First Brazilian Republic
The First Brazilian Republic, also known as the Old Republic or República Velha, was the republican regime in Brazil from 1889 to 1930, established through a military coup d'état on November 15, 1889, that overthrew the monarchy and installed Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca as provisional president.[1] This period transitioned Brazil from imperial rule to a federal republic under the 1891 Constitution, which formalized a presidential system with separation of powers, though actual governance was oligarchic and centralized among regional elites.[1]The political landscape was dominated by the "café com leite" (coffee with milk) arrangement, an informal pact between the agrarian oligarchies of São Paulo (coffee producers) and Minas Gerais (dairy farmers), enabling alternating presidencies between these states' representatives and perpetuating power through electoral fraud and patronage networks known as coronelismo.[2][3] Economically, the republic experienced growth driven by coffee exports, which accounted for over 50% of Brazil's foreign trade by the early 1900s, spurring infrastructure development like railroads and ports, massive European immigration to work plantations, and initial industrialization, but also fostering dependency on volatile global commodity prices and exacerbating social inequalities between export-oriented southeast regions and the neglected north and northeast.[1]
Despite modernization efforts, the era was rife with instability, including naval revolts in the 1890s, the Canudos Campaign (1893–1897) against a messianic rural uprising, the Vaccine Revolt (1904) against public health mandates in Rio de Janeiro, the Contestado War (1912–1916) over land disputes in the south, and tenentista military rebellions in the 1920s protesting elite dominance.[1] The republic's defining characteristics included limited democratic participation—literacy requirements restricted voting to about 2% of the population—and military interventions as guardians of order, culminating in the Revolution of 1930, which deposed President Washington Luís amid economic crisis from the Great Depression and regional power shifts, paving the way for Getúlio Vargas's provisional government.[1][2]