Key Facts
- Duration
- 1889–1930 (41 years)
- Official name
- Republic of the United States of Brazil
- Dominant states
- São Paulo and Minas Gerais
- Political system
- Federal oligarchic republic ('milk coffee politics')
- Local power structure
- Coronelism (machine politics via local bosses)
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
The First Brazilian Republic was born from a coup d'état on November 15, 1889, when Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca deposed Emperor Pedro II, ending the Brazilian Empire. A federal constitution was adopted in 1891, modeled partly on the United States. Power quickly consolidated among the landowning oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, whose coffee and dairy industries underpinned national revenues and shaped the new republic's political economy.
Phase II: Zenith
At its height, the republic operated under a system known as 'café com leite' (milk coffee politics), rotating the presidency between São Paulo coffee planters and Minas Gerais dairy elites. Brazil's coffee exports dominated global markets, generating significant revenues. Federalism granted states broad autonomy, while coronelismo entrenched local political bosses who mobilized votes and maintained elite control across the country's vast interior regions.
Phase III: Decline
Tensions between excluded regional elites, urban middle classes, and reformist military officers known as Tenentes steadily eroded the oligarchic order throughout the 1920s. When São Paulo's oligarchy violated the informal presidential rotation by backing another Paulista candidate, the Liberal Alliance rallied opposition forces. The Revolution of 1930 deposed President Washington Luís, ending the First Republic and installing Getúlio Vargas as president, inaugurating the Vargas Era.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory