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$Unique_ID{bob00120}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Brazil
Chapter 1C.   The First Republic}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Jan Knippers Black}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{president
government
rio
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paulo
sao
first
coffee
political
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}
$Date{1982}
$Log{See Table A.*0012001.tab
}
Title:       Brazil
Book:        Brazil, A Country Study
Author:      Jan Knippers Black
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 1C.   The First Republic

The Military Government

     Fonseca formed a provisional government that served until a republican
constitution was adopted. The other major figures were General Benjamin
Constant as minister of war, Ruy Barbosa as minister of finance, and Manoel
Ferraz de Campos Sales as minister of justice, all of whom would remain
politically active for decades. Among its first acts, the provisional
government separated church and state, instituted religious freedom and civil
marriage, and abolished titles of nobility. All records pertaining to slavery
were destroyed, thereby ending any hope by former slave owners that they would
be compensated. Foreigners resident in Brazil on the day the republic was
proclaimed automatically became Brazilian citizens unless they chose
otherwise. A new national flag was adopted, which bore the motto "Order and
Progress"-an expression of the positivist belief that it was possible to
combine the chief value of the conservatives, order, with that of the
liberals, progress. Municipal and provincial assemblies were dissolved and
replaced with appointees of the national government, usually military
officers. The Chamber of Deputies was dissolved and the lifetime Senate,
abolished.

     In an attempt to promote economic development, Barbosa took the country
off the gold standard. A great deal of monetary speculation occurred,
including the issuance of stocks by phantom companies, and severe inflation
developed. Fonseca proved less than competent as provisional president, and
the entire cabinet resigned when the old soldier insisted on awarding a public
works contract to a personal friend. Unused to disorder and personal
criticism, the marshal appeared to have regretted he ever joined the
republican movement.

     A constituent assembly was elected in 1890 to draw up a republican
constitution. Barbosa was the prime drafter of the document, which was
approved in February 1891. It was closely modeled on the separation of powers
system of the United States, calling for a president and vice president to be
elected for four-year terms and a cabinet to be responsible to the president
rather than to the bicameral Congress. Members of the Senate would serve a
nine-year term, and members of the Chamber of Deputies, three years. The
provinces became states in a federal system and possessed considerable power,
including that of establishing export taxes and maintaining their own
military forces. (In fact, despite the assignment of financial matters,
foreign affairs, and national defense to the federal government, the 20 states
were to become the centers of republican political life.) Each state elected
three senators, and the vote was given to all male citizens over 21 years
of age who were neither illiterates nor paupers. The constituent assembly was
empowered to elect the first president and vice president of the republic, and
despite the reputation for incompetence that Fonseca had acquired, the
assembly chose him rather than take the chance that the choice of a civilian
would be unacceptable to the army.

     Peixoto was named vice president, and he immediately began plotting to
succeed Fonseca. Conflict soon developed between the president and Congress,
primarily because of the president's desire to centralize authority, a goal
that was opposed by the congressional majority. Fonseca therefore staged a
coup, dissolving Congress and assuming dictatorial powers. The leading figures
of the navy, admirals Eduardo Wandenkolk and Custodio Jose de Melo, joined the
congressional majority and Vice President Peixoto in organizing a countercoup.
The ships moored in Guanabara Bay, under the command of Melo, threatened to
bombard Rio if Fonseca did not give up his post. Thus the first president of
the republic resigned, and the presidency passed to Peixoto.

Peixoto as President

     Peixoto, soon dubbed "the Iron Marshal," managed to consolidate the
republican government against threats of a monarchic restoration, federalist
revolts, and threats to his own position. Self-possessed and determined, he
was conciliatory or ruthless as the occasion demanded. The constitution
provided that new elections should be held if the president resigned within
the first two years of his term, but the new president brushed aside demands
for such an election. Peixoto at times argued that the provision did not apply
to the first term under the new constitution, and at other times he insisted
that elections were not possible in such troubled circumstances.

     Barbosa was Peixoto's leading parliamentary opponent, quitting the Senate
in protest when the president dismissed all of the state governors who had
sided with Fonseca. Persistent supporters of Fonseca were arrested, and when
Barbosa demanded that the Supreme Court issue writs of habeas corpus to free
the political prisoners, Peixoto drily observed that any judge granting such a
writ would shortly find himself in need of a writ of habeas corpus, with no
judges left to grant it. Officers who petitioned him to hold a presidential
election, as provided in the constitution, found themselves prematurely
retired, and troops who rebelled in January 1892 were dealt with severely.

     The major threat facing the regime was a civil war that erupted in Rio
Grande do Sul in June 1892 over the control of the governorship. The war
widened when Gaspar da Silveira Martins, who would have been the emperor's
last prime minister if the revolution had not occurred, returned from exile
in Uruguay to lead a rebellion ostensibly in favor of federalist and
parliamentary principles but perhaps with the ultimate aim of restoring the
empire. Peixoto supported the "positivist dictator" of Rio Grande, state
governor Julio de Castilhos. The leading naval officers, including Admiral
Melo, sympathized with Silveira Martins. Melo resigned as minister of the navy
and led the navy into revolt. Unsuccessful in their attempt to blockade Rio
de Janeiro, partly because foreign powers, including the United States,
refused to recognize the blockade, many of the naval rebels took two
Portuguese ships to Buenos Aires, where they moved on to join the troops of
Silveira Martins in Rio Grande do Sul. In retaliation Peixoto broke diplomatic
relations with Portugal. The federalists were defeated, partly with the aid of
a republican militia force from Sao Paulo. Peixoto thus became regarded as the
savior of the republic, although his wholesale executions of the rebels
clouded his reputation somewhat. He was to survive his victory by only two
years, dying in 1895. His final triumph was to hold elections and transfer
power to his elected successor, the paulista Prudente Jose de Morais e Barros,
who thus became the first civilian president of the republic, taking office on
November 15, 1894 (see Table A).

[See Table A.: Chiefs of State, 1889-1930]

The Economy under the First Republic

     Economically, the First Republic, or Old Republic, was generally a period
of economic prosperity after the initial disorder and inflation of its first
years had been overcome. The export of rubber expanded greatly to rival coffee
as the country's principal export. Some industry developed, especially in Sao
Paulo. Meanwhile, a change took place in the sugar economy, with the
consolidation of many fazendas into larger holdings, sometimes under corporate
ownership centered on a sugar mill. This accelerated the transformation of
rural workers into a sort of rural proletariat. At the same time a change in
agrarian structure was taking place in the South and Southeast, especially in
Sao Paulo, owing to the immigration of large numbers of Germans and Italians,
most of whom became small farmers. With some interruptions because of
inadequate funds, railroads were built, ports were enlarged and modernized,
and municipal water, light, and streetcar services were extended. In all of
these enterprises foreign capital, especially from Britain, was critical. The
greatest success in this era of modernization was the elimination of malaria
and yellow fever from Rio de Janeiro under the leadership of Dr. Osvaldo Cruz;
this antedated and in some respects served as a model for the later United
States efforts in Panama. By 1906 yellow fever, deaths from which had averaged
10,000 annually during the second half of the nineteenth century, was
completely eliminated.

     Industry experienced considerable growth, 3,258 establishments being
enumerated in the census of 1907. These were principally textile mills,
breweries, chemical plants, and glass and ceramic factories. Most factories
used electric power, usually generated by damming rivers. By 1920 there were
356 electric generating plants. The most important manufacturing centers were
the cities of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte.

     The expansion of the coffee industry propelled the state of Sao Paulo to
a leading position in the economy, and because the constitution enabled the
state to impose export taxes, the state government grew wealthy. Half of all
the immigrants to the country went to Sao Paulo. At the end of the century the
population of the state of Sao Paulo stood at about 1 million; by the early
1920s the figure was 2 million. The city of Sao Paulo grew from 31,000
inhabitants in 1872 to 579,000 by 1920-an annual growth rate of 6.3 percent,
compared with a rate of 1.5 percent for Recife, the major city of the
Northeast, and 3 percent for Porto Alegre, the principal city of Rio Grande do
Sul.

Politics under the First Republic

     The period from 1894 to 1930, known in Brazil as the First Republic, was
noteworthy for three political features: the politics of the governors;
coronelismo; and the politics of "cafe com leite," or coffee with milk (see
Conservative Groups, ch. 4). The politics of the governors refers to the
general practice, existing especially after 1900, of the federal government's
collaborating with the state governors to determine who would sit as deputies
in the federal legislature. That is, through the mechanisms of the supervision
of elections by state and federal authorities and the certification of results
by the credentials committees of the national Chamber of Deputies, the
practice developed of certifying only those deputies favored by the incumbent
state administration. This system helped to perpetuate state political
"establishments," which in turn combined to control the federal government.

     The term coronelismo derives from the honorary title of colonel (coronel)
in the National Guard that was customarily conferred on a locally dominant
political figure. The term eventually became applied to the local strong man
or political boss, especially in the rural areas and particularly in the
poorer northeastern states. Coronelismo was thus a classic boss system under
which the control of patronage and minor funds was centralized in the coronel,
who would dispense favors in return for political loyalty. The coronel was
usually a substantial landowner and would often also be the local justice of
the peace.

     The politics of cafe com leite refers to the domination of the republic's
politics by the states of Sao Paulo (which produced coffee) and Minas Gerais
(where dairy farming was strong). These two states were the largest in
population and also the richest. The first presidents of the republic were
from Sao Paulo, but thereafter there tended to be an alternation between the
outgoing governors of the two states in the presidency. There was
understandable dissatisfaction in the Northeast and Rio Grande do Sul over
this, but those areas played a key role in the legislature. For example, the
leading figure in the Congress for most of the Old Republic was the gaucho
Jose Gomes de Pinheiro Machado from Rio Grande do Sul.

Politics as Usual

     An early challenge for the government of President Morais was the War of
Canudos. Drought conditions gave rise to a great deal of suffering among
agricultural workers in the Northeast, and many, despairing of their lot in
this world, followed the leaders of rebellious cults. One of these was led by
a mystic known as Antonio Conselheiro, who with his followers founded a town
at Canudos on the Rio Vaza-Barris in Bahia. The settlement, which farmed
communally and divided the product equally among its members, refused to
recognize the authority of the government of Bahia. The Roman Catholic
hierarchy viewed the cult as heretical, and some landowners were unhappy with
the loss of their workers to the colony.

     In 1896 the Bahia state government sent an expeditionary force to restore
its authority. Conselheiro had built an army of his own, however, recruiting
converts among the gunfighters hired by the landowners to keep order on their
plantations, and he had no difficulty destroying the first expedition of 100
men and the second of 550. The mortified governor of Bahia sent word to the
federal government that Canudos was a monarchist rebellion that had to be
suppressed by federal troops. However, the 1,300 soldiers sent by the national
government were also defeated by the Canudos forces. The opposition made much
of the weakness and inability of the government to put down the supposed
monarchist insurrection, and the president dispatched a force of 6,000 men
against the settlement. But the followers of Conselheiro, inspired by
fanatical religious beliefs and knowing the terrain better than the federal
troops, defeated even them; fewer than half of the expeditionary force
survived. Finally, Morais ordered the minister of war to take command of a
full-scale military operation. Unable to resist artillery bombardment, the
settlement was destroyed, and its inhabitants were massacred. The episode has
lived on in the Brazilian consciousness because of its treatment in a highly
regarded book-some believe it the best Brazilian book ever written-Os Sertoes
(Rebellion in the Backlands) by Euclydes da Cunha.

     The next president was a paulista landowner, a former governor of Sao
Paulo, and a former minister of justice-Manoel Ferraz de Campos Sales. Taking
a different line from his predecessors who attempted to impose strong central
authority, President Sales ruled by agreement, negotiation, and the mutual
exchange of favors, being the originator of the "politics of the governors."

     When Sales was on a trip to Europe, taken while he was still
president-elect, he initiated the negotiation of a "funding loan" syndicated
by the Rothschild banking house to restore the financial situation of the
government, which had been undermined by the massive issuance of paper money
to finance the various military campaigns of the previous governments. This
stabilization loan was secured by customs revenues and was on easy terms,
envisioning a payment period that would stretch from 1911 to 1974. Financial
health would be restored not only by the loan itself but also by the
commitment of the Brazilian government to withdraw from circulation an amount
of national currency equal to the amount of the loan. To complement the
funding loan, the finance minister in charge of the new stabilization policy
reduced bank credit and raised taxes. This unpopular policy restricted
economic growth in the short run, but it prepared the foundations for long-run
prosperity and expansion with less inflation.

     Another major achievement of the Sales administration was the settlement
of the question of Amapa and the delineation of the boundary of northern
Brazil and French Guiana. France's claim extended into the Brazilian territory
of Amapa. The issue was referred to the arbitration of the president of the
Swiss Confederation, whose decision in 1900 was favorable to the Brazilian
interpretation of the relevant documents, and Rio Oiapoque was fixed as the
international boundary.

     Brazil's representative to the Swiss arbitration procedure had been Jose
Maria da Silvas Paranhos Junior, the Baron of Rio Branco. The son of a famous
diplomat of the same name, Rio Branco continues to be viewed as the nation's
most renowned statesman and an authentic national hero. He served as foreign
minister from 1902 to 1912. His first signal achievement in that post was the
conclusion with Bolivia of the Treaty of Petropolis in 1903, which resolved
conflicting claims over Acre (see fig. 1). In subsequent years Rio Branco
concluded border agreements and settlements with Peru, Colombia, Venezuela,
and Dutch Guiana (present-day Suriname).

     At about the same time, the government sought to resolve its coffee
problems by adopting a policy called the "valorization of coffee." The
coffee-producing states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro had
agreed in 1906 to try to control the world market for coffee by stockpiling
production in excess of market demand to maintain high prices. At the time,
Brazil produced two-thirds of the total world supply of coffee and so was in
a position to influence the market decisively. The system provided that the
federal government would guarantee a specified minimum price for coffee and
would purchase and stockpile any coffee produced that could not find a market
at that price, releasing the stock in years when production dropped below
demand at the set price. The "valorization" of coffee became a principle of
Brazilian economic policy that was to last for many years.

     The presidential election of 1910 resulted in the breakdown of the cafe
com leite alliance between the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, resulting
in the first nationwide political contest. The major power brokers were
Carlos Peixoto Filho, president of the Chamber of Deputies, and Pinheiro
Machado from Rio Grande do Sul. The two major candidates were Ruy Barboso and
Marshal Hermes da Fonseca, nephew of the first president and a gaucho.
Barboso, a highly regarded intellectual from Bahia who had, among other
things, served as finance minister, conducted a strong campaign against the
dangers of military influence and political bossism. As minister of war in the
outgoing administration, Marshal Fonseca had reorganized and modernized the
army, purchased new weapons and equipment, and built new installations. He
was strongly supported by the military; eventually, the political
establishment offered its backing. Out of a population of approximately 22
million, about 500,000 voted; Barboso secured over 30 percent of the votes,
a considerable achievement, given his opposition, but Fonseca was the victor.

     Fonseca's administration was marked by increased disorder and repression.
He intervened extensively in state politics, sometimes in alliance with
Pinheiro Machado, sometimes in rivalry with him. Shortly after Fonseca took
office, a naval mutiny occurred in protest against the corporal punishment
that was applied in the navy and related grievances. The government accepted
the demands of the mutineers but then arrested and imprisoned the leaders.

     Pinheiro Machado hoped to gain the presidency for himself. The leaders of
Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, however, re-formed their alliance in behalf of
Vice President Venceslau Bras Pereira Gomes. The bad feeling engendered by
Pinheiro Machado's attempt to dominate the Fonseca administration led to
Pinheiro Machado's assassination in 1915 by an individual who wished to vent
his personal grievances; ironically, Pinheiro Machado's celebrated status
made him, rather than the president, the assassin's target.

     President Bras faced problems of internal and external war. At home, the
"holy war of the Contestado" broke out in the contested region between the
states of Santa Catarina and Parana. Peasants, dispossessed of their lands to
make way for a railroad, followed the leadership of the ex-monk Jose Maria,
a survivor of Canudos, in a revolt that was quashed by the army. In Europe
World War I had begun, with various consequences for Brazil. The prices
of exports rose, imports of manufactured goods became scarce, and impetus
was given to the manufacturing industry of Brazil. Rubber exports failed to
grow, however, because Brazil's monopoly of rubber had been broken by the
smuggling out of seedlings, which led to the development of plantations in
Southeast Asia.

     German submarine warfare resulted in the sinking of several Brazilian
ships, and Brazil declared war against the Central Powers in October 1917.
Some Brazilian aviators and medical personnel took part on the Allied side.
After the war Brazil received reparations for the Brazilian merchandise
sequestered by the Germans. Brazil also participated in the Versailles peace
conference, where a political figure from the state of Paraiba, Epitacio
Pessoa, distinguished himself.

     The state political machines of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais continued
their hegemony by electing former President Rodrigues Alves for the
presidential term from 1918 to 1922. However, illness prevented Alves from
exercising the functions of his office, which were assumed by Vice President
Delfim Moreira until new elections could be held. The political establishment
this time selected Pessoa, although his election was contested by Barbosa.

     Disorder grew despite, or perhaps because of, the firm policies of
President Pessoa. The policy of stabilizing coffee prices contributed to an
increase in government spending, and Brazil borrowed extensively abroad for
that purpose and for public works designed to ameliorate problems of drought
in the Northeast. A "law for the repression of anarchism" was passed to
break the formation of labor unions and to repress strikes and demonstrations.
In an attempt to check inflation, the president refused to raise government
workers' salaries and, despite protests by the army, held down the military
budget. The military was further irritated by the appointment of civilians
as ministers of war and navy.

     Pessoa demonstrated in other ways that he could not be intimidated by
the military. In 1922 the president of the powerful Military Club, former
President Fonseca, charged that Pessoa's nominee to succeed him, Artur
da Silva Bernardes, was antimilitary. Fonseca made the charge on the basis of
letters purportedly written by Bernardes. Pessoa asserted that Fonseca knew-or
should have known-that the letters were forgeries and had Fonseca arrested.
Bernardes was elected without incident.

     Before the election, however, the government confronted an unusual
challenge. On July 5, 1922, a small group of junior officers led a revolt
at the Igrejinah Fort at Copacabana Beach. Cadets at the Military Academy
and young officers elsewhere also rebelled, but these minor uprisings were
easily and quickly crushed. At the fort, however, 18 officers, 17 of them
lieutenants (tenentes) left the fort for a quixotic battle on the beach.
Sixteen of the 18 were killed. One of the survivors lived to become a
general and a presidential candidate, and the event spawned the tenente
movement that had far-reaching results.

     The disturbances continued during Bernardes' presidency. In
fact, Bernardes censored newspapers, reformed the constitution to limit
individual rights such as habeas corpus, and maintained a state of siege
throughout his term of office. The economic situation worsened; it showed
a decline in the value of exports, a shortage of foreign exchange, and rapid
inflation. Once again, disorders flared up in Rio Grande do Sul. The governor,
Antonio Augusto Borges de Medeiros, had been reelected for his fifth term,
which goaded the opposition Liberal Party (Partido Libertador), led by Assis
Brasil, to rise to rebellion. The president sent the minister of war to
arrange a settlement, and both parties agreed to the Pact of Pedras Altas
(1923), under which the opposition recognized the election of Borges, but the
state constitution was changed to prohibit further reelection.

     On the second anniversary of the desperate gesture of the tenentes at
the fort at Copacabana, military rebellions broke out at various points in
the republic. The insurgents were defeated with little difficulty except in
Sao Paulo, where the movement was headed by General Isidoro Dias Lopes. Seeing
that they could not hope to be victorious against loyal troops, however, the
rebels left the city and headed west, where they were joined at Iguacu Falls
with troops from Rio Grande do Sul, led by Captain Luis Carlos Prestes. The
two groups joined forces under the nominal command of Major Miguel Costa,
leader of the Sao Paulo group, but under the actual leadership of Prestes.

     Originally almost 2,000 strong, the Prestes Column, as it became known,
dwindled to only a few hundred men in its three-year peregrination of some
24,000 kilometers through the interior of the country. Staging guerrilla
attacks against regular forces, attempting to arouse the population against
the injustices of the prevailing political system, spreading revolutionary,
democratic, and semisocialist ideas, the column became a legend, although for
the most part it failed to raise popular consciousness against the regime.
Several members of the column became active in politics in later years,
however, some reaching eminent positions. Prestes, dubbed by the press "the
Knight of Hope," went on to become the leader of the Communist Party of
Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil-PCdoB).

     Bernardes, who was from Minas Gerais, supported as his successor the
former governor of the state of Sao Paulo, Washington Luis Pereira de Sousa,
thus continuing the cafe com leite alliance. Washington Luis continued the
deflationary monetary stabilization policy of his predecessor, appointing as
his minister of finance Getulio Dornelles Vargas of Rio Grande do Sul. Vargas,
43 years of age at the time, had been head of his state's delegation in the
Chamber of Deputies. Although serving his first term in federal office, he had
previously been active in state politics. In the tradition of Brazilian
governments, Washington Luis had a major theme for his administration, which
was roadbuilding; he was responsible for construction of the highways between
Rio and Petropolis and between Rio and Sao Paulo. In addition, he maintained
the policy of support prices for coffee. The Pact of Pedras Altas meant that
Borges could not be reelected to the governorship of Rio Grande, so Vargas was
called home to be the administration's candidate for governor.

     The Great Depression brought with it financial and economic difficulties
for the country. It fatally undermined the government's economic policies. As
coffee sales dropped on the world market, Washington Luis attempted to
increase sales by lowering prices. The policy was unsuccessful, and coffee
growers were irritated because their revenues declined. Their revenues in
cruzeiros (for the value of the cruzeiro-see Glossary) might have been
maintained if the government had devalued the national currency. Guided,
however, by the conventional financial ideas of the time, Washington Luis
maintained an overvalued currency exchange rate, which led to the depletion
of the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves. Trying to protect the
federal budget from deficits, the government also discontinued the purchase
of excess coffee stocks. Needless to say, coffee growers were alienated from
the government.

The Political Crisis of 1930

     Meanwhile, the political maneuvering over the next presidential term had
begun. The governor of Minas Gerais, Antonio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrada, the
grandson of the independence leader of the same name, believed he was the
rightful establishment candidate, since Washington Luis was from the state
of Sao Paulo and tradition called for the alternation of the presidency
between the two leading states. Ribeiro de Andrada disagreed with the
president's economic and financial policies, so he thought it was best to
strengthen his position by an alliance with Rio Grande do Sul. Under the
terms of this entente-the so-called Liberal Alliance-Ribeiro de Andrada would
run only if he got administration support, in which case the vice presidency
would go to a gaucho. If Washington Luis persisted in his apparent plan of
supporting another paulista, Julio Prestes, however, then Ribeiro de Andrada
would support an opposition candidate, either Borges or Vargas.

     If the agreement was supposed to deter Washington Luis from supporting
Julio Prestes, it failed in its objective. Backing by the government electoral
machinery ensured Prestes' victory, despite the unhappiness not only of the
states of Rio Grande do Sul and Minas Gerais but also of the coffee growers of
Sao Paulo and the landowners in the Northeast. The economy of the Northeast
had been in perpetual decline, and landowners were unhappy over the
president's discontinuance of the drought projects of his predecessor. An
opposition candidacy was clearly doomed, however, so Borges stepped aside
in favor of the more junior Vargas, who took as his vice-presidential
candidate Joao Pessoa of the Northeast state of Paraiba. Rather timid about
opposing the incumbent administration, Vargas got Washington Luis to agree
that Prestes would not campaign in Rio Grande do Sul if Vargas himself
campaigned only there.

     Some of Vargas's supporters, especially a young intellectual politician
from Rio Grande do Sul, Osvaldo Aranha, were prepared to use the general
discontent in the country to take power by "revolution." Aranha arranged to
import weapons and made contact with the survivors of the tenente movement.
Luis Carlos Prestes announced that he had become a communist and declined
the invitation, but other tenentes, especially Juarez Tavora and Pedro Goes
Monteiro, agreed to cooperate in organizing a revolutionary movement. Perhaps
the decisive act, which determined that the revolution would indeed happen,
was the assassination of Vargas' running mate, Joao Pessoa, in July 1930,
although it was two months later, on October 3, that the revolution actually
began.

     The army as a whole was unwilling to resist the revolution. Ideas of
reform (tenentismo) had penetrated among young officers, and senior officers
were unhappy about the budgetary stringency made necessary by the financial
crisis. Moreover, they had no stomach for actual battles against the
substantial gaucho forces, nor did they wish to risk the division in their
own ranks that might arise if they took the field. Accordingly, two ranking
generals and an admiral headed a junta that requested the resignation of the
president, and on October 3, 1930, they turned the government over to Vargas.

     Historians date the end of the First Republic from the success of the
"revolution" of 1930. The ensuing Vargas era changed the face of Brazil. The
political system underwent major modifications during the period of his
supremacy; socially, economically, and administratively, major structural
changes took place. The period witnessed the acceleration of Brazil's urban
industrial development. An urban working class developed and became organized
and vocal. A system of social security was put into place. The country became
centralized, and the old era of state supremacy was brought to an end. A
system of national political parties was created. Yet the man who presided
over these fundamental changes remains to some extent an enigma. Flexible
and pragmatic, Vargas never committed himself permanently to a single ideology
or point of view. He temporized and procrastinated, probably from a feeling
for correct timing rather than from the inability to make up his mind, as his
detractors charged.