, was the favourite but faced resistance from the Minister of Finances, Senator Cândido Luís Maria de Oliveira. The caucus finally elected Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira as President of the Council.

The Premier was careful as to avoid any controversial reform before the 1894 elections. In the 1894 elections, the Liberals surprisingly held on due to the popularity of Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira and the weak appeal of the Conservatives to urban centres. The Republicans collapsed to one seat, that of Prudente de Morais in Rio Grande do Sul. Most of the remnants of the Republican Party's vote was absorbed by the Liberals and their leader, the former republican Rodrigues Pereira.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 78 (-21)
Conservative 71 (+24)
Republicans 1 (-3)

Senate

Liberal 21 (+1)
Conservative 19 (-1)

()

Once in office, Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira and his government passed an organic law on the organization and powers of the provinces. The provinces were given responsibility for minor things, such as public roads, health and hygiene, education and internal commerce. The elections for the Provincial Assemblies, planned in the Decentralization Law but never held, were to be held every three years, starting in 1896. The law also gave power to local town and village councils. However, the Mayors were still to be nominated by the provincial President, which became the Governor with the new organization. The oligarchic interests denounced the little powers granted to provinces.

The government encouraged an ambitious plan of internal infrastructure development. Forests in the Mato Grosso Province were cleared and settled by European immigrants, roads were built in the poor northern reaches of Brazil, and the Amazonian Basin was slowly developed and the production of rubber in the region boomed.

The Liberals were strengthened by the defection of the sole Republican member of the Chamber, Prudente de Morais. The Republican Party was practically dead.

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Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira

Meanwhile, the Conservatives abandoned their policy of appealing to the military aristocracy with the election of Senator Rodrigo Augusto da Silva to the leadership of the Conservative Party by the caucus. The Conservatives transformed themselves into a civilian largely aristocratic and rural bourgeois party. For the first time since 1888, they posed a real threat to the Liberals, in power for seven years by 1895.

The first election to Provincial Assemblies were held in 1896. The Conservatives won narrow victories in the two dominant states: São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The Liberals won notably in Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro. The Conservatives, ironically, did best in small provinces opposed to de-centralization. In Rio Grande do Sul, the Republican stronghold, the Republicans won no seats in the Assembly.

These elections proved to be a warning not heard for the Liberals, as they were defeated in the 1897 election by Rodrigo Augusto da Silva's Conservatives.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 81 (+10)
Liberal 69 (-9)
Republicans 0 (-1)

Senate

Conservative 21 (+2)
Liberal 19 (-2)

()

Note: Rodrigo Augusto da Silva didn't die in 1889.

Assertion of Brazil 1897-1904

Rodrigo Augusto da Silva's entered office in 1897 to find a booming coffee-based economy, with the number of coffee exports literally breaking records with every year which passed. da Silva encouraged the growth of the coffee export economy. The government regarded Brazil's export agrarian-based economy as its best bet for the future, and the government thought that the coffee-based economy was the only economic choice for Brazil.

Internally, the government continued the previous cabinets policy of exploring and developing the Amazonian Basin and inland Brazil. Forests continued to be cleared for roads and farms dominated by wealthy landowners sprung up in the province of Mato Grosso.

In the northwest of Brazil, Brazilian promoters and explorers seeking rubber fell across the territory of Acre, officially a part of Bolivia (a situation accepted by Brazil in 1867 by the Treaty of Ayacucho) but in practice left untouched by Bolivian authorities or troops. In 1899, the Spanish explorer Luis de Gálvez Rodríguez Arias took over the territory and declared an independent republic in Acre. Held by the terms of the 1867 agreement and also the government's eagerness to improve relations with Bolivia, the da Silva government did not support the new state (unlike the Governor of Amazonas) and sent four gunboats to expel Gálvez and return the territory to Bolivia in return for the granting of special rights to Brazilians (mostly exploiting rubber) in the territory.

In 1900, at the turn of the century, Brazil had a population of around 18 million and a booming export economy, but a weak industrial sector save for a few industries in the major centres along the urbanized coast. The Conservative government headed into the 1900 in a solid state, helped by a strong and growing economy, a popular leader and facing a weak and divided Liberal Party. In addition, they had won the support of the oligarchic interests of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 100 (+19)
Liberal 50 (-19)

Senate

Conservative 23 (+2)
Liberal 17 (-2)

()

The government, strengthened by its increased parliamentary majority, led an aggressive and popular foreign policy. In 1900, Brazil won control of the region of Amapá in the province of Para from France, which controlled neighboring Guiana. This foreign policy was led by the able diplomat and Foreign Minister José Maria da Silva Paranhos Jr., son of the former President of the Council. On the regional stage, Brazil emerged as a leading power against its traditional rival, Argentina. Brazil had developed a more democratic and participative system of governing than Argentina, then ruled by a conservative oligarchy.

However, the interests of the conservative oligarchy were also taking over in Brazil. The Governors of São Paulo and Minas Gerais became local barons. The Liberals and Conservatives became mere parties of the oligarchy, led by the Liberal Governor of São Paulo, Campos Sales (and Prudente de Morais, a former Republican, now the leader of the Liberals in São Paulo) and the Conservative Governor of Minas Gerais, Silviano Brandão.

Rodrigo Augusto da Silva died of a heart attack in June 1901 at the age of 68. He was succeeded temporarily by Minas Gerais Senator Eduardo Ernesto da Gama Cerqueira. The race to succeed him highlighted the new direction of the Conservative Party and Brazilian politics in general. Senator Rodrigues Alves (and Governor of São Paulo between 1896 and 1899 - defeated by Sales), the candidate of the paulista coffee oligarchy easily defeated his little-known rivals. He became President of the Council in November 1901.

Rodrigues Alves continued the old policy of encouraging the growth of the export-based economy, but also passed a tariff revision in July 1902 which increased the tariff on foreign manufactured goods, a move to encourage the growth of industry. By 1903, Brazil had around 2,500 industrial establishments, mostly in the provinces of Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (to a lesser extent).

The growth of industry and urbanization led to the growth of left-wing Marxist movements. The International Workers' Day, May 1, was celebrated in Santos (SP) in 1899 for the first time. In 1903, in São Paulo, the Socialist Workers' Party (founded in 1892) merged with smaller movements and formed the Brazilian Socialist Party (Partido socialista brasileiro, PSB). The Socialists were especially strong in the industrial harbour of Santos and in the capital, Rio.

In the 1902 provincial elections, the oligarchic system established itself firmly. In São Paulo, the Liberals of Governor Campos Sales won a crushing majority (with the support of the coffee establishment). In Minas Gerais, the Conservatives of Governor Afonso Pena (who succeeded Silviano Brandão) won a crushing majority (with the support of the dairy interests). In Rio de Janeiro, the Liberal Quintino Antônio Ferreira de Sousa Bocaiúva (aka Bocaiúva) won, but Bocaiúva was not representative of the paulista Liberals: he was a former member of the Republican Party and represented an intellectual reformist current which had been progressively sidelined within the Liberal Party.

Acre, following the collapse of the Gálvez Republic in 1900, Bolivia militarily occupied Acre and the Bolivian government of General José Manuel Pando made the defense of a Bolivian Acre a main part of Bolivian policy. Bolivia wished to assert its influence in central South America, and especially over the rubber-rich region of the Amazon. In March 1903, José Plácido de Castro, a colonel in the Brazilian military, traveled to the territory with the express support of the Governor of Amazonas, the Foreign Minister and the President of the Council. In response, the Bolivian government ordered the placement of troops on the border with Brazil. It seemed as if war was to come as Brazilian voters went to the polls in June 1903.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 105 (+5)
Liberal 45 (-5)

Senate

Conservative 24 (+1)
Liberal 16 (-1)

()

The government won another strong majority as tensions escalated in Acre between Brazil and Bolivia. Bolivia ignored Brazilian and American calls for negotiations, and on July 31, 1903, Alves ordered Brazilian divisions to move from Amazonas to solidify the border with Acre and ordered Brazilian gunboats to prepare to move up stream to Acre. One of the divisions moved to the border was led by Hermes da Fonseca, the son of the controversial former Minister of War Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca.

Foreign Minister José Maria da Silva Paranhos attempted to negotiate, but Bolivia was seemingly holding its ground. In October 1903, Pando ordered an attack on a Brazilian rubber camp in Acre, which was accused of being a base for Brazilian forces. Brazil declared that this was a violation of its settlers rights in Acre and declared war on Bolivia.

Marshal Hermes da Fonseca was named Minister of War and put in command of Brazilian forces. His divisions outnumbered the Bolivian army in Acre and quickly seized the offensive by invading Bolivian territory in Acre. In early November 1903, Porto Acre, the stronghold of the Bolivian military and administrative power in Acre, had fallen to Brazil. The remainders of the Bolivian military took refuge in Plácido de Castro, a small town near the unofficial border between Bolivia and Acre. However, Brazil took Plácido de Castro in early December 1903 and Brazilians crossed the artificial line into northern Bolivia. They were met by a strong Bolivian army from La Paz, which settled on the southern shores of the Madre de Dios River around a place known as Conquista.

President Pando knew his army's last chance at pushing back the Brazilian offensive laid on their defense of the Madre de Dios River. They had surrendered territory north of the river, but had the intention of staying strong on the south bank. Around 900 Bolivian troops faced 1,050 Brazilians in January 1904 at Conquista. The Brazilians attacked the Bolivian garrison from both sides and it fell after two days despite Bolivian resistance. The Bolivians either surrendered or fled.

In La Paz, President Pando was pressured by his government to seek an immediate cease-fire with Brazil and the ability to negotiate a peace. Already on January 24, 1904, Bolivian troops in northern Bolivia signed a cease-fire with Marshal da Fonseca's Brazilian contingent.

Under the direction of Foreign Minister José Maria da Silva Paranhos, the Treaty of Petrópolis between Brazil and Bolivia was signed in July 1904. Brazil annexed the territory of Acre but not any Bolivian territory north of the Madre de Dios River. In addition, Bolivia was compensated by a 10-year commercial agreement granting Bolivia access to the Atlantic via Brazilian rivers (Bolivia had lost its Pacific coast in the War of the Pacific with Chile more than 20 years before). In La Paz, Pando resigned and was replaced by his calm and moderate Foreign Minister, Eliodoro Villazón.

In Porto Acre, the instigator of the Acre War, José Plácido de Castro, was named interim Governor by the Empress.

Economic and Political Development of Brazil 1904-1909

The Conservative government encouraged the development of an agricultural federal oligarchy in Brazil. The Conservatives restricted the national government's intervention in inter-state commerce and gave a free hand to the Governors of the major provinces: São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco. In practice, the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais remained the dominant states of the system. The development was very unequal, and opposition to the new system came not from the Liberals (who had adopted the system as well, and controlled the state of São Paulo) but from the educated middle-class elites. The elites gathered around an old abolitionist and liberal thinker, Rui Barbosa. However, in practice, the states maintained their control over politics.

In November 1904, the government of Prime Minister Rodrigues Alves ordered Director General of Public Health Dr. Osvaldo Cruz to launch a mass vaccination program in Rio de Janeiro to prevent further spread of disease in the capital, which despite its palaces and gardens, suffered from grave infrastructure inadequacies. Tuberculosis, measles, typhus and leprosy were common diseases, and epidemics of yellow fever also killed many inhabitants in the capital. The government ordered the destruction of public housing units, which they deemed to be breeding grounds for disease. Confused and thrown into the streets, the people started to revolt and turned the city into a urban battlefield. The army stepped in to restore order and the leaders of the 'Vaccine Revolt' were deported to Acre.

The Brazilian socialist movement was rapidly growing with the growth of industries, and trade unions started organizing. In January 1905, the Brazilian Workers Confederation (Confederação Operária Brasileira , COB) was founded. In February 1905, the first strike was held by 500 textile workers in São Bernardo do Campo (SP). The Conservative government took a hard line and sent the army to repress the strikes. The Conservatives were supported in their anti-union policy by the bulk of the Liberals and notably by SP Governor Campos Sales.

In the 1905 provincial elections, while the Governors of Minas Gerais (Afonso Pena, Con) and São Paulo (Campos Sales, Lib) were easily re-elected, a change took place in the 'sidelined' states of the system: the Liberals won the governorships of Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Sul. These states were 'second-tier' states, behind the two main players of the oligarchic system. The Liberal Governors of these states supported the system, but protested the exclusion of their states from the oligarchic politics.

Prime Minister Rodriges Alves stepped aside in January 1906, and he was succeeded by Minas Gerais Governor Afonso Pena. He was supported by the oligarchy of Brazil, thinking that he would play into the hands of their interests. As Governor, he was succeeded by João Pinheiro da Silva.

In the 1906 election, the Conservatives faced a resurgent Liberal coalition. The Liberal coalition was an unholy one, composed of Governor Campos Sales' base in SP, the liberal elite organized around Governor Bocaiúva in Rio and the 'sidelined' states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Sul. There were now 165 seats in the lower house and 43 in the Senate.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 91 (-9)
Liberal 74 (+24)

Senate

Liberal 22 (+5)
Conservative 21 (-2)

()

Afonso Pena became Prime Minister following the June 1906 elections, notably naming Nilo Peçanha of Rio de Janeiro as his Chief of Staff. Despite being elected with the support of the oligarchy, he quickly led an independent policy and increased the national government's intervention into the economies of the states. He tried to curtail the power of the oligarchy, which led to the unpopularity of his policies and parties with wealthy plantation owners.

During that time, coffee prices and exports had started to stagnate and the question of coffee surplus became an important issue. He convoked the Conference of Taubaté. In attendance were Governor Campos Sales (SP), Governor João Pinheiro da Silva (MG), Governor Bocaiúva (RJ) and Governor Carlos Barbosa Gonçalves (RS). The agreement signed by the four states and Prime Minister Pena at Taubaté attempted to create a balance between supply and demand, mandated the national government to buy surplus coffee (but to prevent surplus crops by discouraging plantation expansion) and levying a tax on each bag exported to increase the country's and the state's profits from the export of coffee.

Afonso Pena also encouraged the development of railways, and under his tenure the railway linking SP with Rio Grando do Sul was completed, as well as linking Rio with the Amazon through telegraph. He also ordered the construction of a railway in the province of Amazonas between Porto Velho and Guajará-Mirim. Construction began in 1907, and led to the deaths of hundreds of workers due to tropical heat, fevers and exhaustion.

The government also encouraged immigration from Europe, which was gradually rising since the abolition of slavery in 1889. Most immigrants came from southern Europe, that is Portugal, Spain and Italy. However, Chinese and other Asian immigrants also came to work on railways and plantations.

Pena's policies towards trade unions were also different than those of his predecessor, as he gave SP workers a eight-hour workday after a 43-day long strike in 1907.

The government encouraged the development of the Brazilian military. In June 1907, as Argentina's military sided with Germany, War Minister Luís Mendes de Morais and Navy Minister Alexandrino Faria de Alencar signed a naval and military treaty with the United Kingdom. As part of the agreement, Brazil ordered construction of two cruisers in Newcastle-upon-Tyne as well as British military trainers to be sent to Brazil.

Meanwhile, in the opposition, the Liberals, out of power since 1897, were becoming openly divided. The division was between those who favoured the continuation of the oligarchic system, led by Governor Campos Sales and the right of the party. There was little difference between those Liberals and the Conservatives, in fact, Sales was to the right of Pena on many issues (unions notably). On the other hand were the reformists, led by Governor Bocaiúva of Rio and supported by liberal reformer Rui Barbosa. In a caucus vote in 1908, the Liberals elected Francisco de Assis Rosa e Silva, the protege of Governor Sales, to the leadership of the party. The reformers who had hoped that the Liberals would be a vehicle for change were sorely disappointed. Governor Bocaiúva, Rui Barbosa and other liberals left the Liberal Party and founded the Radical Party (Partido Radical do Brasil, PR).

The Radicals advocated immediate political and social reform, workers' rights and social legislation, and end to oligarchic politics, electoral reform, urbanization and industrialization, and separation of church and state.

In the 1908 provincial elections, the major provinces remained loyal to their established Governors. In Rio de Janeiro, Francisco Chaves de Oliveira Botelho (Radical) succeeded Governor Bocaiúva, who had retired to run for a seat in the Chamber in 1909. In Minas Gerais, the Conservative Wenceslas Bras was elected to a full term in his own right, after the death of Governor Pinheiro in 1908.

The Conservatives were favoured going into the 1909 election due to the division of the Liberals, but they were divided between supporters of Pena's interventionist policies and those who remained loyal to former Prime Minister Rodrigues Alves' policies. In March 1909, as the Conservatives readied for the June election, Pena died. Two candidates vied for the top spot: Finance Minister David Morethson Campista, supporter of Pena; and MG Governor Wenceslas Bras. Campista was opposed by the oligarchic interests and the military (Marshal Hermes da Fonseca was affirming his power over the Conservative Party), and was defeated in the Conservative Chamber caucus vote by 55-36. Following his defeat, he left the party to join the Radical Party.

Wenceslas Bras led the Conservatives to another electoral victory over Rosa e Silva's Liberals. The Radicals made a breakthrough in Rio de Janeiro (province and city) and polled well in São Paulo and other major cities. The PSB also ran for the first time, but won no seats.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 85 (-6)
Liberal 59 (-15)
Radical 21 (+21)
Socialist 0 (nc)

Senate

Liberal 20 (-2)
Conservative 20 (-1)
Radical 3 (+3)

()

Brazil in Latin America and the World: Brazilian Foreign Policy 1900-1909

While most portfolios were constantly shuffled, one cabinet position remained stable throughout the early years of the twentieth century: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. José Maria da Silva Paranhos Junior, Baron of Rio Branco. The son of the former Conservative President of the Council, the Viscount of Rio Branco, he was an able diplomat and negotiator. As Brazilian Ambassador in Berlin, he had already played an important role in the arbitration of Brazil's boundaries with Argentina (the Missions territory was awarded to Brazil in 1895, a major diplomatic victory for Brazil over its regional rival) and France (the Amapá territory, disputed with French Guiana, was awarded to Brazil in 1900, a major victory for a South American power over a colonial European empire).

In June 1900, the Baron of Rio Branco became Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Rodrigo Augusto da Silva. In January 1904, following Brazil's crushing victory over Bolivia in the short Acre War, the Baron of Rio Branco negotiated the Treaty of Petrópolis which gave Brazil control of Acre and demarcated Brazil's boundary with Bolivia. In addition, the Treaty of Petrópolis also ensured good relations with Bolivia, by guaranteeing Bolivian access to Brazilian rivers for a 10-year period.

Peru, however, also laid claim to Acre and a large part of the Amazon Basin. Despite Brazil's able negotiating, Lima dragged its feet in the resolution of the dispute from 1905 to 1907, hoping that it would benefit from dragging the negotiations on. However, with constantly changing foreign ministers in Peru, Brazil was able to cement its ground in Acre by the ratification in September 1907 of a treaty demarcating the border with Peru.

In 1905, a treaty with Venezuela settled the northern frontier. In 1906, a treaty with the Netherlands settled the border of Suriname. In 1907, Colombia and Brazil came to an understanding allowing a later demarcation of the border and in 1909, a maritime border dispute with Uruguay was settled.

Aside from demarcating the Empire's borders, the Foreign Minister established a new foreign policy with the clear objective of asserting Brazil's influence and power in South America. In 1906, Rio de Janeiro hosted the Third Pan-American Conference during which foreign dignitaries from South America but also the United States and Europe visited Brazil. During this same time, Brazil became the clear leader in South America, despite its unique monarchical system which set it apart from all other independent nations in the continent. It acted as the intermediary in negotiations between Europe and other Latin American nations, notably lobbying the cause of minor powers such as Paraguay and Bolivia in Europe. The Foreign Minister accredited ambassadors and consuls to almost all nations in the American continent as well as major European capitals. In 1907, Brazil attended the Hague Conference and lobbied for the equality of all nations.

The most important foreign policy question in Brazil during the first decade of the twentieth century was the question of political alignment. Since the 1840s, Brazil had aligned with Britain: then the leading economic and political power in the world, a fellow monarchy and an historical ally of Portugal and Brazil. However, by 1900, the rise of the United States as an economic and political power in the world had put this alignment with London into question. A vast majority of Brazilian coffee was now exported to the United States, and the Roosevelt administration had been eager to develop a privileged relationship with Brazil, which it saw as the dominant power in the region and a major ally for the United States in the southern half of the American continent.

The idea of an American-Brazilian alliance had been expressed since the 1850s, including by the pro-American Joaquim Nabuco. However, the old monarchical elite of the era still favoured London over Washington, but by 1900, the establishment of the coffee barons as the new leaders of Brazil had changed this mindset. The oligarchs, aware that the United States was the main market for their exports, favoured an alliance with Washington over one with London, and they had the support of the Foreign Ministry. Under the leadership of the Baron of Rio Branco, Rio de Janeiro developed a strong unofficial alliance with Washington, though maintained strong links, primarily military, with London. Brazil’s new alliance with the United States was noted in Buenos Aires, who at the same time was developing a close relationship with Germany.

Contestation at Home: 1909-1912

Venceslau Brás took office in 1909 in a positive economic climate. Coffee sales were stable, the government's valorization of coffee remained popular and successful, and in the Amazon rubber sales were breaking records. Brás' government continued to encourage industrialization, and continued the old development policies of his predecessors. In the sparsely populated and undeveloped province of Mato Grosso, roads linking the state with the economic centre of São Paulo were completed between 1909 and 1912. In the Amazon, the rubber boom in the first decade of the new century had led to extremely rapid population and income growth in the provinces of Amazonas and Pará.

However, the positive outlook based on the continued growth of coffee and prosperity at home hid another picture. Firstly, the rubber boom in the Amazon Basin came to a rapid end by 1910-1911, as Asian rubber which was faster and cheaper to harvest replaced Brazilian rubber as the world's preferred rubber. The booming towns of Manaus and Belém fell into disrepair and their grandiose infrastructures became empty shells of a glorious past. The Brás cabinet was unwilling to do anything, partly out of the opposition of the coffee barons (who opposed wasting funds on aiding Amazonian rubber) and the reality that Asian rubber remained much cheaper and faster to harvest. At the same time, Brazil's national debt was skyrocketing as the government continued to invest in industry and infrastructure. The monetarist policies led by past Finance Ministers had led to an economic crisis in the early 1900s and contestation to the Conservative policies became more serious than at any time since 1897. Longtime São Paulo Governor Campos Sales (known as the paulista caudilho, Liberal leader Francisco de Assis Rosa e Silva and Liberal Senator Joaquim Murtinho took up new roles as leader of the opposition to the pro-industrial and pro-development policies of the Conservative government.

At the same time, the whole economic system of Brazil - defended by the Liberals and Conservatives - had made enemies. The old imperial elite, composed of provincial deputies and Senators mostly from the old Northeast (the sugar-growing region of Brazil, which was destroyed economically from the rise of coffee in the Southeast) contested the new ruling class, composed of the paulista and mineiros coffee barons. They were joined by an urban middle-class, which had held significant power until the election of Rodrigues Alves to the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1901. This middle-class contested the concentration of power into the hands of a powerful few and two provinces, as well as the emergence of regional caudilhos. The urban middle-class concentrated in the new Radical Party, which emerged as a coalition of the middle-class, the rising industrialists opposed to the mercantilist oligarchs, old republicans and positivists and part of the imperial monarchist elite which had lost power with the advent of the new de-centralized monarchy - which they termed the "Third Empire". In addition, the Radicals also allied with the new growing proletariat in the cities, to whom they promised labour reform. The Radicals were, as a result, an almost exclusively urban party based in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Recife and Porto Alegre. The Radical Manifesto of 1909 called for democratization, electoral reform, an end to the oligarchic politics, industrialization and economic diversification; as well as labour reforms such as the right to strike, wage increase, and other social legislation. The leaders of the new movement included former fluminense¹ Governor Quintino Bocaiúva, but most notably the Bahianese reformer, diplomat and able politician Rui Barbosa. Most Radicals were former members of the Liberal Party, who had lost the control of the party to the paulista coffee barons, but also included parts of the old monarchist Conservative elite.

In late 1910, the stability of the Empire was broken by a naval revolt in Guanabara Bay led by black enlisted sailors who demanded better working conditions and an end to the systematic whippings. However, poorly organized, exhausted and with little determination to lead a real revolt, the revolt quickly ended in November 1910 when the government promised the mutineers amnesty and a parliamentary investigation into their complaints. While the legislature found evidence of whippings, little changed in the navy itself or for black/mestizo Brazilians in general. The dominant racist mood in Brazil at the time was opposed to black Brazilians (whom they saw as weak, less intelligent and poor) and also mestizo Brazilians (who were judged to be 'impure'). These white Brazilians encouraged European immigration, which continued to grow throughout the early twentieth century, as a method to 'purify' the Brazilian population.

On the sidelines of the 'two-state system' stood Rio Grande do Sul, a rich and maverick province which had attempted to challenge the power of the coffee barons since the advent of de-centralization. The province was dominated by wealthy landowners, cattle herders and industrialists; not by coffee. In Rio Grande do Sul, while the old Republican Party had collapsed, positivism and positivism tainted by republicanism had not died out. Between 1890 and 1901, various local revolts led by old republicans such as Julio de Castilhos and Joaquim Francisco de Assis Brasil had failed but showed that positivism was not dead. Positivism continued to influenced the gaúcho² Liberal Party, which had ruled the province since the first provincial elections in 1896. The Riograndense Liberals (and Conservatives, historically weak in the province) were rather conservative with nationalist undertones. They cooperated easily with the military, which played a dominant role in the strategically-located province. Riograndense politicians in Rio de Janeiro attempted to play a role in national politics. Marshal Hermes da Fonseca, the military hero of the Acre War became Minister of War in the Brás cabinet in 1909. In Rio de Janeiro, Senator José Gomes Pinheiro Machado, although a Liberal, he cooperated freely with the Conservative government to gain power for his province. In Porto Alegre, Antônio Augusto Borges de Medeiros became Governor in 1908 and established himself a caudilho propagating his influence in provincial and national politics. Both Machado and Borges de Medeiros made enemies in Rio de Janeiro, including within the Liberal Party, for their opposition to the power of the paulista-mineiros oligarchy (more for economic reasons than political or philosophical reasons) and their strong-handed tactics whose effects were felt outside of the province. Pinheiro Machado was able to install his allies in dominant positions in the Liberal organizations in provinces such Pernambuco and Amazonas.

In the 1911 provincial elections, little changed in the big power bases of São Paulo and Minas Gerais; but the Liberals made important gains in São Paulo (winning nearly three-quarters of the seats) and even Minas Gerais. In Rio de Janeiro, the Radical Governor Oliveira Botelho lost to Nilo Peçanha, the former Chief of Staff in the Pena Conservative cabinet. Peçanha, known as a moderate within the party, had managed to appeal to a majority of Liberals, old coffee barons and some Radicals. In Minas Gerais, Júlio Bueno Brandão won another term in office. In Rio Grande do Sul, Borges de Medeiros' "Liberals" won a crushing victory. In Bahia, the Liberals were able to defeat a Radical upswing led by Rui Barbosa; and the Liberals also won the provinces of Pernambuco in addition to gaining the provinces of Amazonas and Pará, devastated by the rubber crisis and the Conservative government's inaction in the crisis.

The 1912 elections became one of the first major electoral campaigns in Brazilian history. They opposed Venceslau Brás' Conservatives, the Liberals led by Campos Sales and the Radicals led by Rui Barbosa. The Liberals had built a coalition including their old base in São Paulo and Southern Brazil, but also the provinces of Bahia and Pernambuco (and smaller Northeast provinces, such as Paraíba) and the disaffected Amazonian provinces (except Acre, which remained loyal to the Conservatives). In Rio Grande do Sul, the Riograndense Liberal machine split between support of the so-called "café Liberals" of Campos Sales, the Radicals and an unofficial 'Liberal-Conservative Party' or 'Riograndense Liberal-Conservative Party' led Pinheiro Machado and supported by Governor Borges de Medeiros who were unhappy with the domination of Brazilian politics by São Paulo and Minas Gerais. Sales was, more importantly, an enemy of Machado who opposed the coffee oligarchy represented by Sales' café Liberals. Despite this, Sales' Liberals were still able to re-conquer the Liberal infrastructure in states like Pernambuco whose organization had been 'infiltrated' by Machado's allies.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 84 (+25)
Conservative 67 (-18)
Radical 14 (-7)
Socialist 0 (nc)

Senate

Liberal 23 (+3)
Conservative 18 (-2)
Radical 2 (-1)

()

¹ Term used to refer to the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro.
² While the term gaúcho refers literally to cowboys, it has become a synonym for people from Rio Grande do Sul, who are also known as Riograndense. The term 'gaúcho province' refers to the province of Rio Grande do Sul as a whole.

Decline and Conflict: 1912-1915

Campos Sales' Liberals won a narrow majority, but the presence around 25 Riograndense Liberal deputies and Senators weakened the majority, and Pinheiro Machado remained on the sidelines of the government and his power over the Liberal Party in states like Pernambuco and Amazonas significantly weakened since the 1912 election. Campos Sales' first actions were to cut spending to balance the budget. Public works were halted, expenses cut and taxes raised. Government funding programs for industrialization were cut, much to the pleasure of the paulista and mineiros coffee barons who saw industrialization as a futile exercise. In addition, the government established an agency which received deposits of gold and issued paper money backed by gold in return. However, Campos Sales died before he could see the results of his policies. In late June 1913, he died. He was replaced by Altino Arantes, who had replaced him as Governor of São Paulo in 1912.

Meanwhile, in the Imperial family, a scandal concerning the succession rights of the Empress' first-born son and Prince of Grão Para, Pedro de Alcântara. In 1912, he announced his intentions to marry Countess Elisabeth Dobržensky de Dobrženicz, a Bohemian noblewoman. However, Empress Isabel held that since she did not belong to a ruling family, Dom Pedro would have to relinquish succession rights. Her son, however, noted that the Constitution of 1824 did not require the heir to marry equally, which meant that he did not have to relinquish his rights. He refused to do so until the Empress accepted the marriage, which was celebrated in grand pomp in May 1913 in Rio de Janeiro.

Arantes continued the policies of his predecessor, and the results started to show by the end of 1913. Budgets started showing surpluses, foreign loans could be re-paid and Arantes was able to re-start public works in June 1914.

However, at the same time, war clouds were gathering over Europe and war erupted by August 1914. On August 2, demonstrations opposed to Brazilian participation in the European conflict were held in Rio and São Paulo. However, the sympathies of most Brazilians laid with the Allies, and the Imperial Family, which had French blood, were supportive of Brazilian support for the Allied cause. The Empress declared her clear and unwavering support for France and the Allies. Only the Crown Prince, Dom Pedro, opposed the Imperial Family's pro-Entente line. On August 12, 1914; Brazil declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary, mostly due to the Imperial family's clear support of the Allied cause. Despite opposition from certain parliamentarians, most Brazilians supported the Empress' decision. Only German immigrants in Rio Grande do Sul opposed the declaration of war, and they were the target of much persecution starting in 1915.

Brazil did not send troops to Europe, and only the navy played a major role in the conflict by guarding Brazilian coasts. Brazilian shipping was hurt significantly by German submarine attacks on Brazilian vessels, and the navy also suffered loses in 1915-1916.

In 1914, the economy slumped as imports plummeted to half their 1913 level and import taxes consequently took a nose dive. The government's revenues dwindled, a deficit was announced for 1914 and 1915, and Arantes was forced to cut spending dramatically. Exports fell as well, hurting the provincial treasuries whose income depended a lot on export duties which the national government distributed to the provincial governments each year.

The theory that poor economic health in Brazil doomed governments proved right in the 1914 provincial elections, held right after the declaration of war in August. The Liberals in São Paulo saw their super-majority drop to a mere three-fifths majority. In Pernambuco, the Conservatives defeated the incumbent Liberal government. In Rio and Minas Gerais, the Conservative incumbents were comforted with larger majorities in the Legislative Assembly. The Liberals resisted only in Rio Grande do Sul, where Governor Borges de Medeiros won another super-majority. The provincial elections also saw the victory of a Socialist in São Paulo state, representing the harbour of Santos. The Radicals failed again in their attempts to gain Bahia and efforts to defeat Peçanha in Rio fell flat.

While the Liberals were widely expected to suffer a crushing defeat in the 1915 election, the demands of the Allied war effort boosted Brazilian exports significantly, but most of these exports were agricultural while coffee exports remained low. The Conservatives, led by Delfim Moreira, a deputy from Minas Gerais, did not promise anything (as was usual) but only stood for 'change'. In regions hurt by the war, this proved a popular theme. In the end, the Liberals won a plurality of seats, but for the first time in Brazil, it lacked a parliamentary majority. It was now up to the Empress to appoint a President of the Council, who could cobble together a majority. It was also up to the Radicals, enemies of the Liberal-Conservative system of politics, to decide to which party it would grant a majority.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 77 (-7)
Conservative 72 (+5)
Radical 16 (+2)
Socialist 0 (nc)

Senate

Liberal 21 (-2)
Conservative 20 (+2)
Radical 2 (nc)

()

New Lines in Politics: 1915-1918

As a result of the 1915 elections, the Liberals of Prime Minister Altino Arantes lost their overall majority, giving the Radicals the parliamentary leverage necessary to act as kingmakers. However, both Liberals and Conservatives, largely committed to the maintenance of traditional oligarchic politics in Brazil, were opposed to the idea of letting Radicals act as kingmakers in a system which they opposed.

Both Liberals and Conservatives turned to the Empress, who had the final decision over the appointment of a Prime Minister. The Liberals and Conservatives found a common candidate, former War Minister Marshal Hermes da Fonseca, the nephew of the man who saved the Empire in 1889. Although he had served in the Conservative cabinet of Venceslau Brás, he came from the Liberal state of Rio Grande do Sul and he was widely popular as a largely non-partisan figures in both parties. In addition, he could count on the support of the powerful Liberal Senator Pinheiro Machado from Rio Grande do Sul.

Hermes da Fonseca received support from all Liberals and Conservatives in addition to 9 of the 16 Radicals, notably the longtime Radical leader Rui Barbosa. Fonseca's cabinet included Epitácio Pessoa (Conservative) as Minister of Justice, Rui Barbosa as Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Joaquim Seabra (Liberal, Governor of Bahia) as Minister of Finances and Conservative leader Delfim Moreira as President of the Chamber of Deputies. Former Prime Minister Altino Arantes, unhappy from his exclusion from the office of Prime Minister, accepted only the post of Ambassador in London.

The first decision of the Fonseca cabinet was to send a small Brazilian Expeditionary Force to support the Allied war effort in Belgium. The Empress' second son, Dom Luís assumed the nominal command of the Brazilian force in Europe, which was assigned to the Western Front in January 1916.

The heavy loses incurred by the Brazilian force in Europe saw the first cracks in Fonseca's National Unity government. The Conservatives, whose up-and-coming figure was Governor Artur Bernardes of Minas Gerais (who had emerged victorious from a provincial power struggle with Júlio Bueno Brandão). Although nominally a Conservative, Fonseca found most of his support starting in late 1916 from the Liberal benches.

The Radicals divided themselves over the Fonseca cabinet, with Barbosa and a number of elder Radical leaders supporting the cabinet. However, Lauro Müller, deputy from Santa Catarina, emerged as the leader of the anti-Fonseca and pro-peace wing of the Radical Party, which finally split with Barbosa in January 1917. The Müller Radicals, as the pro-peace wing became known, co-operated closely with the small but growing Socialist Party based in São Paulo.

On the economic stage, the Fonseca cabinet was able to preside over a growth in exports - slow but steady. Coffee demand was growing from the Entente powers in Europe, so Brazilian finances were healthier and the government was able to direct more export duty profits to provinces. In addition, the government obtained a foreign loan from the United States and was able to continue the old policy of promoting internal growth and infrastructure development.

The 1917 provincial elections saw little changes. In Minas Gerais, Governor Bernardes won by a huge margin and won his first electoral mandate. In São Paulo, former Prime Minister Altino Arantes made a comeback and was elected Governor by a large margin. In Rio, Peçanha's re-election was made easier by a split within Radical ranks. Finally, in Santa Catarina, Lauro Müller, who had previously served as Liberal Governor of the province, was defeated in his attempt at seeking a second non-consecutive term.

However, 1917 was dominated by a large general strike in São Paulo which spread throughout southern and southeastern Brazil. Led by the new trade unions in the growing manufacturing industry in the state, the strikers demanded higher wages and a major cut in working hours. The provincial and national government split on the line to take vis-a-vis strikers, with Arantes being more favourable to a soft-line while Fonseca wanted to use the military to quash the strikes. Finally, Fonseca won out and the strikes were destroyed by the military. Yet, Arantes heralded the defeat of the strike by passing a law prohibiting child labour and night-time female labour. These were rather minor details in the wide scheme of things. Some left-wing Radicals which still supported Fonseca's cabinet, such as Maurício de Lacerda, broke with the government and joined the ranks of the Müller Radicals, which had silently supported the strike.

Despite the destruction of the expeditionary force early on, Brazil's Navy was able to perform relatively well in the high seas and establish a security blockade around the Brazilian coast and prevent the infiltration of German U-boats.

Some had feared that Germany might try to link up with German immigrants in Rio Grande do Sul, either via the sea or via neutral Uruguay and Argentina. The government responded to these fears, strong in the RS provincial government, by interning some German immigrants or moving them to 'safer locations' inland in Mato Grosso.

In the 1918 election, Brazilian voters felt that victory was near and that the economic outlook was positive. With Liberal support, Fonseca ran for another term in office. Against him was Governor Bernardes of Minas Gerais, but some Conservatives such as Moreira continued to support the Fonseca cabinet. The Radicals, on their side, were split between Müller's 'peace Radicals' and Barbosa's pro-government 'war Radicals'. Müller's faction received the support of the Socialist Party.

The Liberals won a narrow majority, made larger with support from the 8 Barbosa Radicals.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 83 (+6)
Conservative 64 (-8)
Müller Radicals-Socialist 10 (+10)
Barbosa Radicals 8 (-8)

Senate

Liberal 22 (+1)
Conservative 18 (-2)
Barbosa Radicals 3 (+1)

()

New Leadership: 1918-1920

Hermes da Fonseca was nominated by the Empress in July 1918 to form a second cabinet. There were significant changes in the cabinet, which was no more a 'national unity' cabinet but rather a Liberal-oriented one. While the Conservatives, nominally led by Artur Bernardes, were considered to be in the opposition, Fonseca maintained support from Conservatives in some parts of the country, most notably the Governor of Rio, Nilo Peçanha.

JJ Seabra, a close confident of Fonseca, retained the Finances portfolio and became the government's second-in-command. José Accioli replaced Epitácio Pessoa in Justice, with Epitácio Pessoa becoming Foreign Minister in replacement of an aging Ruy Barbosa. To appease the more restless arantista Liberals, Arantes' ally, Pedro de Toledo, received the Infrastructure portfolio. The cabinet took a much more Liberal tone, with much fewer Conservatives.

Brazil stepped up its naval participation in World War I in early 1918, and captured some German merchant ships which were interned in Brazilian harbours. In 1914, Brazil had already seized around 80 German ships which had been in Brazilian ports. Germany signed the Armistice in Europe on November 11, 1918; ending World War I.

The Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 provided Brazil with an opportunity to assert itself as the regional leader of the South American continent. The high-profile Brazilian delegation to Paris included Epitácio Pessoa, Foreign Minister, who was accompanied by the elder and respected Barbosa.

In Paris, Brazil demanded from the victorious Allies the right to purchase the interned German ships, instead of having the ships split between the victorious nations on a criteria which would have deprived Brazil of them. Furthermore, Brazil demanded from Germany payment, at the 1914 level, of the coffee which had been stored in German ports and re-sold by the Germans. With support from US President Woodrow Wilson, Brazil was able to obtain satisfaction on its claims. Brazil also supported the creation of the League of Nations, advocating for the rights of fellow Latin American nations within the new organization's framework.

The end of the war signified a ripe time for the handing out of nobility titles all over the place. Former Prime Minister Venceslau Brás was made Baron of São Caetano, Ruy Barbosa was made Viscount of Bahia, Epitácio Pessoa became Viscount of Umbuzeiro, Altino Arantes was made Earl of Batatais (mostly to appease him). Former Prime Minister Rodrigues Alves was also in line for one, but he died of the Spanish Flu in 1919 before he could receive his title.

At home, however, the end of the war had ended, in the eyes of a number of Paulista Liberals, the legitimacy and use of Prime Minister Fonseca. To them, Fonseca had been appointed in 1915 as a national unity Prime Minister to break deadlock and provide unity during the conflict. The dominant Paulista wing of the Liberal Party, which dominated the Liberal caucus in the Chamber, had offered lukewarm support to Fonseca since 1917. The coffee interests which they represented were unhappy about a Riograndense Prime Minister, and by 1919, the Paulista Liberals and Governor Altino Arantes were openly voicing their disapproval in the cabinet.

Fonseca found himself in an increasingly precarious situation by late 1919, relying on the Northeastern and Riograndense Liberals and Barbosa's Radicals for support. The Northeastern Liberals remained dominant over Paulista Liberals in the Senate, which still represented the historical interests of the old Northeast more than the newer oligarchy of São Paulo and Minas Gerais.

Yet, Fonseca took little heed to cultivate his remaining bases of support and based his support on an extra-parliamentary organization, the Brazilian Army. He lavishly furnished favours and bribes to leading military officers, notably his fellow Riograndense officer and de-facto leader of the Brazilian force in Europe, Setembrino de Carvalho. Setembrino de Carvalho was named Marquis of Uruguaiana.

In January 1920, Fonseca, with support from the Army itself, pushed through a military build-up and army reform which would have effectively crushed the old National Guard. The National Guard a paramilitary militia created in 1831 was still dominated by the old landowners of the Northeast and its scope of activities in 1920 was limited to protecting the interests of the latifundios in the region. The reform, which would have killed the National Guard resulted in the Northeastern Liberals walking out of Fonseca's parliamentary support group. Even JJ Seabra walked out. He faced a backbench revolt within his own party, supported by an unholy alliance of the Northeast with São Paulo. With some Conservative support, they pushed through a confidence motion. Of the 105 Liberals in Parliament (83 deputies and 22 Senators), only 31 retained confidence in Fonseca.

Fonseca had lost parliamentary support, but he turned to the military in an attempt to impose himself as an extra-parliamentary ruler. However, the Empress stepped in and dismissed Fonseca in March 1920.

The Liberal Party, generally united in January 1920 against Fonseca, split over the choice of his successor. Two candidates emerged for Liberal leadership: JJ Seabra, the government's number two and the candidate of the Northeast; and Pedro de Toledo, Infrastructure Minister and the candidate of the arantistas. In a caucus vote in early March, Seabra won 54 votes (winning 15 Senators but only 39 deputies) against Toledo's 51 votes. JJ Seabra was named Prime Minister in mid-March 1920.

The Conservatives, which despite being largely in the opposition by 1917-1918, split in late 1918 and early 1919 over the question of confidence in the Fonseca cabinet (which retained majority support in Parliament at that point). The split in the Conservative Party was a classic rift between the oligarchy of Minas Gerais and 'the others'. Two Governors, Bernardes (MG) and Peçanha (RJ) emerged as the respective standard-bearers. Bernardes opposed Fonseca, but Peçanha enjoyed good relations with the military and Fonseca. The Conservative division became unusually violent in late 1919, and an informal ballot was held inside the Conservative Party's leadership. With support from the small but growing Paulista Conservatives, Bernardes defeated Peçanha rather handily, who could only rely on his own province and some Northeastern provinces (the 'internal solution' to the leadership question sidelined pro-Peçanha military officers). Peçanha grudgingly accepted the result, but by March 1920, he became increasingly supportive of Fonseca, who had also fallen from grace.

Ruy Barbosa, the aging Radical leader and Viscount of Bahia, retired from electoral politics unofficially in 1919 following the Peace Conference in France. His pro-Fonseca faction died out as he retired, and Lauro Müller, the left-wing anti-war Radical opponent of Barbosa, was able to impose himself as leader of a re-united Radical Party by 1920. Under Müller, the Radicals focused on shoring up support with German and Italian immigrants in the south of Brazil, notably in Müller's home province of Santa Catarina but also in Rio Grande do Sul.

JJ Seabra's short victory in the 1920 ballot split the Liberal Party down the middle. Pedro de Toledo and Altino Arantes signaled their disapproval in the government of JJ Seabra. Determined to obtain a popular mandate, Seabra asked the Empress in May 1920 for an early dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies (elections were scheduled for June 1921) and snap elections in which he hoped to obtain a mandate.

However, the Conservatives under Bernardes were able to build off of Paulista discontent in the government and the Conservatives made inroads in the province. Aided by Arantes' retirement in favour of Pedro de Toledo in the 1920 provincial elections (to be held with the snap election in June 1920), the São Paulo Conservatives, led Washington Luís were growing at a rapid pace. Seabra couldn't keep up with the apparent alliance of São Paulo and Minas Gerais under the Conservative banner. Seabra could not gain the full support of Peçanha in Rio (Peçanha was candidate for re-election as an Independent as RJ Governor), and the military sat on the sidelines despite their little support for Bernardes. Furthermore, an upswing in Radical support nationally prevented Seabra's Liberals of gaining middle-class support.

In the end, the Conservatives won a majority of the seats. Seabra's Liberals struggled in the traditionally Liberal south and he obtained relatively weak support in the Northeast, outside of Bahia. However, the Liberals did resist better in Rio, where Peçanha's opposition to Bernardes likely helped them.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 86 (+22)
Liberal 56 (-27)
Radical 23 (+5)¹

Senate

Liberal 21 (-1)
Conservative 19 (+1)
Radical 3 (nc)

()

¹ The Radical results are compared to the combined strength of the Müller and Barbosa Radicals in 1918 (10 and 8 deputies respectively).

Contestation: 1920-1923

Note on the 1920 provincial elections: Held on the same day as the general election, the provincial elections generally followed the pattern set by the general election. In Minas Gerais, the Conservatives led by Raul Soares won a strong majority. The major change came in São Paulo, where the Conservatives under Washington Luís broke 18 years of Liberal oligarchic rule. In Rio de Janeiro, Nilo Peçanha, running with Conservative and Liberal supported, defeated Radical opposition as well as a dissident pro-Bernardes Conservative. The Liberals maintained their hold on Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul.

Bernardes assumed power as Brazil's economy suffered a sharp decline following the coffee boom created by the Allied war demand. Exports fell rapidly, the country went under heavy debt and a tough budgetary deficit. Although he represented a more economically liberal view, Bernardes could not politically afford the costs of undertaking a tough orthodox policy like Campos Sales had attempted to do. He continued to support, officially, the valorization policy but turned over responsibility for the valorization policy to the provinces themselves.

Bernardes' government faced rising military discontent by 1920, military discontent which had been inexistent under the very pro-military Fonseca regime. Bernardes received only lukewarm support from senior officers in the military, though Bernardes was careful not to alienate senior officers. However, younger junior officers, just out of school, were inbred with idealist views of society, and talked in terms of equality, democracy, and national pride. They opposed what they saw as a corrupt, oligarchic and undemocratic system. Though they also opposed what they called an outdated system, they did not speak in the positivist tones of their predecessors in the 1880s: they opposed the parliamentary system, not the Empress.

Dona Isabel I died on November 14, 1921. Having never fully recovered from the death of her younger sons, Prince Antônio Gastão (who had died in a plane accident in 1918) and most recently Prince Luís who had died in 1920. Dom Pedro, Isabel's eldest son, acceded to the Imperial Throne of Brazil in November 1921 as Dom Pedro III.

The year 1922 marked the centenary of Brazilian independence from Portugal, and marked the development of a new intellectual and artistic movement in Brazil, which broke from the old European traditionalism. Led by Graça Aranha, Oswald de Andrade, and Plínio Salgado, this new movement, called Brazilian modernists, rejected old academicism and the pro-Portuguese view of Brazilian history. While they argued that Brazil was historically influenced by Portugal, it needed to create its own history and art. Led by these modernist thinkers, the Modern Arts Weeks in São Paulo (February 1922) led to unforeseen introspection and ideas, which conflicted with the old Brazilian Academy of Letters.

At the same time, influenced by this intellectual movement, new political movements led by the clergy or radicals took a new interest in working-class politics. While the Catholic Church was becoming more concerned by the plight of the proletariat, a group of radicals founded the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) in March 1922 in Niterói.

At the same time, the junior officers in the military were growing restless. Isolated within their own ranks by the unwillingness of senior officers to take up the banner of reformism, their hopes for advancement were frustrated by the government. In July 1922, a small group took up arms at Igrejinha Fort on Copacabana Beach. However, lacking support from senior officers and suffering from their lack of organization, their quixotic struggle was quickly crushed.

However, the revolt of the officers in July 1922 was not an isolated incident and there was growing military and political opposition to the political system. Bernardes enforced a state of siege throughout Brazil following the revolt at Igrejinha Fort, but the new Emperor became increasingly worried by the rise of revolutionary activity, although he felt that he was not directly threatened.

Furthermore, Bernardes spearheaded the passage of legislation which banned the new PCB, as well as a law limiting freedom of expression under the state of siege and a law which enabled the government to expel any 'foreigner' found to be fermenting political revolution in Brazil. These moves were widely popular with the old political brokers of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, fearing now more than ever for their enshrined power.

Despite the intellectual, military and political contestation to the political regime, it remained solidly installed and Bernardes' Conservatives were favoured in the upcoming 1923 election. However, other events would soon change the Conservative Party.

In Rio Grande do Sul, ruled by Liberal Governor Borges de Medeiros since 1908, the Conservatives and Radicals were hoping to make important gains in the 1923 election, with their top candidate Joaquim Francisco de Assis Brasil. Assis Brasil, an old Republican from the late days of Dom Pedro II, had originally been out of the political game following the old Republican Party's decline following the failed 1889 coup. However, the Conservatives and Radicals had recruited the elder politician and respected local statesman to run, mostly to oppose Borges de Medeiros's authoritarian and controversial management of the province. Bernardes, whose relations with the leaders of the Riograndense Liberals (Borges de Medeiros, Fonseca and Machado) were terrible, quietly intervened in the province (violating the constitution and the 'federal reform' of the 1890s) in favour of Assis Brasil.

Nationally, however, the situation proved more peaceful, and Bernardes' Conservative government was popular with the Paulista and mineiros power-brokers and the Liberals were divided and leaderless since the 1920 defeat. The Radicals, still led by Müller, created a large alliance including the fledgling Brazilian radical left (including the banned PCB and the old Socialists) and the Brazilian modernist movement. In June, the Conservatives won a slightly larger majority.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 90 (+4)
Liberal 54 (-2)
Radical Alliance 21 (-2)

Senate

Conservative 22 (+3)
Liberal 20 (-1)
Radical Alliance 1 (-2)

()

In provincial elections, the situation in the main provinces remained similar to 1920. Raul Soares and Washington Luís won by landslide margins in their own provinces, and Nilo Peçanha once again narrowly held on. However, the main race was of course in Rio Grande do Sul. The results, tallied by the provincial government, gave Borges 49% of the vote against 47% for Assis Brasil' Conservative-Radical coalition.

With a poor economy and a dishonest election, the province rose in revolt. Supported by the middle class, a good number of German immigrants and most of the national government in Rio, Assis Brasil's partisans lacked organization and the crucial local military and oligarchic support. Meanwhile, in Rio, Bernardes was plotting with Assis Brasil's lieutenants to engineer a plot to assassinate Borges and install a Assis Brasil-led Conservative government in Porto Alegre. However, Bernardes' illegal intervention was noted by the Emperor, who for the first time in a very long time waged his moderating power in August 1923 by dismissing Bernardes and forcing a ceasefire in the Gaúcho province. Dom Pedro, a strict follower of the constitution, had not digested Bernardes' violation of the constitution in his intervention in Rio Grande do Sul and had wanted to flew imperial muscle partly to re-assert imperial control and final veto in a political system where contestation was rising.

In Rio Grande do Sul, a ceasefire was signed in August 1923 and was followed by a deal between the warring factions in September. Under the deal, Borges would remain as Governor until 1926 but would govern in a coalition with Assis Brasil's supporters and Borges' more authoritarian power blocks were removed.

NEXT: A new leader for Brazil... take guesses!

A Feeble Regime: 1923-1929

Following Bernardes' dismissal by the Emperor, the Conservative caucus elected the Governor of São Paulo, Washington Luís as President of the Council. Luís was a popular politician, and had good relations with Minas Gerais and other states. His accession to the top spot in government was greeted with optimism, and his first move was to lift the state of siege and declare a general amnesty for political prisoners. Carlos de Campos succeeded him as Governor of São Paulo.

However, Luís was soon faced with renewed troubles. The economic growth was slow, and the close alliance between the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais alienated other states, notably Rio Grande do Sul and certain Northeastern states such as Bahia and Pernambuco. Furthermore, the military remained skeptic of the Conservatives and offered only lukewarm support to Luís.

On July 5, the city of São Paulo broke out in revolt against the provincial government of Carlos de Campos, who had grown unpopular. Young military officers, led by General Isidoro Dias Lopes, occupied the city and the provincial government was forced to flee the city. However, government troops led by Colonel Fernando Prestes de Albuquerque (Provincial Secretary of Defense in the Campos government) and supported by light artillery and aviation from Minas Gerais, were able to successfully lay siege to the city and weakened the rebel's hold on the city through numerous bombing raids. Without aerial support, the rebels fled the city and marched towards to Três Lagoas on the border with Mato Grosso, where government backup troops were stationed. However, Isidoro's rebels were defeated by the governmental forces in Três Lagoas and forced to retreat, first towards Foz do Iguaçu in Paraná and later towards Rio Grande do Sul, where rebels led by the young Luis Carlos Prestes were leading a small-scale revolt. By August, São Paulo was pacified at the price of thousands of deaths and bombing raids. However, in October, Prestes' rebels in Rio Grande do Sul broke out in revolt, but they were forced to retreat. Prestes' rebels formed the Prestes Column, which marched through the lush jungle of inner Brazil and western Brazil, escaping imperial troops.

The Emperor, fearful for peace in Brazil as well as his own power, forced Carlos de Campos to resign as Governor in favour of a coalition led by Senator Antônio da Silva Prado and supported by Fernando Prestes de Albuquerque. He also forced Washington Luís to lift the state of siege in Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and São Paulo as quickly as possible to allow for a return to order.

Raul Soares, the Governor of Minas Gerais died in August 1924 and was succeded by Fernando de Melo Viana, a close ally of Washington Luís.

To appease the growing urban working class, the Conservative government in 1925 decreed the right to 15 vacation days per year for industrial, commercial and bank workers in Brazil. Yet, anti-union legislation remained stringent and the number of 'foreigners' expelled from Brazil for alledgedly formenting revolt and workers' movements increased during Washington Luís' term in office.

On the foreign policy front, the Conservatives were far more isolationists than the Liberals had been once in power. It regarded the League and Europe with growing suspicion, and it was less keen on efforts at South American unity. Yet, Brazil attended the Pan-American Santiago Conference in 1923 and supported efforts to arbitrate conflicts and border disputes between American nations. In 1924, Brazil's Foreign Minister, José Félix Alves Pacheco, signed a treaty of cooperation with the United Kingdom. The Conservatives aligned themselves with Europe, especially London.

There was growing discontent with the political and economic system in Brazil, but the Liberal opposition could not take advantage of it. It remained divided, leader-less and its policy was extremely similar to that of the Conservatives in that it did not advocate any reforms of importance. Only the Radicals, led by the aging Lauro Müller, were the only ones able to capitalize on the unpopularity of the political system.

In the 1926 elections, thanks to their unorthodox methods and electoral deals with various states, the Conservatives were returned with a large majority. The Liberals won one of their worst results ever, while the Radicals won their best result ever.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 98 (+8)
Liberal 41 (-13)
Radical Alliance 26 (+5)

Senate

Conservative 24 (+2)
Liberal 16 (-4)
Radical Alliance 3 (+2)

()

In provincial elections, the Conservatives led by Fernando de Melo Viana won in Minas Gerais and Carlos de Campos won a stunning comeback in São Paulo following the retirement of Antônio da Silva Prado. In Rio de Janeiro, Prado's son, Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior finally defeated Peçanha, who failed to win sufficent Liberal and Radical support. In Rio Grande do Sul, Borges' forced retirement (as per the 1923 deal) led to the election of a young Liberal provincial deputy, Getúlio Vargas.

The second term of Washington Luís in government was relatively quiet compared to the first one. Between 1926 and 1929, Brazil's economic growth picked up and coffee exports reached new heights in 1926 and 1927. Industrial growth in the country was also picking up speed, notably with the opening of a General Motors (GM) car plant in the industrial hinterland around São Paulo. As a result of this industrial growth, the Confederação Geral do Trabalho (CGT) trade union was founded in 1927.

In São Paulo, Governor Campos died in 1927 and his death led to a succession crisis within the Paulista Conservative organization. On one side, Fernando Prestes de Albuquerque supported the candidacy of his son, Júlio Prestes agianst that of Antônio da Silva Prado. In the end, the young maverick Júlio Prestes defeated Antônio da Silva Prado. However, this led to an internal split in the party led by Antônio da Silva Prado and his son, the Governor of Rio, Prado Júnior. They became Independent Conservatives.

Yet, Washington Luís resisted calls for political reforms from the Radicals (led by Müller's ally, Antônio Pereira da Silva e Oliveira, following Müller's death in 1926) and some Liberals. The Conservatives insisted that electoral reform should be a provincial issue.

Between 1927 and 1929, Washington Luís' government became noted for its internal development policies, pushing for the construction and paving of a number of important roads between the coastal cities.

In June 1929, the Conservatives went into the electoral campaign as the heavy favourites, pushed by strong economic results and development inland. The Liberals were still weak and divided, and no figure could emerge as a national leader. The Conservatives won another term, their fourth electoral victory since 1920, but the Liberals picked up speed, most notably in Rio Grande do Sul, where Governor Getúlio Vargas proved extremely popular and a good vote machine for the party. Prado's Independent Conservatives allied with the Liberals, and won around 5 seats.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative 87 (-11)
Liberal 50 (+9)
Radical Alliance 28 (+2)

Senate

Conservative 21 (-3)
Liberal 19 (+3)
Radical Alliance 3 (nc)

()

In provincial elections, Júlio Prestes won in São Paulo and Fernando de Melo Viana won in Minas Gerais. In Rio de Janeiro, Prado Júnior was re-elected in a landslide with Liberal support and the support of many Conservatives. Getúlio Vargas won over 60% of the votes running for re-election in Rio Grande do Sul, despite Assis Brasil's candidacy.

Premiers:

Zacarias de Góis e Vasconcelos: 1866-1870
José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Visconde do Rio Branco: 1870-1875
Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duque de Caxias: 1875-1878
José Antônio Saraiva: 1878-1884
Franklin Américo de Meneses Dória: 1884-1885
João Lustosa da Cunha Paranaguá, Marquês de Paranaguá: 1885
João Maurício Wanderley, Barão de Cotejipe: 1885-1887
João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira: 1887-1888
Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo, Visconde de Ouro Preto: 1888-1893
Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira: 1893-1897
Rodrigo Augusto da Silva: 1897-1901
Eduardo Ernesto da Gama Cerqueira:1901
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves: 1901-1906
Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena: 1906-1909
Venceslau Brás Pereira Gomes: 1909-1912
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: 1912-1913
Altino Arantes Marques: 1913-1915
Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca: 1915-1920
José Joaquim Seabra: 1920
Artur da Silva Bernardes: 1920-1923
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa: 1923-

A New Beginning: 1930

In October 1929, Wall Street crashed, sending the economy of the United States and the quasi-entirety down with it. In Brazil, coffee exports in 1929 fell drastically, almost reaching a record low and the government's debt increased. The old policy of coffee valorization could not work and was ruining the government's finances. The major states, Minas Gerais and São Paulo were turning bankrupt.

Washington Luís tried to cut spending, but he was forced by his party to maintain the valorization policy, which won him the continued support of a shaky party but led to a general worsening of the economic situation by December 1929. Protests erupted, and the small states of the Northeast as well as Rio Grande do Sul were threatening violent action if the government did not resign and a new government formed. In late 1929, the Liberal Governor of Paraíba, João Pessoa, was assassinated in a mysterious fashion and led to outbreak of violent clashes in the Northeast between various warring armed factions.

In January 1930, the situation was deteriorating rapidly with an economy still in decline and the country on the brink of civil war. The Emperor called Washington Luís to Rio de Janeiro, where he forced him to resign.

On January 15, 1930; the Emperor nominated the Liberal Governor of Rio Grande do Sul Getúlio Vargas as Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil. The same day, the Emperor dissolved Parliament and called for snap general elections in February 1930.

The campaign was held under weird circumstances. The Liberals campaigned as the de-facto incumbents, but Vargas himself did little campaigning except for unveiling the program of the Liberal Party in Rio de Janeiro in late January. The Liberal program promised economic reforms, political reforms, and promised increased provincial powers and increased rights for workers and trade unions. The major figures of the tenente movement now supported the Liberals (and not the Radicals) as did many influential provincial figures. The Conservatives did very little campaigning, and their efforts at campaigning were blocked by the strong-arm tactics of certain Liberal leaders.

The Liberals won a landslide victory, while Conservatives and Radicals suffered major loses.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal 102 (+52)
Conservative 48 (-39)
Radical Alliance 15 (-13)

Senate

Liberal 21 (+5)
Conservative 19 (-2)
Radical Alliance 0 (-3)

()

Vargas was called to form a permanent cabinet the next day. He formed a cabinet of national unity, one which included Afrânio de Mello Franco, a former Conservative as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Osvaldo Aranha as Justice Minister, Lindolfo Collor at the head of a new Labour Ministry and Mauricio Lacerda, the new leader of the pro-Vargas Radicals as Education and Health Minister.

Vargas' main problem lay with the provinces, and especially São Paulo, the new Conservative power base. Governor Júlio Prestes remained a thorn in Vargas' side throughout 1930 by refusing to comply with national policies on coffee reform. Yet, Vargas was able to buy the support or tolerance of most provincial Conservative leaders by making smart promises and giving them assurances that he would not intervene directly into provincial affairs.

In 1930, the pressing issue was getting out of the economic spiral. Vargas decreed a policy of strict coffee burning by the government to destroy all surplus coffee in an attempt to increase coffee sales on the international market with more advantageous prices for a world hit hard by the Wall Street crash.

The ambitious Vargas saw his political future not in continuing the oligarchic politics of the pre-1929 era, but rather in nurturing the growing working classes as a political base. He knew, however, that such a base must be tightly controlled by the government if it was to be reliable and useful. In late 1930, Vargas passed a law formally recognizing trade unions but linking them to the Labour Ministry, and the office of the Prime Minister himself.

Júlio Prestes lost the confidence of the Conservatives in São Paulo because of his assertive policy against Rio. The Conservatives recognized Vargas' growing popularity and they forced him to resign in favour of Armando de Sales Oliveira. Meanwhile, however, Vargas set up a close ally of his, João Alberto Lins de Barros, as the leader of the Liberal Party in the province. João Alberto Lins de Barros' real job, however, was a game of political intrigues with the intention of setting up a reliable political network in São Paulo for Vargas.

next: 1931-1933

Consolidating Power: 1931-1934

Even after the 1930 elections, few thought that Vargas would be more than a mediocre short-lived Prime Minister. The Conservatives saw him as an inoffensive compromise leader chosen by the Emperor and the voters to weather through what they saw as a short-term bust in the economic cycle. They were confident that a gaúcho Prime Minister would not be able to break the old domination of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, only temporarily broken by contemporary conditions. Most compared him to Hermes da Fonseca, only with less prestige and support.

However that was to sorely underestimate Vargas' power and to completely misunderstand the profound impact of the Depression on Brazilian society, economics and politics. Vargas moved to assert his control. In Minas Gerais, Vargas gained support from Olegário Maciel, a Conservative known for his fascist and nationalist tendencies. In other states, he won the support of the old oligarchic machines by promising not to make major reforms endangering their positions.

However, Vargas needed to please the other faction which had brought him to power in 1930. The burgeoning middle-classes, made up of largely liberal and democratic elements, had been dissatisfied by the old Liberal-Conservative system and they saw Vargas, a minor player outside the political arena, as their hope for change. Many of these one-time Radical voters switched to support the Liberals in the 1930 electoral confirmation of Vargas' new regime. Many of the old tenentistas, notably Juarez Távora, Eduardo Gomes and Juracy Magalhães also supported Vargas' new regime. To please this demanding but rather weak faction of his 1930 electorate, Vargas decreed (bypassing Parliament) in May 1931 an electoral reform, the first major reform of the kind since the 1888 Dória Law. The major facets of the new law was the secret ballot, women's suffrage, an expansion of the size of the Chamber from 165 (the number had not changed since 1906) to 250 and the Senate from 43 to 60. The illiterates retained the vote, but since most were easily led into voting for the candidates endorsed by the coronels, so it offered little hope for major social reform in the sertão.

In June 1931, he decreed a vast reform of the electoral system for the election of deputies. There were to be 130 single-member seats and 120 seats elected through a proportional list system. The electoral reform showed the political skill of Vargas: through single-member districts, locals coronels could 'own' a constituency or build up a local stronghold with a strong link to their voters (or regimented followers, as was often the case) but with the list seats, Vargas sent a clear message to the old Radicals in favour of political reform.

But Vargas also knew that he needed to assert his personal control over the country. He took to governing by decrees and developed an excellent working relation with Dom Pedro III, who shared some of Vargas' authoritarian and nationalist feelings. In 1931, as part of his electoral reform, Vargas also arranged for an unofficial transfers of powers from Parliament to the office of Prime Minister. Vargas' reform reduced parliamentary oversight and gave him exclusive authority to intervene in the provinces and removed the Parliament's right to dismiss cabinet ministers by a parliamentary vote. To an extent never seen before, Vargas made the office of Prime Minister the top position in the Brazilian political system. Vargas also built good relations with the clergy, assuring religious education in public schools.

Vargas, however, quickly came to the realization that the old tenentes were extremely demanding allies who in the end provided little electoral clientèle. General Isidoro Dias Lopes, the War Minister and famous leader of the 1924 Paulista revolt, fell out with Vargas over Vargas' over-reliance on government-by-decree. He was replaced in the cabinet by a Vargas loyalist, Góis Monteiro, who assured Vargas the full support of the army. Slowly, he freed himself from his old allies.

In terms of economic policy, Vargas' government decreed in 1931 a default on Brazil's foreign debt and renegotiated after a 3-years funding loan from abroad. Attempts at fiscal rigour (balanced budget) were cut short due to the government's purchase of coffee stocks and then by a drought in the northeast in 1932.

Vargas, in a method to assert his power over the country, was determined to build an electoral clientèle of his own within the divided and marginalized urban working-class. In 1931 and 1932, Parliament passed a number of populist laws which, among other things, prevented abusive bank interest rates or regulated women's labour. Yet, Vargas in 1932 remained a rather conservative leader. He cracked down as early on 1931 on the old trade unions, maintained the ban on the PCB despite decreeing a general amnesty for all other political prisoners, and led a very anti-communist policy overall. He would not tolerate the PCB as a rival for the votes and support of the Brazilian working-class.

Vargas faced opposition from factions of the old elite which he had sidelined in 1930. The Conservatives remained strong in a majority of provincial governments, thanks to the results of the 1929 provincial elections. In São Paulo, the Conservatives were still strong under the leadership of Governor Armando de Sales Oliveira, who, although more moderate than his aggressive predecessor Júlio Prestes, remained an opponent of Vargas, criticizing Vargas' authoritarian style of governance and the declining importance of Parliament. In his home state, the old oligarch Borges de Medeiros now opposed Vargas, but the power of General José Antônio Flores da Cunha and his local Riograndense militia prevented Borges from leading an armed revolt. Antônio Carlos de Andrada, who had originally been a Conservative ally of Vargas in 1930, criticized Vargas' style of governance and re-joined the opposition benches ahead of the 1932 provincial and 1933 general elections.

The 1932 provincial elections proved a major victory for Vargas' Liberals. The Conservatives, who were convinced that voters would now reject Vargas' new reforms and unusual authoritarian governance, were surprised that the voters continued to put their trust in the Liberals. The Conservatives did hold São Paulo, if only due to the unpopularity of the 'carpetbagger' João Alberto Lins de Barros. In Minas Gerais, however, the incumbent Conservatives, wrecked by deep internal divisions, were swept out of office in a massive landslide by the local Liberal-Conservative Party led by Olegário Maciel. Flores da Cunha established himself in Vargas' home province, while Juracy Magalhães won a landslide in Bahia. In Rio de Janeiro, Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior, now a Liberal ally of Vargas, won re-election. Borges de Medeiros' Gaúcho Front, allied to the Conservatives, did poorly in Rio Grande do Sul.

The Conservatives were convinced that Vargas would lose in 1933. But the strong Liberal victory in 1932, especially the symbolic landslide in Minas Gerais, forced the Conservatives to shed their unbridled optimism about 1933. During the campaign, the Conservatives put up a divided front, with two major figures vying for the spotlight. On one hand, Paulista Governor Armando de Sales Oliveira tried to appeal to the marginalized oligarchs but on the other hand, Antônio Carlos de Andrada tried to appeal to the reformers and democrats who had fallen out with Vargas. Neither worked, and Vargas' Liberals won a landslide victory.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal and Liberal-Conservative 54.8% winning 145 seats (+43)
79 DS, 66 PLS
Conservative and Gaúcho Front 37.8% winning 92 seats (+44)
46 DS, 46 PLS
Radical Alliance 6.6% winning 13 seats (-2)
5 DS, 8 PLS
Others 0.8% winning 0 seats (nc)

Senate

Liberal 33 (+9)
Conservative 27 (+8)

()

Vargas was comfortably confirmed as Prime Minister, and his opposition was even more in disarray. In late 1933, he passed the first nationalist laws, limiting foreign ownership of land and companies. At the same time, he was quickly moving to kill the remnants of the fledgling Radical Alliance, whose support had been eaten up quasi-entirely by Vargas. He had the support of Maurício de Lacerda, Minister of Education and Health and the very pro-Vargas leader of the Radicals. Vargas' ultimate goal was a merger between Liberals and Radicals, and the creation of a new party which would serve as his personal electoral machine.

In late 1933, newly-elected Governor of Minas Gerais Olegário Maciel died. Instead of having the Liberal caucus in the provincial legislature elect his successor, Vargas intervened directly in the provincial politics of Minas Gerais and imposed a little-known deputy and former mayor, Benedito Valladares as Governor. His intervention in Minas Gerais showed that Vargas was intending to do likewise in other provinces if the situation arose.

Vargas' authority as Prime Minister, however, was soon to be threatened by extra-parliamentary organizations. On the right, the Brazilian Integralist Action (AIB), founded in late 1932 by modernist writer Plínio Salgado, was based in the reformist thoughts of the 1920s but Integralisms, influenced by Italian fascism, appealed to nationalist, conservative Christian values, and a respect for established authority and a strong traditional monarchist line. The Integralists were not organized as a political party and did not take part in the 1933 elections, but it organized as a party by 1934. The AIB was finding support from Italian and German Brazilians in the south as well as within the middle-class, showing that Vargas' original support with the middle-class was starting to weaken. On the left, the National Liberation Alliance (ALN), a coalition of communists, socialist, radicals and old tenentes but really a front for the banned PCB and allegedly under orders from Comintern in Moscow, was led clandestinely by Luís Carlos Prestes.

Governors of Minas Gerais:

Francisco Silviano de Almeida Brandão: 1896-1901
Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena: 1901-1906
João Pinheiro da Silva: 1906-1908
Venceslau Brás Pereira Gomes: 1908-1909
Júlio Bueno Brandão: 1909-1914
Artur da Silva Bernardes: 1914-1920
Raul Soares de Moura: 1920-1924
Fernando de Melo Viana: 1924-1932
Olegário Dias Maciel: 1932-1933
Benedito Valadares Ribeiro: 1933-

Governors of SP:

Pedro Vicente de Azevedo: 1896-1902
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: 1902-1912
Altino Arantes Marques: 1912-1913
Manuel Joaquim de Albuquerque Lins: 1913-1917
Altino Arantes Marques: 1917-1920
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa: 1920-1923
Carlos de Campos: 1923-1924
Antônio da Silva Prado: 1924-1926
Carlos de Campos: 1924-1927
Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque: 1927-1930
Armando de Sales Oliveira: 1930-

Governors of Rio de Janeiro:

José Bento de Araújo: 1896-1902
Quintino Antônio Ferreira de Sousa Bocaiúva: 1902-1908
Francisco Chaves de Oliveira Botelho: 1908-1911
Nilo Procópio Peçanha: 1911-1920
Nilo Procópio Peçanha: 1920-1926
Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior: 1926-1930
Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior: 1932-

Governors of Rio Grande do Sul:

Gaspar da Silveira Martins: 1896-1901
Justo de Azambuja Rangel: 1901-1902
Carlos Barbosa Gonçalves: 1902-1908
Antônio Augusto Borges de Medeiros: 1908-1926
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas: 1926-1930
José Antônio Flores da Cunha: 1930

Turbulence and Assertion: 1935-1936

Street fighting broke out in São Paulo between the Integralists and ALN by October 1934, and Vargas' government was seemingly losing its grip over the country. His popularity was sliding, as he was losing middle-class reformist support to both left and right. In July 1935, Vargas moved and outlawed the ALN. He was taking a marked anti-communist path, and the Integralists saw his move against the ALN as a move in their favour. During the summer of 1935, Vargas also decreed a new Public Safety Law, which cracked down on 'subversive groups' and effectively centralized law enforcement in Brazil, removing considerable powers from the provinces.

In the 1935 provincial elections, the Liberals on average sustained only minor loses. Valladares was comforted in his new office of Governor of Minas Gerais with over 68% of the votes. In São Paulo, Sales de Oliveira was also re-elected by a large margin. In Bahia, Conservative candidate Octávio Mangabeira failed to unseat Juracy Magalhães. In Rio, Liberal Protógenes Guimarães was elected. Salgado's AIB made important gains, especially in the south, where it became the second party behind the Liberals. In Paraná, Salgado came within 2% of the Liberal incumbent.

Despite Vargas' moves in the summer, the ALN itself moved in late November 1935 by staging poorly-organized risings in Natal, Recife and Rio. Thanks in part to their poor coordination and organization, the communist revolts in the Northeast and Rio were crushed in a matter of days and their failure played into Vargas' hand to justify a consolidation of his power. On November 26, the Emperor allowed Vargas to decree a state of siege throughout the country, which allowed for a large number of arrests by the police. In December 1935, the government strengthened the Public Safety Law passed during the summer.

In terms of economic policy, Vargas' government felt that it had the necessary support to break from the coffee-driven economy. Brazil's dependence on one crop (which was imported to only a handful of countries, mostly in Europe and the US) had shown its dangers in the 1929 crash, which had led the old governmental coffee valorization schemes to go bankrupt and Brazil to accumulate a growing foreign debt. In early 1935, Vargas formally oriented his government's economic policy in favour of import-substitution industrialization (ISI). As with other Latin American countries, the depression had led to a shortage of materials and goods. Import-substitution industrialization was both for Vargas a pragmatic solution to the economic crisis but also a nationalist move, with the goal of moving Brazil away from reliance on foreign imports and the development of a strong Brazilian industry. In Brazil, the use of ISI was primarily focused on the local exploitation and use of Brazil's mineral resources, such as steel. With the shift towards ISI, Vargas' government clearly took an interventionist route never taken in the past by either Liberal or Conservative governments. Until 1930, the state acted primarily in response to the demands of the export sector. Now, Vargas' government was to lead the industrialization drive.

In early 1935, with a Democratic Congress in Washington D.C. favourable to lower tariffs, a trade agreement was signed between Brazil and the US, thereby reducing tariffs on certain Brazilian goods entering the US and on around 30 American products entering Brazil. While the move could have been seen as an economically liberal move, the trade agreement reduced tariffs on American products vital for industrialization, such as factory equipment or heavy machinery.

In January 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and Nazi and fascist influence was already touching the Southern Cone, notably Argentina, where Uriburu's 1930 coup had been supported by the fascist Liga Patriótica Argentina. In Brazil, Nazi ideas were also finding fertile ground with the lower middle-class in the south of the country, notably in Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, home to a number of German immigrants. Fascist influence was represented by the AIB, which remained strong in southern Brazil, especially in Salgado's home province of Paraná.

Nazis were finding increasing support high in the power structure, notably within the governing Liberal Party. The Chief of the Police in Rio, Filinto Müller, was the most notable Brazilian Nazi sympathizer in high standing. The Nazis fought with pro-American elements in Vargas' cabinet to decide Brazil's foreign policy. As Hitler's popularity grew in Germany and his power over Europe increased, the Liberal government slowly moved towards Germany for funding and materials. In response to the ANL revolts, Filinto Müller had been able to extradite Prestes' wife, the Jewish German communist Olga Benário, to Nazi Germany. Yet, the pro-American elements in the cabinet urged Vargas to steer clear of Germany, claiming that the United States had been Brazil's natural ally in the past decades. Vargas appreciated some of the authoritarian methods of Berlin, the corporatist methods of Rome but understood that Washington remained Brazil's best bet in terms of funding and support for Brazil's ambitious ISI.

After the crushing of the ALN revolts, Vargas moved further to assert his power. He created a Department of Public Safety, Information and Propaganda attached to the Ministry of the Interior. He continued to privilege government-by-decree and he increasingly ignored Parliament. Within the Liberal Party, he quashed internal opposition and asserted his authority over provincial sections of the party. In early 1936, he renamed the party as the Liberal Party of Brazil (Partido Liberal do Brasil, PLdoB) and moved further to crush the remnants of the Radical Alliance. Lacerda, the leader of the Radicals, himself joined the PLdoB in 1936.

The Conservatives remained divided, and their only figure of importance, Sales de Oliveira, preferred to turn his attention to governing his province. Only Octávio Mangabeira emerged as the leader of a weak and divided party. Vargas, still very popular, soared to one of the largest landslides in Brazilian history. The PLdoB won almost two-thirds of the seats.

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal Party of Brazil 54.7% winning 165 seats (+20)
98 DS, 67 PLS
Conservative and Gaúcho Front 31.0% winning 69 seats (-23)
31 DS, 38 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 10.6% winning 13 seats (+13)
1 DS, 12 PLS
Radical Alliance 3.1% winning 3 seats (-10)
0 DS, 3 PLS
Others 0.6% winning 0 seats (nc)

Senate

Liberal 35 (+2)
Conservative 23 (-4)
Brazilian Integralist Action 2 (+2)

()

New Patterns in Brazilian Society and Politics: 1936-1939

Strong from winning nearly two-thirds of the seats in the Chamber, Vargas moved his attention by late 1936 to further assert his authority as the undisputed leader of Brazil. One institution lay in his way - the Council of State. Originally created by the 1824 Constitution as an executive body of advisors to a monarch who in 1824 ruled undisputed, but abolished by the liberal reforms of 1834 before being restored by a conservative reaction in 1844, the Council had progressively become an archaic body representing the descendants of the sugar barons of the Northeast and part of the new coffee elite of the Southeast. It had little power, most of it having been progressively unofficially transferred to the legislature. But by 1936, Vargas saw the Council of State as a danger to his authority and his strong relations with the Emperor. The Council of State was increasingly opposed to Vargas' social reforms and his push for an interventionist state in the economy, and the Emperor was giving the Council a larger role. Vargas moved quickly, before the Council could lead a conservative (or classical liberal, some would say) reaction to Vargas' reforms, but most importantly his authority.

In January 1937, Vargas' government proposed a wide-reaching constitutional reform embodied by the Second Additional Act (the first Additional Act had abolished the Council of State and led a wave of decentralization in 1834, but was repealed quasi-entirely in 1844). The Second Additional Act's major reforms included:

Abolishing the Council of State
Removing provincial oversight of local commerce, industry and public services
Transferring authority for inter-provincial commerce and industrial development to the national government from provinces and independent bodies
Institutionalizing the office of Prime Minister and granting the Prime Minister the authority to appoint ambassadors, diplomats, delegates, emissaries and public servants with the Emperor's consent
A non-confidence motion in the government would take a three-fifths majority in both chambers to be carried
Giving the Emperor (following consultation of the government) the authority to appoint caretaker interim governors, local officials or mayors in provinces, districts or towns prone to 'civil disturbances' and 'threats to public safety'
Creation of a Tribunal of Public Safety with power to arrest and try those suspected or guilty of 'subversive acts' or 'acts against the Empire'

The Second Additional Act passed the Chamber of Deputies in the summer of 1937 with the support of almost all Liberal and Integralist deputies and limited support from Conservatives and one Radical. The Radicals denounced the reform as a move towards authoritarianism, the Conservatives decried the abolition of the Council of State and some Liberals, most notably Vargas' early tenentes allies broke with the government on the issue. Those Liberals who broke ranks with the government included Juracy Magalhães (Governor of Bahia), Juarez Távora (Minister of Transportation) and Eduardo Gomes (Liberal Senator), all prominent tenente leaders of the 1920s active in the Liberal Party. The passage of the Second Additional Act marked a definite break from the idealistic liberal views of the tenentes in favour of a more populist and authoritarian views of Vargas and his closest allies.

The Council of State had been the base of the sugar barons of the Northeast, and their support remained vital for Vargas, whose coalition included a number of leading Northeasterners. In order to assuage their fears that Vargas would quash their regional and personal interests, Vargas allied with them to quash peasant rebellions and banditry.

While asserting his power, Vargas also moved to cultivate a new Brazilian identity and sense of nationalism. In the past, neither major parties had used much nationalist rhetoric and Brazil's economy was entirely dependent on the sale of one crop to a handful of markets and the importation of goods from abroad. The Modern Arts Week in 1922 had led to the birth of the first nationalist movements, but these were developments in the artistic community rather than in the political class. As in much of Latin America, the Great Depression, which resulted in a lack of foreign goods, led to the growth of local industry and this encouraged a nationalist sentiment. In 1937, Vargas' government pushed through additional laws limiting foreign ownership of land and companies, and Vargas' government intended to nationalize a number of existing Brazilian companies. In late 1938, the Parliament passed a law giving the national government full control of the exploitation, regulation and distribution of petroleum in Brazil. In 1939, oil was discovered in Bahia.

The development of the Brazilian interior (the centre-west, including the vast empty lands of Mato Grosso) was a vital point in Vargas' nationalist governance. His government inaugurated in late 1938 a road linking Bahia with Rio, further expanded to Recife by 1940. Rail links in the south and southeast doubled, and the government encouraged colonization of the interior and of undeveloped regions of the Northeast and Amazon, notably to develop the struggling rubber industry.

The 1938 provincial elections saw another landslide for the Liberals. In São Paulo, Salles de Oliveira's retirement led to the election of Ademar de Barros, a Liberal though originally an opponent of Vargas. In Rio, Vargas' son-in-law, Admiral Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto was elected Governor. The only disappointment was Juracy Magalhães' re-election as a Conservative in Bahia. In Rio Grande do Sul, Flores da Cunha, Vargas' former protege in his home province, had broken with the government in 1937 and was defeated for re-election by Osvaldo Cordeiro de Farias, a military officer close to Vargas.

Following the elections, Vargas proceeded to a cabinet shuffle. Osvaldo Aranha, the former Minister of Justice and incumbent Brazilian Ambassador in Washington, became Minister of Foreign Affairs while Francisco Campos became Minister of Justice. The Chief of the Police in Rio, Filinto Müller, became Interior Minister while General Eurico Gaspar Dutra replaced Góis Monteiro as War Minister.

The nomination of Aranha, a close friend of President Roosevelt and a keen pro-American element, was interpreted by some circles as a clear shift in the government's foreign policy. But Filinto Müller, a known fascist sympathizer and a guest of Heinrich Himmler in Berlin in 1937, received a major promotion as well. Campos also represented a pro-German and fascist-leaning wing of the government, and pro-German factions remained dominant in the military. Vargas continued to play both sides at the same time.

In the regional context, Vargas' government sought to establish Brazil as a regional leader. Brazil attended the 1938 and 1939 Pan-American Conferences. However, Argentina's Foreign Minister, Carlos Saveedra Lamas, had gained widespread notoriety and praise during his tenure (1932-1938) for his efforts to end the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and to spearhead efforts at collective security in the continent. Brazil watched Argentina's action with skepticism and an ounce of jealousy.

Vargas sought a fourth term in office in the 1939 election, and he faced a reinvigorated Conservative opposition, now led by Juracy Magalhães and renamed as the Conservative Democratic Union (UDC). The Conservatives hoped that Magalhães would be able to deliver the Northeast to them while doing well with the urban middle-classes and wealthy liberal elements in the southeast. However, Vargas remained popular and benefited from the support of the military as well as anti-communist right-leaning elements. The Liberals won a fourth straight victory, and they ended up with three-fifths of the seats in Parliament,

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal Party of Brazil 51.9% winning 150 seats (-15)
87 DS, 63 PLS
Conservative Democratic Union 34.7% winning 84 seats (+15)
42 DS, 42 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 10.9% winning 14 seats (+1)
1 DS, 13 PLS
Radical Alliance 1.8% winning 2 seats (-1)
0 DS, 2 PLS
Others 0.7% winning 0 seats (nc)

Senate

Liberal Party of Brazil 32 (-3)
Conservative Democratic Union 25 (+2)
Brazilian Integralist Action 3 (+1)

()

World at War: 1939-1942

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, plunging Europe and most of the world into a second world war. Unlike in 1914, when Brazil had quickly entered the war thanks to the strong pro-Allied sentiment in the Imperial Family and political class, there was no desire for Brazil to enter the war in September 1939. By September 3, 1939; when Britain and France declared war on Germany; the Parliament passed a resolution proclaiming Brazil's neutrality in the conflict. The government saw neutrality as the most advantageous position for Brazil, as it would allow Brazil to trade with both the Axis and Allies and reap the benefits of trading with both. Only certain pro-Allied Conservatives wished for a declaration of war on Germany, and the Integralists, secretly funded by Rome, were supportive of declaration of war on the Allied powers.

Almost all other American nations declared their neutrality by 1939 as well. While Argentina's government was close to Great Britain and had an economy largely dependent on British attitudes, its military's pro-German attitude prevented the government from declaring war on the Axis.

In mid-1940, the members of the Pan American Union formed a mutual defense pact during a meeting in Havana. The pact was aimed at guaranteeing collective security in the Americas, and Brazil was represented by Osvaldo Aranha.

At home, the government continued a policy of industrialization and internal development aided by increasing American investment or funding. On May 1, 1940 the government announced the creation of a minimum wage and Parliament passed a law guaranteeing employment stability after ten years of employment. At the same time, the government pushed for the creation of a Brazilian steel industry. However, the growth of Brazilian industry, especially the steel working and mining industry, required foreign investment.

Emperor Dom Pedro III died on January 29, 1940 at the age of 65. The late Emperor was buried in the Imperial crypt of the Cathedral of São Pedro de Alcântara, in a solemn ceremony attended notably by US Secretary of State Cordell Hull. He was succeeded by Prince Imperial Pedro Gastão as Dom Pedro IV, Emperor of Brazil.

Foreign investment pushed Rio closer and closer to Washington over the year 1940 and 1941, thanks largely to the pro-American policies of Osvaldo Aranha, the Foreign Minister. In early 1941, the Washington Accords were signed between Brazil and the United States, giving Brazil over $100 million dollars in loans for the development of Brazilian industry.

The 1941 provincial elections were remarkably stable, although the Liberals made slight gains, mainly at the expense of the AIB, whose positions in the south slowly receded. In Bahia, Magalhães was defeated for re-elected by Renato Onofre Pinto Aleixo, a close ally of Vargas and leader of the provincial Liberals.

On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbor, leading the United States into the war in Asia and Europe. The United States, enjoying great influence over most smaller South American nations, pushed them to join Washington in declaring war on the Axis. Minor nations including Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Cuba declared war on the Axis only a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, continental South America remained largely neutral.

At the Pan American Conference held in Rio de Janeiro in January 1942, the United States was able to push Brazil and most other South American nations except Argentina and Chile to condemn the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and push towards a break in diplomatic relations between the Americas and the Axis.

The Vargas government remained opposed to war, even by early 1942, but under the influence of Aranha and Washington's diplomatic and economic pressure, the government acquiesced to a secret pact with Washington which secured American investment in the construction of a major steel mill in Volta Redonda (RJ) in return for Brazilian support of the American war effort and the concession to Washington of strategic military bases in the Northeast. Ahead of the June elections, the government cracked down slowly on internal pro-Axis movements and fascist sympathizers. In April 1942, in a further move to please Washington, the government banned the Integralist Action (AIB).

The 1942 elections were not fought over the issue of Brazilian participation in the war effort, but mostly on internal issues. The Conservatives remained divided, demoralized and unable to attack the incumbent government on any major front. The Liberals won a fifth term in office

Chamber of Deputies

Liberal Party of Brazil 53.7% winning 147 seats (-3)
82 DS, 65 PLS
Conservative Democratic Union 37.8% winning 92 seats (+8)
46 DS, 46 PLS
Others and Independents 4.9% winning 6 seats (+6)
1 DS, 5 PLS
Radical Alliance 3.6% winning 5 seats (+3)
1 DS, 4 PLS

Senate

Liberal Party of Brazil 33 (+1)
Conservative Democratic Union 27 (+2)

()

Brazil at War: 1942-1945

During the month of August 1942, German and Italian submarine attacks on Brazilian shipping increased drastically, as a result of worsening relations between Rio and Berlin as well as the Rio Declaration in January 1942. Between August 15 and 17, the U-507 sank five Brazilian merchant and passenger vessels in a row. In Rio, anti-German sentiment increased with news of the sinking of the five ships and police needed to be called in to quell rioters who were attacking and looting German-owned shops and homes in downtown Rio.

On August 22, Prime Minister Vargas addressed a joint session of Parliament in Rio.

Quote from: Prime Minister Getúlio Vargas

In the face of unwarranted and unrestrained aggression upon Brazil by the naval forces of the German Reich and the Kingdom of Italy, Brazil finds itself drawn into a war which it did not desire, but Brazil must stand up and defend its national integrity, its interests and its rights against the enemies of progress. Brazil is committed to fighting for its rights and interests, as well as those of the entire American continent against the powers of evil and violence which seek to destroy the rights of the working men of every country whose sovereignty they trample upon. Let us, as an Empire and the largest nation of South America, stand up and send the aggressor back to its own borders, and proclaim the greatness of the Brazilian people and nation once again. I ask the General Assembly, in the name of His Imperial and Royal Highness, to declare war on the German Reich and Italy and to authorize the construction of a great Brazilian fighting force which will defend the Brazilian nation on the shores of Europe.

Vargas concluded his speech to thunderous acclamation from the government and opposition benches alike, and the joint session of Parliament voted 299 against 9 for a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Only five Independents and four Radicals voted against the resolution.

Yet, despite the vast popularity of the war in Parliament, Vargas had needed to convince the last reticent figures in his government about the need for a declaration of war. In late July, he had already silently dismissed the two leading fascist sympathizers in his government; Justice Minister Francisco Campos, replaced by Alexandre Marcondes Machado Filho and Interior Minister Filinto Müller, who was not replaced. General Eurico Gaspar Dutra, also a leading pro-German figure, was finally convinced to support the war.

Upon declaration of war, the government set about assembling the fighting force which Vargas had talked about in his August 22 address. Under War Minister Dutra, the government aimed to build a force of 100,000 men to fight in Italy by 1943-1944.

The government also increased cooperation with the United States. Complementing the 1941 Washington Accords, the Brazilian government in December 1942 allowed the United States to build a number of air bases in the Nordeste, a key strategic region for the US air force flying to Europe. In January 1943, Brazil signed the Atlantic Charter and adhered to the Organization of the United Nations and on January 29, Vargas met with US President Roosevelt, going to Casablanca, in Natal. Vargas declared himself absolutely certain of victory, judging that "Germany's military power... was collapsing... slowly but surely, and the combined might of Brazil, the United States and the Allied powers will bring it down".

()
Prime Minister Vargas with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Natal 1943.

The war also led to an outburst of Brazilian nationalism and a boom in the Brazilian economy, pushed by a new rubber boom in the Nordeste and Amazon to feed the Allies with an alternative source of rubber now that rubber plantations in southeast Asia were occupied by Japan. The government also encouraged nationalism, but the new nationalism was different than the old 'European' nationalism of the 1920s in that more and more intellectuals recognized the contributions of Native Americans to the Brazilian culture and psyche. In fact, the government decreed April 19, 1944 as the "Day of the Indian".

At home, the marking event of 1943 was the passage by Parliament of the Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho, a set of laws consolidating all past labour laws passed, including minimum wage increases, unemployment insurance and working hours regulations, into a single law and creating a special tribunal to deal with labour disputes.

In late 1943, the Imperial Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEIB) was created and placed under the command of Dutra in Rio and Generals Mascarenhas de Moraes and Zenóbio da Costa (in charge of the infantry, or the 1st Imperial Brazilian Division). The force, which ended up compromising of only 41,000 men embarked for Italy for frontline combat on the Gothic Line as part of the 15th Army Group under Field Marshal Harold Alexander, within the U.S. Fifth Army, IV Corps commanded by Major-General Willis D. Crittenberger. In late 1944 and early 1945, the Brazilians won a major victory directly against the Nazis at Monte Castello. Between February and March 1945, the Brazilian Division and the U.S. 10th Mountain Division captured important positions on the Apennines, which deprived the Germans of key artillery positions on the mountains. The Brazilians entered Bologna with other Allied troops on April 21, and marched into Parma on April 25. From there, the FEIB marched into German territory around the Taro River and liberated Fornovo di Taro on April 29. The FEIB reached Turin and the French border as Germany surrendered in early May 1945. The small Imperial Air Force also participated in combat in Italy, while the Imperial Navy engaged in operations in the Atlantic along the Brazilian coast but also in the zone between the south Atlantic and the Straits of Gibraltar.

At home, the government's nationalist movements were unable to contain a genuine democratic and liberal movement which demanded more civil liberties, democratic reforms and an end to the Vargas Liberal regime, judged to be growing more authoritarian and archaic by the day. In the 1944 provincial elections, the Liberals suffered their first real setbacks. In Minas Gerais, Benedito Valadares retired to run in the 1945 elections, and it was a Conservative, Milton Campos, who was elected on a liberal platform supported by former Prime Minister Artur Bernardes, Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco and José de Magalhães Pinto. José Américo de Almeida, a Liberal dissident also running on a liberal platform won in Paraíba. While Adhemar, who built a clientelist network and was distancing himself from Vargas, held on in São Paulo, and Ernesto Dorneles (Governor since 1943, when Cordeiro de Farias left office to fight in Europe) also won a full term outright in Rio Grande do Sul, the Liberals lost control of the provincial base which Vargas had so keenly and smartly built starting in 1930.

The Conservative opposition, energized by the results, pressured the government to proclaim a general amnesty in April 1945, notably freeing Luís Carlos Prestes. In May 1945, the government removed the ban on the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and the Brazilian Integralist Action (AIB). The Conservative opposition, still known formally as the Conservative Democratic Union (UDC), fell under the leadership of the generation of the tenentes, notably Eduardo Gomes, who won the party leadership in late 1945. Other members of the UDC included Carlos Lacerda, José de Magalhães Pinto and Milton Campos. In the 1945 campaign, despite the strong Getulist organizations around Hugo Borghi, there was a clear shift in the popular mood. The economy was very strong, the war was won; but Vargas' regime was seen as old, stale, archaic and authoritarian. Gomes' Conservatives campaigned on a platform calling for democratic reforms, a more liberal economic policy (Gomes fell short of calling for the abolition of the minimum wage) and a stringently anti-communist foreign policy. On the far-left, the newly legalized PCB attracted a good share of previously Liberal urban voters, while the newly re-legalized far-right led by Salgado was struggling to regain its pre-war electorate, with voters wary of authoritarianism and fascism discredited by the war (though Salgado insisted he was not fascist). The military (which could not vote), which had supported Vargas beginning in 1930, turned, out of opportunism, against the Liberals in 1945. Dutra resigned from the War Ministry in April 1945 to run for Senate, while Góis Monteiro, Vargas' other main high-ranking military ally, was conspicuously absent and fell short of supporting Vargas. A new Socialist Party (PSB) was founded, close to the Conservatives, and stringently opposed to Vargas' corporatist union structure. It was led by João Mangabeira, the brother of the former Conservative Governor of Bahia. In the end, the Conservatives won extremely narrowly, but fell quite short of the 126 seats needed for a majority.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative Democratic Union 40.1% winning 112 seats (+20)
62 DS, 50 PLS
Liberal Party of Brazil 38.4% winning 109 seats (-38)
62 DS, 47 PLS
Brazilian Communist Party 10.1% winning 18 seats (+18)
6 DS, 12 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 4.8% winning 5 seats (+5)¹
0 DS, 5 PLS
Radical Alliance 4.5% winning 5 seats (nc)
0 DS, 5 PLS
Brazilian Socialist Party 1.2% winning 1 seat (+1)
0 DS, 1 PLS
Others 0.9% winning 0 seats (-6)
0 DS, 0 PLS

Senate

Conservative Democratic Union 30 (+3)
Liberal Party of Brazil 29 (-4)
Brazilian Communist Party 1 (+1)

()

¹ Independents, mostly banned Integralists, had won 6 seats in 1942, so the correct figure would be a net loss of one seat for the Integralists

Interlude: 1945-1948

Eduardo Gomes took office on July 1, 1945; marking the end of fifteen years of Liberal Getulist dominance over Brazilian politics and the election of a conservative alternative, one based around the old liberal reformist values of the tenentes. Gomes' Conservative government was a minority cabinet, though it received official supports from the Radicals and the PSB in addition to the unofficial support of Salgado's Integralists and a few Liberals.

Gomes' cabinet expanded to include left-wingers and former Liberals. Former Liberal Governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Osvaldo Cordeiro de Farias, became War Minister. Octávio Mangabeira, the Bahian Conservative, became Foreign Minister. Juarez Távora became Minister of Infrastructure and Development, Virgílio de Melo Franco became Minister of Justice, José Eduardo do Prado Kelly was given the Finance portfolio while Pedro Aleixo got Health and Education and Juracy Magalhães became Minister of Labour. João Mangabeira, the brother of the new Foreign Minister and the leader of the PSB, refused any cabinet position but vowed to support the government.

The Liberals were not in disarray. They remained under the leadership of Vargas, who installed himself as Leader of the Opposition in Rio. It was the first time that Vargas sat in the opposition.

Gomes announced to the new Parliament that his goal was to "undo the wrongs done to democracy by Vargas' fascistic government in the past fifteen years." The top wrong was, of course, the 1937 Second Additional Act. As in 1844, the new government pushed through a Clarification Act in January 1946. The Clarification Act returned some powers to provinces, such as the right to local policing and oversight over local commerce and public services, but most notably removed the so-called 'three-fifths clause' which prevented a non-confidence motion from passing unless it received three-fifths support in both chambers. The Tribunal of Public Safety was finally abolished, though Vargas had progressively sidelined it after 1942, and the Emperor's power to appoint caretaker administrators in provinces, communities or districts was removed. The Clarification Act passed with unanimous Conservative, Communist, Radical, Integralist and Socialist support in the Chamber of Deputies.

In terms of foreign policy, the United States and Brazil continued to enjoy close relations. With the emerging Cold War, the military and the government took a conservative turn in favour of Washington DC, rejecting communism. Rio de Janeiro did not break diplomatic relations with Moscow, however, nor did it ban the PCB like a number of American Senators had been lobbying for it to do. Local political considerations played into Gomes' decision to keep the PCB legal.

The post-war era had given Brazil a large stock of foreign cash reserves, and the government's policy had been to make use of them. In order to fund development projects, such as the construction of new roads, the government dove into the reserves, which resulted in the rapid depletion of the country's rich foreign assets. Inflation started to rise, as the government printed money to cover the high budget cuts. Some neoliberal thinkers within the Conservative Party attacked the government over its failure to follow through with its promise to make cuts in spending. However, the new goal of the Conservative government was in fact to kill Vargas' working-class base. Gomes wished to harvest the votes of workers by not repealing the social legislation passed by the Liberals, but at the same time he slowly picked away at the corporatist trade union structure, which remained closely linked to the Liberals. In addition, Gomes resisted calls by some Liberals and Conservatives to ban the PCB outright, as Gomes saw the PCB as a major up-and-coming rival for the traditionally Liberal working-class.

()
Prime Minister Eduardo Gomes

Gomes' attempts to court the working-class were quite short-lived. In a by-election for a working-class district in the industrial hinterland around São Paulo, the Conservative candidate polled extremely poorly - 19% against 26% for the Communist and 48% for the winning Liberal candidate. At the same time, Vargas was moving to re-organize the Liberal Party. An analysis of the 1945 results showed that the working-class voters which had delivered a landslide to Getulio starting in 1933 had either not voted or gone over to the PCB. Vargas' new strategy was to directly court the working-class. At an extraordinary party congress in late 1946 ahead of the 1947 provincial ballot, the Liberal Party renamed itself the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB). From the opposition benches, Vargas attacked the Conservative government on a markedly left-wing nationalist tone. Yet, behind the left-wing PTB, an internal division appeared within the party between Vargas' more conservative supporters and his left-wing urban union supporters.

The 1947 provincial elections were to be a major test for the Conservatives as well as Vargas' new left-wing nationalist rhetoric, and his new PTB. In Minas Gerais, a PTB rising star, Juscelino Kubitschek, won in the country's most watched contest against incumbent Conservative Governor Milton Campos. In Rio de Janeiro, Ernani do Amaral Peixoto held on for another term, facing tough PCB and Conservative opposition. In São Paulo, Adhemar de Barros, who had broken with the Liberals by 1946, was re-elected as an Independent through an alliance with the PCB against Hugo Borghi (PTB). Adhemar's victory showed the strength of his clientelistic network and his appeal to working-class voters. In Rio Grande do Sul, Ernesto Dorneles won a second outright term.

The 1948 general election was to be key. The Conservatives promised more reforms, a tough fight against inflation (which neoliberal thinkers derided in the absence of commitments to cut spending) and a close alliance with the United States. The PTB, led by Vargas and running on his personal popularity and image, attacked the government's economic policies as overtly pro-rich and 'unfair', and also called on Brazil to take ownership of its rich mineral and economic wealth instead of "living in dependency, as in 1920, on the good wills of foreign investors and states". The PTB's campaign was stringently nationalistic, and was axed towards working-class voters and unions. The PTB and Conservatives both attacked the PCB as being the root of political instability and accused of it of being the pawns of Moscow. However, the PCB was helped by Luís Carlos Prestes' candidacy to the Senate.

Chamber of Deputies

Brazilian Labour Party 39.8% winning 114 seats (+5)
65 DS, 49 PLS
Conservative Democratic Union 38.0% winning 102 seats (-10)
56 DS, 46 PLS
Brazilian Communist Party 11.8% winning 22 seats (+4)
8 DS, 14 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 5.8% winning 8 seats (+3)
1 DS, 7 PLS
Radical Alliance 3.1% winning 3 seats (-2)
0 DS, 3 PLS
Brazilian Socialist Party 0.9% winning 1 seat (nc)
0 DS, 1 PLS
Others 0.6% winning 0 seats (nc)
0 DS, 0 PLS

Senate

Brazilian Labour Party 31 seats (+2)
Conservative Democratic Union 27 (-3)
Brazilian Communist Party 2 (+1)

()

next: Vargista return...

Premiers:

Zacarias de Góis e Vasconcelos: 1866-1870
José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Visconde do Rio Branco: 1870-1875
Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duque de Caxias: 1875-1878
José Antônio Saraiva: 1878-1884
Franklin Américo de Meneses Dória: 1884-1885
João Lustosa da Cunha Paranaguá, Marquês de Paranaguá: 1885
João Maurício Wanderley, Barão de Cotejipe: 1885-1887
João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira: 1887-1888
Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo, Visconde de Ouro Preto: 1888-1893
Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira: 1893-1897
Rodrigo Augusto da Silva: 1897-1901
Eduardo Ernesto da Gama Cerqueira: 1901
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves: 1901-1906
Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena: 1906-1909
Venceslau Brás Pereira Gomes: 1909-1912
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: 1912-1913
Altino Arantes Marques: 1913-1915
Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca: 1915-1920
José Joaquim Seabra: 1920
Artur da Silva Bernardes: 1920-1923
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa: 1923-1930
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas: 1930-1945
Eduardo Gomes, Barão de Petrópolis: 1945-1948
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, Marquês de São Borja: 1948-

Governors of Minas Gerais:

Francisco Silviano de Almeida Brandão: 1896-1901
Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena: 1901-1906
João Pinheiro da Silva: 1906-1908
Venceslau Brás Pereira Gomes: 1908-1909
Júlio Bueno Brandão: 1909-1914
Artur da Silva Bernardes: 1914-1920
Raul Soares de Moura: 1920-1924
Fernando de Melo Viana: 1924-1932
Olegário Dias Maciel: 1932-1933
Benedito Valadares Ribeiro: 1933-1945
Milton Campos: 1944-1947
Juscelino Kubitschek: 1947-

Governors of SP:

Pedro Vicente de Azevedo: 1896-1902
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: 1902-1912
Altino Arantes Marques: 1912-1913
Manuel Joaquim de Albuquerque Lins: 1913-1917
Altino Arantes Marques: 1917-1920
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa: 1920-1923
Carlos de Campos: 1923-1924
Antônio da Silva Prado: 1924-1926
Carlos de Campos: 1924-1927
Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque: 1927-1930
Armando de Sales Oliveira: 1930-1938
Ademar de Barros: 1938-1947
Adhemar de Barros: 1947-

Governors of Rio de Janeiro:

José Bento de Araújo: 1896-1902
Quintino Antônio Ferreira de Sousa Bocaiúva: 1902-1908
Francisco Chaves de Oliveira Botelho: 1908-1911
Nilo Procópio Peçanha: 1911-1920
Nilo Procópio Peçanha: 1920-1926
Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior: 1926-1930
Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior: 1932-1935
Protógenes Guimarães: 1935-1938
Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto: 1938-

Governors of Rio Grande do Sul:

Gaspar da Silveira Martins: 1896-1901
Justo de Azambuja Rangel: 1901-1902
Carlos Barbosa Gonçalves: 1902-1908
Antônio Augusto Borges de Medeiros: 1908-1926
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas: 1926-1930
José Antônio Flores da Cunha: 1930-1938
Osvaldo Cordeiro de Farias: 1938-1943
Ernesto Dorneles: 1943-

Nationalist Tide: 1948-1950

Vargas returned to his old office in early July 1948, but this time his government had the official backing of only a minority of the Chamber and faced a strong Conservative opposition caucus. This meant that Vargas would be reliant on the Communists' 22 seats for a majority. Though Vargas maintained amicable links with certain prominent Conservatives, notably Pernambucan Conservatives such as João Cleofas, the nationalist policy which the government intended to lead meant that being friendly with the growing PCB was more important than old friendships with Conservatives. Furthermore, the PTB's leadership wished to involve the PCB in the government and break the party's image as a 'separate independent party' and use the opportunity to weaken the PCB.

Vargas' cabinet, while moderate, was also made acceptable, somewhat, to the PCB. Horácio Lafer, a moderate, became Finance Minister. General Mascarenhas de Morais, a popular hero of World War II, became War Minister and was acceptable to most of the military. João Neves da Fontoura became Justice Minister while Vargas' old right-hand man, Osvaldo Aranha, was made Foreign Minister.

Vargas moved to undo most of Eduardo Gomes' liberal economic reforms. In the fall of 1948, the Parliament passed a tariff reform which increased tariffs on foreign good which were not widely used by consumers. As much as Gomes' government had welcome foreign investment, Vargas' government passed new laws limiting profit remittances and limited full foreign control of major companies in telecommunications and infrastructure (such as public transportation, streetcars notably).

Although Vargas appealed to Brazilian nationalism in the working-class and the military, he maintained an eclectic and slightly hypocritical foreign policy which still kept Brazil within the United State's circle. Vargas knew that an alliance with Moscow would be a disastrous idea politically and economically, and the beginnings of the Cold War by 1949 prevented any kind of independent foreign policy. The United States remained the power broker of the Americas and no country in the region could alienate the United States. Of course, Washington also needed Rio de Janeiro's support in its new anti-communist policy and also benefited from Brazilian exports of natural resources and oil. In addition, Vargas' government understood that his industrial development policies and economic modernization required US private and public investment. Aranha's position as Foreign Minister ensured that Rio would remain within the American circle.

The Democratic administration, and since 1948, Congress, in Washington was also favourable to Brazilian interests and keen on exploring the funneling of American public investment into Brazil. In late 1948, both governments agreed to the creation of a joint American-Brazilian commission which was to prepare a report on economic conditions in Brazil and the country's economic future.

Inflation was slowly creeping up, but was still as appropriate levels in 1948 (it even declined slightly between 1947 and 1949). With no apparent social and economic ills, there was a climate of restrained euphoria in Brazil in 1949 and 1950. Public confidence in the government remained high, the military was quietly satisfied with its position and the paternal figure of the old Prime Minister worked. While the Conservatives were struggling to find a voice, Vargas was riding high and was hailed as a great modernizer. His much publicized trip to Washington DC in 1949, during which he meet President Harry Truman, increased his image abroad and his more authoritarian leanings pre-1945 were forgotten. The Emperor named Vargas Marquis of São Borja, and also conferred titles of nobility on other prominent politicians on both sides of the aisle (former Prime Minister Eduardo Gomes was made Baron of Petrópolis, Aranha became Viscount of Alegrete). In July 1950, Brazil hosted the FIFA World Cup, and a mood of euphoria swept the country as it toped its group, trounced Sweden and Spain in the final rounds and advanced to the finals against Uruguay at the Estádio do Maracanã on July 16. Despite a tough Uruguayan attack, Brazil won its first World Cup title with a 2-0 win over Uruguay, on the backs of goals by Friaça and Ademir. Wild, euphoric celebrations erupted throughout Brazil

The 1950 provincial elections were delayed until after the World Cup, partly to shift focus in June from politics to football and later as a goon by the government to benefit from the likely victory of the Brazilian team. The ploy worked and the PTB swept to a landslide win in the provincial elections. Juscelino Kubitschek, the young and popular governor of Minas Gerais was re-elected easily, while Hugo Borghi unseated São Paulo Governor Adhemar de Barros, a thorn in Vargas' side. Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto and Vargas' cousin, Ernesto Dorneles, were easily re-elected in their home provinces. As much as the Conservatives and Communists wanted to overthrow the government before the World Cup, the provincial elections stopped them from doing so.

With euphoria from July 16 wearing off a bit, but still present, the government decided to keep nationalist moods high (likely to cover a rise in the cost of living in 1950) and push through a issue key to nationalists: oil. Brazilian oil, discovered in 1939, was being controlled and explored by foreign corporations, a fact which angered nationalists in the civilian and military strata of society. Gomes' cabinet had ordered a report on oil in 1946 which basically stated that nationalization or state control of oil exploration was unfeasible because of Brazil's lack of funds, expertise and appropriate economic conditions. The report had angered nationalist sentiments in Brazil and had played a major part in the Conservative Party's defeat in the 1947 and 1948 elections. The PTB, in 1948, had promised, vaguely, to 'reform' the oil industry while only the PCB supported nationalization of the oil industry.

Vargas' new political strategy in 1950 was aimed at weakening the PCB, which was still gaining strength in the unions and poor working-class neighborhoods. The Conservatives, the PTB's leadership argued, were easier to defeat than the PCB because the Conservative Party badly lacked real men of talent and its base in the elite and middle-class was too weak in a country which remained predominantly poor and rural. The nationalization of the oil industry was one of the best methods of striking at the PCB's base.

In August 1950, the government proposed to Parliament a bill which proposed the creation of Petrobras, a public company which would be controlled in majority by the state but which still allowed foreign investment and foreign control of old refineries. The PCB and some Conservatives opposed the bill, which lacked a state monopoly dear to the Communists. A long debate between the PTB and PCB could hurt the government and give credibility to the Communists and even the Conservatives. There was only one solution in Vargas' eyes, forcing a snap election on the issue.

On September 5, 1950; Vargas went to the Emperor to ask for a dissolution of Parliament, arguing that the government's nationalist oil legislation had been hijacked by the agents of foreign profiteers and speculators. Would Vargas' ploy work?

O petróleo é nosso!: 1950-1952

The Conservatives and Communists had been preempted by Vargas in their political games. The Conservatives and Communists had hoped to derail Vargas' nationalist games in Parliament and take credit for any oil reform for themselves. Vargas, who despite his 68 years of age, was still as politically cunning as ever, took the initiative from them and decided to fight the 1950 election on the issue of oil. He made it extremely clear that if his government was re-elected, he would, at all costs, push through nationalization of the oil industry and limit foreign control of Brazilian oil. Against such a popular message, the Conservatives found themselves in a tough situation. A wing of the party supported oil nationalization as well, though the party's dominant wing was predominantly liberal and opposed the state monopoly. The Conservatives criticized Vargas' plan under a sober economic angle, arguing, as Gomes' government had done in 1946, that Brazil lacked the funds and expertise to take control of its oil for itself. Nationalization and Petrobras, the Conservatives argued, would lead the country to economic ruin and would kill the petroleum industry. Furthermore, they warned, picking fights with the United States - most foreign corporations were either Canadian or American - would be disastrous for Brazil's standing on the world stage. As much as the Conservative attacks had merit and factual backing, it was not fit for the times and could not compete with Vargas' charismatic populist rhetoric. Touring Brazil, targeting poor and working-class towns in particular, Vargas and the PTB leadership led violent attacks on the Conservatives, calling them the agents of foreign speculators and profiteers and questioning the patriotism of the party's small classical liberal wing - which was violently opposed to nationalization. The Communists, on the other hand, found little room in the polarized debate to argue that Vargas was himself an profiteer and nothing more than an imperialist lackey.

Vargas' trick worked. The PTB won a one-seat majority in the Chamber and increased its Senate majority by three additional seats. While the Conservatives held their ground well, all small parties except the PSB lost ground. The Communists lost seven seats in the Chamber and held only four district seats; the Integralists lost half their caucus and the Radicals won their worst result since 1939. Only the PSB, growing stronger in Bahia and especially Recife under the leadership Pelópidas da Silveira, won more votes and seats in 1950 than in 1948.

Chamber of Deputies

Brazilian Labour Party 43.6% winning 127 seats (+13)
73 DS, 54 PLS
Conservative Party 38.1% winning 99 seats (-3)
52 DS, 47 PLS
Brazilian Communist Party 9.3% winning 15 seats (-7)
4 DS, 11 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 3.5% winning 4 seats (-4)
0 DS, 4 PLS
Radical Alliance 2.4% winning 2 seats (-1)
0 DS, 2 PLS
Brazilian Socialist Party 2.1% winning 3 seats (+2)
1 DS, 2 PLS
Others 1.0% winning 0 seats (nc)
0 DS, 0 PLS

Senate

Brazilian Labour Party 34 seats (+3)
Conservative Party 25 (-2)
Brazilian Communist Party 1 (-1)

()

Vargas now had a majority and did not need, for the moment, to play along with the Communists or the Conservatives. Except for the replacement of Mascarenhas de Morais by nationalist General Newton Estillac Leal in the War Ministry, the new cabinet did not change much, though it would change more dramatically later.

Freshly re-elected, the government re-introduced tougher Petrobras legislation which now included full state monopoly. In the Chamber, the legislation passed rather easily with quasi-unanimous PTB support (the PTB's more conservative wing, the old Liberals, were enticed into voting in favour by promises of pork for their constituencies), as well as support from Communists, Socialists, Integralists and even a dozen or so Conservatives. Overall, 155 deputies voted in favour, which gave the legislation three-fifths backing. In the Senate, the legislation faced a tougher time, despite the PTB's large majority, because the PTB's old Liberal wing was especially strong in a house where old rural elitist interests were still important. The Conservatives allied with the conservative PTB Senators to force a re-draft of the bill to protect foreign control of existing oil refineries and private participation in the distribution of oil, and the amended version was passed easily in the Senate, even though radical nationalist PTB Senators voted against. Back in the Chamber, the Senate's 'conservative' amendments which would have allowed some private control and limited the state's oversight of Petrobras were struck down and finally a version which kept the state monopoly but included the Senate's key amendments concerning refineries and distribution was passed. The legislation received Imperial Assent in January 1951.

The new euphoria surrounding the victory of the nationalist current in the oil debate hid the true economic situation which Brazil was in. Inflation was still slowly rising, and, worryingly, wages were not rising fast enough to keep up with inflation. The Brazilian's currency favourable exchange rate vis-a-vis the US dollar hurt exports but did help production for the internal market. Rising inflation between 1950 and 1953 meant that Vargas' government would be left in an uneasy situation where it would need to pass unpopular measures to limit inflation while at the same time attempting to keep the union movement and the PTB's working-class base under their control.

Keeping the union movement under control was becoming harder. Eduardo Gomes' government had passed legislation in 1947 which liberalized unions and reduced the Labour Ministry's oversight of unions. Furthermore, as Gomes had sought to use the PCB as a check on the PTB's rising influence, it had quietly allowed and even encouraged communists to gain footholds in the unions. While the union movement was quiet in 1951 and 1952, activity sprung up in 1953 as inflation reached nearly 20% that year.

In terms of foreign policy, the Korean War's beginnings in the summer of 1950 and American-led UN intervention in support of South Korea was the first major foreign policy crisis which the government faced. Unlike in 1943, there was little military backing for intervention in Korea and Osvaldo Aranha sought to maneuver through dangerous waters by trying to disassociate military aid to the US-led intervention in Korea to American aid to Brazil as part of the joint commission's report. Aranha found himself resigned to pledge Brazilian material and economic aid to the American efforts in Korea, a move which angered nationalists but which was able to keep the military's growing pro-American anti-communist hardline led by Generals Cordeiro de Farias, Etchegoyen and Nelson de Melo.

Despite the tough negotiations with Washington over Brazil's attitude vis-a-vis the Korean War, relations between both countries were still bright. In June 1952, the joint commission's report into the Brazilian economy was released and the Truman administration showed interest in funneling public money into Brazil's deficient energy and transportation sector.

Downhill: 1953

Things went downhill in late 1952. It started with Dwight D. Eisenhower's election as President in the United States in 1952, ushering in a new Republican-led administration. The Republicans were far more skeptic towards the utility of funneling public funding to Brazil's economy and were even more stringently anti-communist than the Democrats were. Eisenhower's inauguration in January 1953 put American investments in doubt. Part of the reason why the Americans were now skeptic towards investing in Brazil was the country's rising inflation problem. Inflation reached 20% in 1953 and wages could not keep up with the rising rate of inflation. Social problems brewed and the liberalized unions escaped from the PTB's grasp as they mounted unforeseen strikes in February-March 1953, months away from the 1953 provincial and general elections. Joined by non-unionized workers, light manufacturing employees went on strike in São Paulo in the spring of 1953. Strikes erupted in Rio, Recife, Salvador and Belem throughout the spring of 1953 as well. They were demanding better working conditions and especially an increase in the minimum wage.

The strikes showed the beginnings of crack in Vargas' PTB system, with old union bosses and their PTB allies losing their power slowly.

In May 1953, Vargas shuffled his cabinet and indicated a new line, right before the elections. Danton Coehlo, the PTB Labour Minister, was fired. He had failed Vargas during the strikes and the government needed a minister who was popular with the unions and could re-build the PTB's dwindling union base. He called on another native of São Borja, João 'Jango' Goulart, a young PTB stalwart who had worked in the PTB's 1948 and 1950 campaigns and was a prominent leader of the PTB's new left-wing in the Chamber. At the same time, to deal with inflation, Osvaldo Aranha, the trusted friend, was promoted to the Finance Ministry. Francisco Negrão de Lima replaced Aranha in the Foreign Ministry, while João Neves da Fontoura was dumped from the government and replaced by Tancredo Neves as Justice Minister.

Vargas did not go to the Emperor in May 1953 to dissolve Parliament in order to have new elections coincide with provincial elections. Vargas feared that the government might suffer in the June provincials but would have time to recover before general elections tentatively scheduled for October 1953. In the provincial elections, the Conservatives performed well but their hopes at gaining São Paulo fell flat when the PCB did extremely well in the state and the Conservatives were resigned to support Lucas Nogueira Garcez, an Independent close to former Governor Adhemar de Barros. However, the Conservative-endorsed candidate for mayor of São Paulo, a little-known man by the name of Jânio Quadros running on an anti-corruption platform, won. In Minas Gerais, Kubitschek managed to win a third-term on his own record but the PTB suffered badly in Rio Grande do Sul, where Vargas' home-turf PTB machine led by his cousin Ernesto had to contend with a strong Conservative-backed opposition led by Ildo Meneghetti and Walter Só Jobim. Ernesto Dorneles ended up by holding on, as did Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto, in power since 15 years. Amaral Peixoto narrowly defeated Macedo Soares, a Conservative-backed independent. In the city of Recife, a PSB-Radical-PCB coalition was formed with Pelópidas da Silveira (PSB) as mayor. The conquest of Recife, a Communist stronghold, gave the small PSB a big boost ahead of October.

The focus then shifted to the big general elections to be held in early October. Vargas campaigned on his popular personality but also promised to increase the minimum wage, keep the country stable and continue fighting against the fabled foreign profiteers and speculators. He invoked the success of the new Petrobras and idealized the PTB's fight against the 'foreign agents' who were determined to 'prevent Brazilian control of Brazilian resources'. The Conservatives attacked rising inflation, wasteful spending, and worsening US-Brazil relations. The Conservatives, now led by Juarez Távora, a former 1920s revolutionary, distanced themselves from the neoliberals in the party. The Conservatives still struggled to win in district seats because they lacked a strong party base and machine in many provinces. Indeed, their campaign was hurt when the new popular mayor of São Paulo, Jânio Quadros, refused to campaign for them. The PCB and the PSB, the PTB's rivals to its left, hoped to benefit from lingering working-class discontent with rising prices and still-low wages. The Radical Alliance had finally merged with the PSB to create the Popular Front, or Frente Popular (on 1950 results, the new alliance represented 4.5% of the electorate and held 5 seats in the Chamber).

Chamber of Deputies

Brazilian Labour Party 40.5% winning 112 seats (-15)
62 DS, 50 PLS
Conservative Party 39.5% winning 106 seats (+7)
58 DS, 48 PLS
Brazilian Communist Party 10.5% winning 18 seats (+3)
6 DS, 12 PLS
Popular Front — Radical-Socialist Alliance 5.1% winning 10 seats (+5)¹
4 DS, 6 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 3.3% winning 4 seats (nc)
0 DS, 4 PLS
Others 1.1% winning 0 seats (nc)
0 DS, 0 PLS

Senate

Brazilian Labour Party 30 seats (-4)
Conservative Party 28 seats (+3)
Brazilian Communist Party 2 seats (+1)

()

¹ Compared to the sum of the 1950 results of the Radical Alliance (2 seats) and the Brazilian Socialist Party (3 seats)

Crisis Point: 1953-1955

Vargas' prestige was slowly slipping away. While the PTB maintained a minority and could count on a majority through the support of the PCB and FP, the government was weakened and the spring 1953 strikes in São Paulo had seriously shaken the PTB's leadership and the union bosses close to Vargas. If the PTB lost the support of urban workers in a climate of rising insecurity and inflation, its status as the dominant party of imperial politics would be weakened considerably. Yet, the Conservatives failed to benefit from the obvious weakening of the PTB and still struggled from leadership problems of its own. Its old stock of 1920-style tenentes in the mold of former Prime Minister Eduardo Gomes and incumbent leader Juarez Távora lacked charisma or any type of appeal to the rising middle-classes. It was desperately on the lookout for a new kind of leader which could generate the enthusiasm if not euphoria that Vargas personally could still create.

Vargas' new cabinet, named before the October elections, sought to solidify the PTB's urban base while at the same time reducing inflation. In January 1954, Osvaldo Aranha, Minister of Finances and Deputy Prime Minister, presented to the Chamber of Deputies his Plano Aranha to combat inflation, which was estimated at 20% in 1953. The plan would attempt to limit credit, control the exchange rate and cut public spending. Aranha hoped to limit Parliament's liberal attitude towards patronage and pork-barrel spending, as well as trim on unnecessary government expenditures. Yet, at the same time, Vargas was being pulled by the trade unions and the Labour Ministry, led by his presumed dauphin João Goulart. The unions, representing the PTB's urban working-class base, were opposed to spending cuts which would endanger generous government handouts to unionized workers and potentially endanger the welfare system dear to them. Furthermore, the unions, who had found a key ally in Goulart, kept pushing for a hike in the minimum wage, at least to cover the rise in inflation. Aranha knew that any major increase in the minimum wage or generous handouts to unions would kill his program and alerted Parliament of it.

Parliament approved the key points of Aranha's plan in February 1954, notably the exchange controls and attempts to limit credit. They were reluctant to cut back on their old pork-barrel spending traditions and only halfheartedly backed the spending cuts. Despite all this, MPs and Senators continued their old ways and kept on spending. They weren't stopped by the Central Bank, which loosened credit and printed out money. Aranha was growingly frustrated by the slow progress of his plan by the summer of 1954.

At a Labour Day rally on May 1, Vargas had announced, to the cheers of the crowd, that the minimum wage would be increased by year's end, but he never specified by how much it would be increased. Goulart and the unions wanted an increase of roughly 65%. Vargas was about to settle for approving a 65% hike when a by-election in a key PTB-held working-class district of Rio was held in July 1954. The PCB won 39% to the PTB's 27%, a major defeat for the PTB. If repeated nationally, these results would mean that the PTB would lose by a wide margin. In August 1954, Vargas took the key move of announcing to Parliament a 100% increase in the minimum wage.

()
Labour Minister João Goulart

The Conservatives were united in their opposition and found themselves supported by a young, radical right-wing editor, Carlos Lacerda, who owned a newspaper in Rio. In long diatribes against the government, Lacerda accused Vargas of being a corrupt authoritarian communist and gave weight to the popular rumour that Vargas sought to create a strategic Brazilian-Argentine alliance with Argentine President Juan Perón. Yet, the minimum wage increase was passed in the Chamber with a bare majority of 127 votes in favour (the PCB and FP voted in favour). In the Senate, the bill, to which were attached various pork-barrel spending projects, passed with 31 votes in favour and many abstentions.

While the unions and Aranha were each pulling Vargas to their side, the military was increasingly wary of the government's left-wing turn with Goulart. Influenced by America's anti-communist crusade and the rumours of a Getulist-Peronist alliance, the military, especially the Navy and Air Force, became radically anti-communist and growingly opposed to the left-nationalism preached by the PTB. Already in February 1954, War Minister Estillac Leal resigned and was named ambassador. He was replaced by General Ciro do Espírito Santo Cardoso, another ally of Vargas within the military. Cardoso was broken by dissidence with the officer corps in the summer of 1954, when Vargas was to announce a hike in the minimum wage. In July 1954, a group of young middle-class colonels signed a manifesto which condemned the increase in the minimum wage (announced in May) and decried the lack of funding for the military. Vargas was angry that Cardoso hadn't managed to alert him of the colonel's dissidence. He was dismissed in August 1954 and replaced by General Zenóbio da Costa. Zenóbio da Costa had the task of restoring order and military discipline within the army, and controlling radical tendencies within the officer corps.

Radicalism continued to mount as the Conservatives fell more and more under the influence of Carlos Lacerda's violent diatribes against Vargas and the PTB was growingly left-wing and nationalist. Rumours of a military coup abounded, but Dom Pedro IV kept his confidence in Vargas' elected government. The Conservatives pleaded to the Emperor for an early dissolution of Parliament or urged the Emperor to use his now rarely utilized poder moderador to remove what they perceived to be a radical government.

Hindered by the increase in the minimum wage, Aranha's anti-inflation plan failed to produce any major results. Inflation in 1954-1955 did not go down by much, and the Central Bank's continuous attempts to loosen credit while Aranha tightened it effectively doomed the plan. Vargas was not supportive of Aranha and was unwilling to spend what remaining political capital he had left in supporting a tough austerity-minded anti-inflation plan, especially one year out from the 1956 elections in which the PTB's situation was increasingly shaky. Vargas and the PTB leadership saw more use in continuing the party's shift to the left and towards unionized workers, with the aim of limiting the PCB-FP's pull in the 1956 elections and stabilizing the PTB's main electorate.

In May 1955, Zenóbio da Costa stepped down from the War Ministry, citing his inability to deal with the pressure the military placed on him. Henrique Teixeira Lott was named War Minister in June 1955.

On October 31, right-wing General Canrobert Pereira da Costa died and was buried in early November 1955. At his burial, Colonel Jurandir Mamede used the opportunity to launch a vocal attack on the government, which he called dangerously communist and said that the government threatened the Brazilian Empire. The War Ministry was incensed. Colonel Mamede's act, while in uniform, was a clear and obvious breach of military discipline and misconduct. Lott moved, with Vargas' support, to dismiss Mamede. In turn, the press, led by Lacerda, seized on the dismissal of Mamede by the government as a breach of the military's independence. The far-right sectors in the Imperial Air Force moved in support of Mamede, who had been turned into a martyr by the far-right. Led by Major Haroldo Veloso a group of radical Air Forces officers in the night of November 12, 1955 flew to an isolate air base in Amazonia, located in the town of Jacareacanga while others set up base in Aragarças (Goiás) and small towns in Minas Gerais.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Vargas was scheduled to visit a large farm in rural Goiás on November 13. Arriving early, Vargas' cortège was greeted by a large crowd of peasants and small farmers and the old man mingled with the crowds assembled along the roads. Smiling widely as he was shaking the hands of the assembled crowds, a man in a Air Force major's uniform, aged 33 and named Rubens Vaz, stepped out and aimed a gun at Vargas' head before pulling the trigger within seconds. The bullet hit Vargas in the head just as Vargas was shaking hands. The panicked crowds grabbed on to the man and controlled him while frantic bodyguards and military officers moved to check on Vargas.

Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, Marquis of São Borja, was pronounced dead at 11:19 on November 13, 1955.

Resolution: 1955-1956

Upon hearing the news of Vargas' death, the radical dissident air force officers stationed in Jacareacanga and Aragarças moved to occupy ground in the respective regions and in some cases counted on support from the local population. Meanwhile, in the evening of November 13, a car bomb exploded in front of the Prime Minister's residence, the Catete, in Rio. In Minas Gerais, small and isolated pockets of rebellion were encountered by local troops under the command of Governor Kubitschek, and they were rapidly crushed. Rumours of an imminent coup abounded after the car bomb in Rio, but the provincial government, loyal to Vargas, had moved quicker and had started cracking down on radical officers' clubs.

As the country woke up on November 14, still in shock from the previous day, the Emperor called on the main political leaders, military officers and Governors Kubitschek (MG), Garcez (SP) Amaral Peixoto (RJ) and Dornelles (RS) for an extraordinary meeting in Petrópolis in the afternoon of November 14. The whole political class remained shocked at the events, and all parties were united to condemn the assassination:

Quote

"His Excellency the Marquis of São Borja, Getúlio Vargas, was a Brazilian patriot and a man of tremendous courage and determination. His legacy will live on for generations, and his struggle for the achievement of a fairer nation shall not be forgotten. His death is a tragedy for all Brazilians, and the perpetrators of this evil act shall be punished as they deserve."
Official communiqué from the Imperial Household

"The actions against Prime Minister Vargas were horrible, repulsive and merit the sternest condemnation possible. Whatever our political differences, the Prime Minister was a patriot and strove to achieve what he saw as best for the nation. In this day, he and his families deserve the sympathies and prayers of all Brazilians, and these circumstances call on all the political class to set aside differences in the name of justice."
Juarez Távora, leader of the Conservative Party

"Getúlio was a hero for the empoverished man and the worker, a model for Brazilian democracy. His despicable assassination at the hands of a radical lunatic is a tragedy for all Brazilians, and especially for those people who were defended by Getúlio Vargas when nobody else stood up for them. We must live up his dream of forging a great nation, free from the influence of the radical foreign speculator and profiteers, free from exploitation."
João Goulart, Minister of Labour and Industry

At the meeting, the Emperor told participants that the extraordinary circumstances demanded use of the imperial poder moderador and a suspension of civil liberties. Late that evening, the Emperor called on Vargas' War Minister, Marshall Henrique Lott, to form a cabinet in his name.

The next day, Lott's extra-parliamentary cabinet composed in majority of military officers, was confirmed in the Chamber with the PTB, Conservatives, Popular Front and Integralists voting in favour and only the Communists voting against his government. That evening, the Emperor issued a decree which prorogued Parliament, suspended habeas corpus and constitutional guarantees and gave the military full authority over national security in provinces. The Emperor was setting the stage for a crackdown on far-right dissident officers in the rebellious Air Force.

Meanwhile, the backwater revolts in Jacareacanga and Aragarças had spread to the sparsely populated areas surrounding these areas, but as early as November 15, the army and local provincial militias had moved in on the revolts and crushed the remaining rebels, who were arrested.

The tough decree did not stop massive outpouring of grief towards Brazil. Huge rallies lamenting Vargas' death and violently attacking the opposition broke out and, at times, turned violent. Conservative Party headquarters in major states were torched, right-wing newspapers were attacked by protesters as the police struggled to control the massive crowds. Carlos Lacerda fled to Fulgencio Batista's Cuba for safety, fearing for his life if he stayed in Brazil.

Vargas was laid to rest at a small albeit emotional ceremony in São Borja in mid-November. Foreign dignitaries in attendance included President Eisenhower, General Stroessner of Paraguay, President Odría of Peru, President Paz Estenssoro of Bolivia as well as delegates from other South American and European nations. Absent was Argentina's new government, led by right-wing anti-Peronist President Pedro Eugenio Aramburu, who had participated in a fall 1955 coup which overthrew Perón. At the funeral, Goulart and Aranha both gave a moving hommage to Vargas' service to his nation.

Starting on November 15 and lasting up until mid-January 1956, Lott's government had made wide use of the imperial decree granting it unlimited powers and had arrested several radical air force officers. Throughout December 1955, General Odílio Denys, commanding officer in Rio, led the crackdown on isolated pockets of support for the November plotters and suspected far-right members. The assassin, Major Rubens Vaz was condemned to death in a speedy trial in January 1956, and the Emperor decided not to commute the sentence as the Emperor usually did when courts invoked the death sentence, which they rarely did. Far-right organizations, such as the Lantern Club led by Amaral Netto was shut down. The PTB expelled its more conservative members, such as Carlos Luz and João Café Filho who had been vocally critical of Vargas in 1954 and 1955.

In February 1956, as normalcy returned and the crackdowns stopped, the PTB moved to elect a successor to Vargas who would lead the party into the 1956 election, and, if the party won, become Prime Minister following the election, scheduled for October (with provincial elections in June). The two main contenders were Governor Juscelino Kubitschek of Minas Gerais and Governor Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto of Rio, who was also Vargas' son-in-law. Kubitschek, who largely lacked support from the PTB's national caucus and the dominant left-wing factions, ran on a left-wing oriented program stressing economic growth and continuing Vargas' policies. His young and charismatic personality appealed to voters, but he had little base within the party. While Amaral Peixoto also ran on continuing Vargas' policies, he was perceived to be closer to the pro-PTB rural elites and to the party's conservative wing. In the leadership election, where the PTB's office holders at the national, provincial and municipal levels were qualified voters, Amaral Peixoto was the favourite as he had the backing of the PTB factions in Rio and in many small states, though the party's left-wing factions, strong at lower levels and in the big states, were lukewarm towards him. Finally, Kubitschek allied with Goulart, who enjoyed great popularity in union circles and with the PTB's left, and was perceived by many to be Vargas' political heir. Running on a JK-Jango slate which vocally invoked Vargas' legacy, Kubitschek, still the underdog, won narrowly over Peixoto. Kubitschek won roughly 51% at the PTB Congress, against 49% for Amaral Peixoto. Kubitschek immediately announced that Goulart would be his Deputy Prime Minister while Amaral Peixoto would have a senior cabinet position.

The 1956 provincial elections were to be a test for the post-Vargas PTB and the viability of the Kubitschek-Goulart leadership. In Minas Gerais, Kubitschek's lieutenant Clóvis Salgado da Gama (PTB) was easily elected against a divided Conservative Party. In Rio, Amaral Peixoto was replaced by Roberto Silveira (PTB). However, the PTB was against shut out from the top spot in São Paulo, where the Conservatives won a large majority under the leadership of mayor Jânio Quadros. Ernesto Dornelles was re-elected in Rio Grande do Sul, winning a crushing victory, likely on the back of sympathy for Vargas in his home-province.

Encouraged by the PTB's strong showing in the provincial elections and the stabilization of the political situation, the PTB leadership lobbied the Emperor for snap elections in August instead of October. The Emperor cautiously consulted Lott, who agreed that precipitating elections would be best for a return to constitutional guarantees, and thus acquiesced to the PTB's request. The PTB went into the election with a strong, new leadership which invoked the past through Vargas' idolized legacy but also campaigned on a message of hope for a calm and positive future. Kubitschek promised rapid progress, economic growth, social guarantees, political reform and the construction of a new capital. The Conservatives, still led by an ageing and uninspiring Távora were no match to Kubitschek's new message. Jânio Quadros helped matters a bit in São Paulo, but he was reticent to campaign for the party outside his province. The PTB nearly matched Vargas' 1950 showing, but lacked a majority, though the support of the FP and the PCB, which were keener on cooperating with Kubitschek than they were with Vargas, guaranteed the PTB a majority. The Conservatives, desperate, decried a victory for sentimentalism and vague aspirations, but they lacked a leader to inspire people like Vargas and Kubitschek had been able to do.

Chamber of Deputies

Brazilian Labour Party 42.0% winning 121 seats (+9)
69 DS, 52 PLS
Conservative Party 38.7% winning 101 seats (-5)
54 DS, 47 PLS
Brazilian Communist Party 9.6% winning 16 seats (-2)
5 DS, 11 PLS
Popular Front — Radical-Socialist Alliance 4.7% winning 7 seats (-3)
2 DS, 5 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 4.1% winning 5 seats (+1)
0 DS, 5 PLS
Others 0.9% winning 0 seats (nc)
0 DS, 0 PLS

Senate

Brazilian Labour Party 34 seats (+4)
Conservative Party 24 seats (-4)
Brazilian Communist Party 2 seats (nc)

()

Premiers:

Zacarias de Góis e Vasconcelos: 1866-1870
José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Visconde do Rio Branco: 1870-1875
Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duque de Caxias: 1875-1878
José Antônio Saraiva: 1878-1884
Franklin Américo de Meneses Dória: 1884-1885
João Lustosa da Cunha Paranaguá, Marquês de Paranaguá: 1885
João Maurício Wanderley, Barão de Cotejipe: 1885-1887
João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira: 1887-1888
Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo, Visconde de Ouro Preto: 1888-1893
Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira: 1893-1897
Rodrigo Augusto da Silva: 1897-1901
Eduardo Ernesto da Gama Cerqueira: 1901
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves: 1901-1906
Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena: 1906-1909
Venceslau Brás Pereira Gomes: 1909-1912
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: 1912-1913
Altino Arantes Marques: 1913-1915
Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca: 1915-1920
José Joaquim Seabra: 1920
Artur da Silva Bernardes: 1920-1923
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa: 1923-1930
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas: 1930-1945
Eduardo Gomes, Barão de Petrópolis: 1945-1948
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, Marquês de São Borja: 1948-1955
Marshal Henrique Teixeira Lott: 1955-1956
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira: 1956-

Governors of Minas Gerais:

Francisco Silviano de Almeida Brandão: 1896-1901
Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena: 1901-1906
João Pinheiro da Silva: 1906-1908
Venceslau Brás Pereira Gomes: 1908-1909
Júlio Bueno Brandão: 1909-1914
Artur da Silva Bernardes: 1914-1920
Raul Soares de Moura: 1920-1924
Fernando de Melo Viana: 1924-1932
Olegário Dias Maciel: 1932-1933
Benedito Valadares Ribeiro: 1933-1945
Milton Campos: 1944-1947
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira: 1947-1956
Clóvis Salgado da Gama: 1956-

Governors of SP:

Pedro Vicente de Azevedo: 1896-1902
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: 1902-1912
Altino Arantes Marques: 1912-1913
Manuel Joaquim de Albuquerque Lins: 1913-1917
Altino Arantes Marques: 1917-1920
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa: 1920-1923
Carlos de Campos: 1923-1924
Antônio da Silva Prado: 1924-1926
Carlos de Campos: 1924-1927
Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque: 1927-1930
Armando de Sales Oliveira: 1930-1938
Ademar de Barros: 1938-1947
Adhemar de Barros: 1947-1950
Hugo Borghi: 1950-1953
Lucas Nogueira Garcez: 1953-1956
Jânio Quadros: 1956-

Governors of Rio de Janeiro:

José Bento de Araújo: 1896-1902
Quintino Antônio Ferreira de Sousa Bocaiúva: 1902-1908
Francisco Chaves de Oliveira Botelho: 1908-1911
Nilo Procópio Peçanha: 1911-1920
Nilo Procópio Peçanha: 1920-1926
Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior: 1926-1930
Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior: 1932-1935
Protógenes Guimarães: 1935-1938
Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto: 1938-1956
Roberto Silveira: 1956-

Governors of Rio Grande do Sul:

Gaspar da Silveira Martins: 1896-1901
Justo de Azambuja Rangel: 1901-1902
Carlos Barbosa Gonçalves: 1902-1908
Antônio Augusto Borges de Medeiros: 1908-1926
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas: 1926-1930
José Antônio Flores da Cunha: 1930-1938
Osvaldo Cordeiro de Farias: 1938-1943
Ernesto Dorneles: 1943-

Sim, nós podemos: 1956-1959

Kubitschek took office as economic growth was picking up after lagging behind in 1954-1955 and as the political situation was stabilizing itself after the chaos and radicalism which marked the two previous years. An able politician, with little loyalty to any one of the PTB's plethora of factions, he was able to build a broad government which appealed to even the most conservative sectors of the military.

Although João Goulart became Deputy Prime Minister, he lost the control over the Labour Ministry which he had held under Vargas. JK's former leadership rival, Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto was made Minister of National Development and Internal Affairs, a new department which became one of the top departments in cabinet alongside Finance and War. José Maria Alkmin became Finance Minister, while Henrique Lott retained the War Ministry. José Parsifal Barroso, a more conservative figure of the PTB, won the Labour Ministry.

Taking office in early September 1956, Kubitschek announced in his first speech to Parliament his ambitious Goals Plan. Stemming from a developmentalist thesis, and from the conclusions of the 1950 American-Brazilian commission on Brazil's economy; the Goals Plan sought to boost domestic economic growth through investments (state, private and foreign). Key areas targeted included petroleum, steel, energy and transportation. Parliament approved the basic points of the Goals Plan early on, in October 1956.

However, the most notable part of the Goals Plan was the bid to build a new Imperial capital for the country. The idea for a new capital located inland first came up as early as 1761, while Brazil's father of independence, José Bonifácio, had popularized the idea for such a capital in 1823. In October 1956, Kubitschek re-affirmed his wish to build a new capital inland and in November 1956 Parliament, slightly dumbfounded, approved the idea and the creation of the Imperial Capital Commission (CCI) under the authority of the Ministry of National Development. The new city, to be named Brasilia (as Bonifácio had proposed back in 1823), would be located in the Planalto Central near the border between Goiás and Minas Gerais. Work on the new capital, which quickly became Kubitschek's pet project, began early in 1957. The Emperor, Dom Pedro IV, also took a personal interest in the project and provided some of the funding.

Driven by the thesis of import-substitution, the Goals Plan invested significantly in the automobile industry. The government funded significant projects to build automobile manufacturing plants in the country, notably in Minas Gerais. The goal was to make Brazil self-sufficient on locally-built cars. Accompanying this transportation policy, the government prioritized road construction like no government had done before. The goal was firstly to interconnect the various cities lining the coastal areas where most of the country's population remained concentrated, and secondly to settle the regions of central and northern Brazil. The Conservatives criticized the government for prioritizing roads and motor vehicle transportation to the detriment of railways which, they believed, could better serve the nation. The Goals Plan also increased funding for Petrobrás, among other sectors, with the aim to double production.

The investments of the Goals Plan doubled Brazil's traditionally weak economic growth, with growth in 1958 reaching 8%. Industrial growth grew by nearly 80%, and industrial profits grew by 75% though wages grew by only 20%. The Goals Plan, with its associated economic growth, proved popular with large sectors of society. The military liked the idea of "order and development", and the idea of national development appealed to most military factions. Furthermore, helped by the popular Lott, the government paid much more attention to military demands than Vargas had done. Kubitschek was liberal in his dealings with the military, dispensing funding and promotions easily. Furthermore, he moved to pardon most of the military plotters of November 1955. Most Conservatives maintained calm and respectful relations with Kubitschek, although Carlos Lacerda remained a virulent opponent of the government and continued his anti-corruption crusade which he had started with Vargas. To muzzle Lacerda and his acolytes, the government passed a controversial press law in 1957 which in effect restricted Lacerda's access to radio and television. The law worked both ways, as the government also sought to muzzle the Communist Party and isolate it into irrelevance. Lacerda cried wolf, but fewer people were receptive to him in 1957 than in 1954-1955. To further boost the national mood, Brazil won the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, its second title.

Kubitschek's term was marked, on the world stage, by the escalation of the Cold War, decolonization and the 1956 Suez Crisis. Kubitschek remained closely aligned with the United States, and Brazil paid little attention to the movements of decolonization in Africa and Asia. Kubitschek sought to promote a policy of multilateralism and two-way dialogue between Washington and Latin America, launching his Pan-American Operation (OPA) which sought to increase American involvement in Latin Americas through the undertaking of policies to combat underdevelopment and poverty as a method to combat communism in the continent. Washington received the OPA coldly, despite the embarrassing failure which was Vice President Nixon's 1957 tour of the continent.

By late 1958, the mood turned increasingly sour as Lacerda's sensational corruption revelations garnered increasing interest and as economists reported rapidly rising inflation and a rising foreign and domestic debt. Indeed, stabilizing the economy had never been a priority for the government which paid for the Goals Plan through simply printing out more money. The amount of money in circulation in Brazil doubled between 1954 and 1958, and inflation reached an all-time high of roughly 45% in 1958. Finance Minister José Maria Alkmin opposed the uniform exchange rate policy proposed by Aranha in 1954 and supported by the Conservatives. In fact, he sought to extend the government subsidies for strategic products to shipbuilding and automobiles. Credit was expanded despite some attempts to limit it early on. Alkmin also supported continuing the government's policy of buying coffee. As coffee prices and demand for coffee worldwide fell in 1957, Alkmin decided to keep the government's share of export profits in order to continue buying coffee in future years. This government proved very unpopular with coffee farmers, and led Alkmin to be savagely attacked by Lacerda.

In July 1958, the CCI reported that it had little money left to build the city. Panicked, Kubitschek's government issued bonds of public debt and at the same printed more money, worsening inflation. Aware that rising inflation and the rise in the cost of living and decline in real wages that went along with it were hurting the PTB's chances in the 1959 elections (Kubitschek being determined to win reelection to supervise the completion of Brasilia in 1961), Kubitschek decided to seek a loan from the IMF in November 1958. An IMF experts team had visited Brazil earlier in 1958 to assess the country's ability to honour the planned $300 million loan. The IMF demanded that Brazil cut spending, review its exchange rate policy, suspend subsidies, cut wages and abandon its defense of coffee policy. Though accepting these conditions would affect the government's ability to carry out the Goals Plan, Kubitschek decided to accept these conditions in November 1958 and proceeded to a cabinet shuffle. The technocrat Lucas Lopes replaced Alkmin in Finance.

In January 1959, the government presented its IMF-approved Stabilization Plan which included tax hikes, restrained credit, spending cuts and elimination of subsidies. With Conservative support, the plan was approved. However, discontent flared on the left. The Communists were picking up steam, and discontent on the PTB's left was brewing. The unions were becoming restless, and strikes increased despite the Labour Ministry's attempts to control them. Goulart himself, still Deputy Prime Minister, was drifting away from Kubitschek who was suffering from association with the technocrats in Finance, CCI and National Development. At the same time, Kubitschek was growing frustrated with the roadblocks the IMF plan had put on his ambitious political agenda. He also viewed the rising discontent on the left as more dangerous than the traditional opposition of liberals and the right. A week before the provincial elections in June 1959, in a rash and flamboyant manner, Kubitschek declared that he was abandoning the Stabilization Plan which was putting roadblocks on Brazil's march towards progress. He proceeded to dismiss Lucas Lopes from Finance and also dismissed Roberto Campos, the liberal director of the Imperial National Development Bank. Sebastião Pais de Almeida took Lopes' spot.

1959 elections

The PTB suffered heavily in the 1959 election. In São Paulo, incumbent Conservative Governor Jânio Quadros was easily reelected. In Rio, Carlos Lacerda's Conservatives narrowly defeated Sérgio Magalhães (PTB), the incumbent Governor since Roberto Silveira had resigned earlier in 1959 to run for Senate. The PTB managed to hold Minas Gerais, where José Francisco Bías Fortes was comfortably elected. In Rio Grande do Sul, a state where the PTB was traditionally omnipotent, factional war erupted in the wake of the retirement of long-time Governor Ernesto Dorneles, Vargas' cousin. On the left, Leonel Brizola and on the right, Ildo Menegheti were vying to succeed Dorneles. The PTB held its huge majority in the Provincial Assembly, but the PTB Right allied with the Conservatives emerged slightly stronger than the PTB Left and the small FP. Ildo Menegheti thus narrowly became Governor.

Parliament was dissolved on schedule for September elections. Although Juarez Távora remained the nominal leader of the Conservative Party, the Conservatives became increasingly dominated by and associated with its two most prominent figures, Govs. Carlos Lacerda (RJ) and Jânio Quadros (SP). Kubitschek remained personally popular and rather well-liked, and the PTB, although rampant factionalism, remained stronger and better organized than the Conservatives. At the polls, the PTB won the popular vote 42-40.5 but won only 2 more seats than the Conservatives (115 vs. 113), while all smaller parties, PCB included, suffered significant loses. In the Senate, the PTB lost its majority while the Conservatives gained control.

Chamber of Deputies

Brazilian Labour Party 41.9% winning 115 seats (-6)
64 DS, 51 PLS
Conservative Party 40.5% winning 113 seats (+12)
63 DS, 50 PLS
Brazilian Communist Party 9.1% winning 13 seats (-3)
2 DS, 11 PLS
Popular Front — Radical-Socialist Alliance 3.9% winning 5 seats (-2)
1 DS, 4 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 3.4% winning 4 seats (-1)
0 DS, 4 PLS
Others 1.2% winning 0 seats (nc)
0 DS, 0 PLS

Senate

Conservative Party 30 seats (+6)
Brazilian Labour Party 29 seats (-5)
Brazilian Communist Party 1 seat (-1)

()

Premiers:

Zacarias de Góis e Vasconcelos: 1866-1870
José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Visconde do Rio Branco: 1870-1875
Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duque de Caxias: 1875-1878
José Antônio Saraiva: 1878-1884
Franklin Américo de Meneses Dória: 1884-1885
João Lustosa da Cunha Paranaguá, Marquês de Paranaguá: 1885
João Maurício Wanderley, Barão de Cotejipe: 1885-1887
João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira: 1887-1888
Afonso Celso de Assis Figueiredo, Visconde de Ouro Preto: 1888-1893
Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira: 1893-1897
Rodrigo Augusto da Silva: 1897-1901
Eduardo Ernesto da Gama Cerqueira: 1901
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves: 1901-1906
Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena: 1906-1909
Venceslau Brás Pereira Gomes: 1909-1912
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: 1912-1913
Altino Arantes Marques: 1913-1915
Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca: 1915-1920
José Joaquim Seabra: 1920
Artur da Silva Bernardes: 1920-1923
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa: 1923-1930
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas: 1930-1945
Eduardo Gomes, Barão de Petrópolis: 1945-1948
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, Marquês de São Borja: 1948-1955
Marshal Henrique Teixeira Lott: 1955-1956
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira: 1956-

Governors of Minas Gerais:

Francisco Silviano de Almeida Brandão: 1896-1901
Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena: 1901-1906
João Pinheiro da Silva: 1906-1908
Venceslau Brás Pereira Gomes: 1908-1909
Júlio Bueno Brandão: 1909-1914
Artur da Silva Bernardes: 1914-1920
Raul Soares de Moura: 1920-1924
Fernando de Melo Viana: 1924-1932
Olegário Dias Maciel: 1932-1933
Benedito Valadares Ribeiro: 1933-1945
Milton Campos: 1945-1947
Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira: 1947-1956
Clóvis Salgado da Gama: 1956-1959
José Francisco Bías Fortes: 1959-

Governors of SP:

Pedro Vicente de Azevedo: 1896-1902
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales: 1902-1912
Altino Arantes Marques: 1912-1913
Manuel Joaquim de Albuquerque Lins: 1913-1917
Altino Arantes Marques: 1917-1920
Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa: 1920-1923
Carlos de Campos: 1923-1924
Antônio da Silva Prado: 1924-1926
Carlos de Campos: 1924-1927
Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque: 1927-1930
Armando de Sales Oliveira: 1930-1938
Ademar de Barros: 1938-1947
Adhemar de Barros: 1947-1950
Hugo Borghi: 1950-1953
Lucas Nogueira Garcez: 1953-1956
Jânio Quadros: 1956-

Governors of Rio de Janeiro:

José Bento de Araújo: 1896-1902
Quintino Antônio Ferreira de Sousa Bocaiúva: 1902-1908
Francisco Chaves de Oliveira Botelho: 1908-1911
Nilo Procópio Peçanha: 1911-1920
Nilo Procópio Peçanha: 1920-1926
Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior: 1926-1930
Antônio da Silva Prado Júnior: 1932-1935
Protógenes Guimarães: 1935-1938
Ernâni do Amaral Peixoto: 1938-1956
Roberto Silveira: 1956-1959
Sérgio Magalhães: 1959
Carlos Lacerda: 1959-

Governors of Rio Grande do Sul:

Gaspar da Silveira Martins: 1896-1901
Justo de Azambuja Rangel: 1901-1902
Carlos Barbosa Gonçalves: 1902-1908
Antônio Augusto Borges de Medeiros: 1908-1926
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas: 1926-1930
José Antônio Flores da Cunha: 1930-1938
Osvaldo Cordeiro de Farias: 1938-1943
Ernesto Dorneles: 1943-1959
Ildo Menegheti: 1959-

Unraveling: 1959-1961

Kubitschek's government was returned to power with a very narrow 2 seat edge over the Conservatives in the Chamber and faced a Conservative Senate. This was the first time since 1920 that the government did not have control of the Senate.

Kubitschek retained most of his previous government, with Sebastião Pais de Almeida retaining Finance and Ernani do Amaral Peixoto staying on as National Development Minister. Francisco Negrão de Lima, a former Vargas cabinet minister, became Foreign Minister in one of the most important post-election cabinet changes.

Buoyed by their success at the polls in September, the Conservatives proved to be a formidable opposition. Carlos Lacerda, whose political leverage was even more important as a Governor, was determined to be a thorn in the side of the Kubitschek-Goulart cabinet. Yet, more and more Conservatives began to see Juarez Távora as an inadequate leader who struggled to convince voters of his ability to be Prime Minister. In November 1959, facing a backbench revolt backed by Quadros and Lacerda, the two most powerful Conservative governors, Távora stepped aside and opened the field for a leadership contest. Lacerda announced that he would not be a candidate for the party's leadership, largely because he was relatively new on the political scene and the establishment doubted that a firebrand like Lacerda would be able to win an election. The first candidate to emerge was the establishment candidate, Juracy Magalhães, a former tenente in the 1920s and later a Liberal ally of Vargas who turned on Vargas following the Second Additional Act. Magalhães had already led the Conservatives in the 1939 election and had served as Eduardo Gomes' Labour Minister between 1945 and 1948. Magalhães, however, was a weak candidate. He presented an analysis of Brazilian society which was relevant to the 1930s but which failed to understand the new trends in society which had taken place under Vargas' 1948-1955 government and Kubitschek's government. The firebrand right-wing media saw him as a boring, moderate and archaic candidate. In his stead, the Conservative Party's right-wing and Lacerda backed the popular and charismatic Governor of São Paulo Jânio Quadros. Quadros, who had been elected governor in 1956 and reelected in a landslide in 1959 had risen to fame on an anti-corruption and moralist platform which won him the support of middle-class voters and some working-class voters. Lacerda saw Quadros, an appealing and modern politician, as the leader the party needed to win an election. Lacerda though that Quadros, though slightly erratic and with a penchant for the bottle, could be easily manipulated into being an instrument of his right-wing faction. In a January 1960 leadership ballot, Quadros was elected leader by a wide margin raking up the votes of the South and Southeast. Carlos Alberto Alves de Carvalho Pinto succeeded him as Governor and Quadros won a by-election to enter Parliament in March 1960.

The government's magic which had worked marvelously until 1958 unraveled quickly. First, it could only pass its 1960 budget with PCB and FP support, and it passed in the Senate only when a Conservative Senator switched over. Then, in February 1960, the CCI reported a delay in the planned completion of work on Brasilia from April 1960 to October 1960. A series of scandals were revealed a month later by Lacerda's friends, and for the first time the government was seriously hit by them. According to the media, the CCI was rife with nepotism, bribery and kick-backs. The CCI's leadership took generous kick-backs from construction companies working on Brasilia. The airline Panair do Brasil, owned by allies of the government, was accused of holding a monopoly on the transportation of goods and persons to Brasilia as roads linking the new capital with the coast were still not finished. The press alleged that nepotism was the norm in the government, and that government agencies for regional development were corrupt. Lacerda and Quadros called for resignation of the CCI's leadership and Amaral Peixoto, the Minister of National Development.

The economic situation was slowly worsening following the government's break with the IMF in June 1959. Inflation was predicted to reach a new high in 1960, and real wages remained low. Labour unrest was mounting, while the military was increasingly radicalized following the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The PTB Left found itself increasingly isolated, and feared that the PCB could benefit from the government's declining unpopularity.

The inauguration in grand pomp of Brasilia in October 1960 provided the government with a brief respite. Attended by the entire government, most governors (excluding Lacerda), the Emperor and the Imperial Family as well foreign dignitaries including American President Dwight Eisenhower, the lavish ceremony was a major success and a popularity-booster for the government. The government apparatus slowly moved from Rio to Brasilia between October 1960 and April 1961. The Emperor and the Imperial Family moved to their new Palace in the spring of 1961.

The good mood proved short lived as labour struggles intensified in early 1961 and the right-wing media viciously attacked the government for corruption and nepotism. The Conservatives were slowly gearing up for a snap election, and were on the verge of forcing an election over the 1961 budget (the PCB and FP were ready to vote against the government) when Kubitschek announced his resignation, effective upon election of a new leader, on February 6, 1961. The government was able to get sufficient Conservative and Communist support to pass its budget in March 1961.

The PTB leadership knew that it would go down to defeat in the next election and further knew that it could not survive until the scheduled September 1962 date. The Conservatives were only waiting for the PTB to pick itself a new leader to force snap elections. With most of the PTB's top contenders, such as Goulart and Amaral Peixoto, bowing out of the contest the PTB's leadership contest in March 1961 was a very low-key affair. Francisco Negrão de Lima was elected leader, defeating Tancredo Neves, a deputy from Minas Gerais.

Francisco Negrão de Lima became Prime Minister in late March 1961. Not eager to call an election which would surely see him defeated, Negrão de Lima tried to make the government survive for as long as he could. However, he chose a poor strategy. Believing, perhaps rightfully, that inflation was the cause of the government's unpopularity, he decided to re-open negotiations with the IMF as early as April 1961. Most of the Goals Plan was slowly abandoned and the new government increased taxes, limited spending and re-opened the hot issues of exchange controls and coffee policy. The tax hike, followed by a hike on the tax on basic foodstuffs, proved extremely unpopular. In early May 1961, Goulart resigned from the government in silent protest of the new policy. Yet, the government continued its new policy and presented to Parliament a Second Stabilization Plan in mid-May. The plan, which formalized tax hikes, exchange controls and restrained credit, was very poorly received. The PTB Left allied itself with the PCB and FP to provide a left-wing front against the plan. The Conservatives, though in agreement with the technicalities of the plan, refused to back the government and demanded an early election. On May 23, 1961; the Chamber of Deputies voted down the Stabilization Plan 161-89 (26 PTB deputies voted against). The Senate rejected it 34-26 (3 PTB Senators voted against). Because it was presented as a money bill, the Emperor concluded that the government had lost supply and forced a snap election.

A divided, demoralized PTB entered the election campaign as certain to lose. Negrão de Lima barely campaigned and announced that he would step down within a year if reelected. The construction of the PTB's party list for the party-list seats only intensified party divisions between the Left (which opposed the Negrão de Lima government) and the Right (where Negrão de Lima found his remaining support). In the end, a party-list acceptable to both factions was constructed, but the wrangling and back-room deals done out in the open prior to the presentation of the party-list hurt the party. The Conservatives, on the other hand, presented a fresh alternative and formed a united caucus. Quadros, popular with both middle-class and working-class voters, had a large personal vote which he attracted to the Conservatives. Quadros campaigned heavily on corruption, with the broom as his symbol, and vowed to clean the country up of corruption. His economic platform was eclectic, supporting inflation controls and cleaning up the country's finance but also taking a developmentalist line and controls on foreign profit remittances. At the polls in July 1961, the voters gave the Conservatives a crushing win.

Chamber of Deputies

Conservative Party 49.0% winning 150 seats (+37)
89 DS, 61 PLS
Brazilian Labour Party 34.2% winning 80 seats (-35)
38 DS, 42 PLS
Brazilian Communist Party 8.4% winning 11 seats (-2)
1 DS, 10 PLS
Popular Front — Radical-Socialist Alliance 3.3% winning 4 seats (-1)
0 DS, 4 PLS
Brazilian Integralist Action 3.1% winning 3 seats (-1)
0 DS, 3 PLS
Others 2.1% winning 2 seats (+2)¹
2 DS, 0 PLS

Senate

Conservative Party 36 seats (+6)
Brazilian Labour Party 23 seats (-6)
Brazilian Communist Party 1 seat (nc)

()

¹ Two former PTB Left MPs from Rio Grande do Sul reelected as independents with FP support.

Talk Elections

Presidential Elections - Analysis and Discussion => International What-ifs => Topic started by: Hash on May 31, 2009, 08:19:43 PM