The Paulistas' Rise To Power

IN NOVEMBER 1894, five years after the Brazilian armed forces had overthrown the empire and seized control of the government, a leading civilian and Paulista assumed the presidency. His coming to power ended a period of military incidents and uprisings and initiated one of freedom from overt military interference which would extend far into the twentieth century. The conditions on which the success of Sao Paulo was based deserve careful attention, for they have not often been repeated in Latin America. Utilizing the divisions within the armed forces and refusing to resort to armed revolt, the Paulistas illustrated one way by which a determined group of civilians might peacefully ease the armed forces out of direct political control. While numerous civilians in Brazil demonstrated dissatisfaction with military involvement in political affairs, only one group, composed primarily of large landowners from the economically powerful coffee-exporting state of Saio Paulo, succeeded in removing the officers from the government. The Paulistas had long favored the creation of a federal, republican regime in their own best interests. They now saw that a strong military government posed a threat to local autonomy and to their prosperity. During the first years of the republic, established through a military uprising on November 15, 1889, they strengthened their power base in Sdo Paulo, built up their own local military force, and generally opposed the revolts and political disturbances which damaged the Brazilian government's credit abroad and hindered economic progress. When the fleet rebelled against the army-dominated government in September 1893, the civilians were able to take advantage of the divisions within the armed forces, ally themselves with Vice-President Marshal Floriano Peixoto, who needed their state militia, and then gain eventual control over the central government

Democracy · Group (periodic table) · Military rule · Physics · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Brazilian History and Foreign Policy · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History of Colonial Brazil · Law

• The Brazilian Armed Forces and the Overthrow of the Monarchy

  Open Access•June E Hahner•The Americas A Quarterly Review…•1969

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