262 CHAPTER 11 THE TRIUMPH OF NEOCOLONIALISM AND THE LIBERAL STATE, 1870–1900
Constant and Marshal Floriano Peixoto overthrew
the government, proclaimed a republic with Mar-
shal Deodoro da Fonseca as provisional chief of
state, and sent Pedro II into exile in France.
Like the revolution that gave Brazil its inde-
pendence, the republican revolution came from
above; the coup d’état encountered little resistance
but also inspired little popular enthusiasm. Power
was fi rmly held by representatives of the business,
landed, and military elites.
The new rulers promptly promulgated a series
of reforms, including a decree that ended corporal
punishment in the army, a literacy test that re-
placed property qualifi cations for voting (because
property and literacy usually went together, this
measure did not signifi cantly enlarge the elector-
ate), and successive decrees that established a sec-
ular state and civil marriage.
THE NEW REPUBLIC
Two years after the revolt, a constituent assem-
bly met in Rio de Janeiro to draft a constitution for
the new republic. It provided for a federal, presi-
dential form of government with the customary
three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.
The principal debate was between the partisans
of greater autonomy for the states and those who
feared the divisive results of an extreme federalism.
The coffee interests, which dominated the wealthy
south-central region, sought to strengthen their
position at the expense of the central power. The
urban business groups, represented in the conven-
tion chiefl y by lawyers, favored a strong central
government that could promote industry, aid the
creation of a national market, and offer protection
from British competition.
The result was a compromise tilted in favor of
federalism. The twenty provinces in effect became
self-governing states with popularly elected gov-
ernors, the exclusive right to tax exports (a profi t-
able privilege for wealthy states like São Paulo and
Minas Gerais), and the right to maintain militias.
The national government was given control over
the tariffs and the income from import duties,
whereas the president obtained very large powers:
he could designate his cabinet ministers and other
high offi cers, declare a state of siege, and intervene
in the states with the federal armed forces in the
event of a threat to their political institutions. The
constitution proclaimed the sanctity of private
property and guaranteed freedom of the press,
speech, and assembly.
If these freedoms had some relevance in the
cities and hinterlands touched by the movement
of modernization, they lacked meaning over the
greater part of the national territory. The fazen-
deiros, former slave owners, virtually monopolized
the nation’s chief wealth: its land. The land mo-
nopoly gave them absolute control over the rural
population. Feudal and semifeudal forms of land
tenure, accompanied by the obligation of personal
and military service on the part of tenants, sur-
vived in the backlands, especially in the northeast.
Powerfulcoronéismaintained armies of jagunços
(full-time private soldiers) and waged war against
each other.
In this medieval atmosphere of constant inse-
curity and social disintegration, there arose mes-
sianic movements that refl ected the aspirations of
the oppressed sertanejos for peace and justice. One
of the most important of such movements arose in
the interior of Bahia, where the principal activity
was cattle raising. Here, Antônio Conselheiro (An-
thony the Counselor) established a settlement at
the abandoned cattle ranch of Canudos. Rejecting
private property, Antônio required all who joined
his sacred company to give up their goods, but he
promised a future of prosperity in his messianic
kingdom through the sharing of the treasure of
the “lost Sebastian” (the Portuguese king who had
disappeared in Africa in 1478 but would return as
a redeemer) or through division of the property of
hostile landowners.
Despite its religious coloration, the existence of
such a focus of social and political unrest was intol-
erable to the fazendeiros and the state authorities.
When the sertanejos easily defeated state forces
sent against them in 1896, the governor called on
the federal government for aid. Four campaigns
were required to break the epic resistance of the
men, women, and children of Canudos, nearly all
of whom were killed in the fi nal assault by the na-
tional army. A Brazilian literary masterpiece, Os