The short answer
Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca. A monarchist army hero of the Paraguayan War, he headed Brazil’s provisional government from November 15, 1889. Congress elected him president on February 25, 1891, in an indirect vote. On November 3 he dissolved Congress, and on November 23, facing a navy revolt, he resigned. His vice-president, Floriano Peixoto, took over.
Last reviewed
An unlikely founder
Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca was born in 1827 in Alagoas, in Brazil’s northeast, in a town that now bears his rank and name: Marechal Deodoro. A career soldier, he came home from the Paraguayan War a hero, and he was a friend of the old emperor, Pedro II. In 1887 the officers who were feuding with the civilian government founded the Military Club and made him its president.
He did not set out to found a republic. How a sick, 62-year-old monarchist ended up toppling the Empire on November 15, 1889, is told in Who proclaimed the Republic of Brazil?. This page is about what came next.
Fifteen months of rule by decree
That same night Deodoro signed Decree No. 1 as head of a provisional government. There was no constitution and no election: the marshal ruled by decree. His cabinet mixed soldiers and veteran republicans. Benjamin Constant, the positivist professor of the Military School, took the War ministry, Aristides Lobo the Interior, Quintino Bocaiúva Foreign Affairs and Rui Barbosa Finance.
The decrees came fast. Four days after the coup, Brazil had a new flag. In January 1890, Church and State were separated. A Constituent Assembly was elected that September, and on February 24, 1891, it promulgated the first republican constitution.
Was he elected?
Yes, but not by the people. The constitution’s transitional provisions gave the choice of the first president to Congress itself. On February 25, 1891, deputies and senators chose Deodoro over Prudente de Morais, the candidate of the São Paulo republicans. For vice-president they picked another marshal, Floriano Peixoto, from the rival ticket.
It was not a comfortable start. Congress distrusted the old soldier, and the economy was in trouble. The Encilhamento, a wild boom of easy credit and speculation on the Rio stock exchange, had turned into a crash.
The closing of Congress and the resignation
On November 3, 1891, Deodoro dissolved Congress and declared a state of siege, a power the new constitution did not give him. The answer came from the sea. On November 23 the navy, under Admiral Custódio de Melo, threatened to shell Rio de Janeiro, then the capital. That same day Deodoro resigned, and Floriano took over. The old marshal died in Rio in August 1892.
How long he ruled, and who came first at the ballot box
Counting both phases, Deodoro was in charge for two years and eight days: about fifteen months at the head of the provisional government and nine as elected president. Official lists number him first among Brazil’s presidents. The first president chosen by popular vote came three years later. He was Prudente de Morais, the man Deodoro had beaten in Congress, elected in 1894 and also the first civilian in the job.
Exactly a century after the Republic, on November 15, 1989, Brazilians voted for president again after a long gap, in the first direct presidential election since the military dictatorship. The flag Deodoro’s government adopted is explained in What does “Ordem e Progresso” mean?
Sources
- Decree No. 1, November 15, 1889
- Constitution of the Republic of the United States of Brazil, February 24, 1891, Transitional Provisions, art. 1
- Boris Fausto, História do Brasil (1994)
- Celso Castro, A Proclamação da República (2000)