History of Brazil
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The following article is a compilation of several articles related to
the History of Brazil that have been published by the Brazilian government
and that are available on online (sources: Brazil
in Focus CD Rom).
These articles were prepared by Bolívar Lamounier, with
the collaboration of Octávio Amorim Neto and José Luciano
de Mattos Dias.
Colony
Discovered by Portugal in 1500, Brazil remained a colony for 322 years,
having proclaimed its independence in 1822. Marked by monoculture and
slavery, the colony left as a legacy a political system characterised
by traditions of absolutism, a highly concentrated farming system and
a long experience of social inequality. The country's independence in
1822, conducted by a branch of the Portuguese dynasty, would extend still
for nearly a century, under the Empire, the traces of this inheritance.
Monarchy (1822 - 1889)
Contrary to the other Latin-American nations, Brazilian independence
has not been obtained through a colonial liberation war. With Brazil being
the seat, since 1815, to the United Kingdom of Portugal, Algarves and
Brazil, the independence came via the rupture of prince Dom Pedro from
Portugal, caused by the threat of return to the condition of colony, intended
by the Courts of Lisbon after Napoleon's defeat and Portugal's liberation.
Pedro I consolidated the new regime with the 1824 Constitution but, incapable
of politically pacifying the country, he was forced to resign in 1831.
The terms of his resignation, however, maintained the monarchy and his
son's right to the Brazilian throne. Between 1831 and 1840 the country
was governed by a civil regency which confronted various rebellions with
success. In 1840 Dom Pedro II ascended to the throne, and helped by various
coalition cabinets, consolidated the monarchic regime in the country.
The prosperity originating from the coffee exportation and the country's
political stability created conditions for the long reign of Dom Pedro
II, shaken only by the process of abolition of slavery, initiated in the
1880's.
Associated to the abolitionist movement by the political elites, the
regime was not defended by them when a military coup, of positivist inspiration,
brought it down in 1889, inaugurating almost one decade of political instability
and violence.
First Republic (1889 - 1930)
The Republic was born of a Coup d'Etat, supported by a heterogeneous
and little cohesive alliance between positivist military officers, land
proprietors and radicalised sectors of the urban intellectuality, which
saw themselves badly represented in the Empire's power structure.
The Republic represented, with the establishment of Federalism by the
Charter of 1891, a substantial increase in the political autonomy of the
states' elites, a demand that existed since the Empire, and especially
since the Republican Party's manifest, in 1870. The First Republic's political
order was consolidated during Campos Sales' Presidency (1898-1902), by
means of a pact between the states' elites and the national Executive's
leader, by which, in exchange for the non-federal interference in the
states' internal affairs, their representations in the Congress should
obey presidential orientations. In the short and medium term, the pact
resulted in the formation of only one party in each state, and in the
stability of the national Executive power's exercise.
The political oligarchies of the states were connected to the interests
of the exporting agrarian system, especially to coffee, in São
Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and to sugar, in the Northeast.
With the rapid development of São Paulo's coffee-growing economy,
oligarchies consolidated their power a federal level. São Paulo's
national hegemony in the national ground ended by creating inter-oligarchic
conflicts, which became critical in the 20s and culminated in the 1930
Revolution, ending the First Republic.
1930 Revolution
The 1930 Revolution was a movement initiated by oligarchies unsatisfied
with the 1930 presidential elections' results, in association with radical
groups of the Brazilian army. By means of a military movement, this heterogeneous
coalition brought down the legally formed government, with a platform
of moralisation of the political practices and social and economic transformations.
The government established by the Revolution of 1930 was responsible
for the adoption, in Brazil, of the first forms of social legislation
and stimulus to industrial development. From Brazilian unions to large
state companies, all the State's and Brazilian society's modern structures
have their origin in the reforms of this period.
"Estado Novo" (1937 - 1945)
The fruit of a Coup d'Etat dealt in October of 1937, the "Estado
Novo" (New State) was a political response to the instability of
the 1934-37 period, since the victorious political groups of 1930 felt
threatened by the left and right's extremism and by the return to power
of state oligarchies. In ideological terms, the "Estado Novo"
had an evident fascist inspiration, without the seizure of certain advances
in labour legislation. However, the party had no purpose of the mobilisation
of the masses. Neither was it expansionist in the territorial sense, seen
that its nationalism aimed much more at the country's economic development
than at its territorial expansion.
The "Getulista" (Getúlio's) period has strongly (re)
centralised the power at national level, with the consequent enlargement
and modernization of the civil bureaucracy and the Armed Forces. Despite
having culminated in a dictatorial regime, the 1930 Revolution was initially
inclined towards important reforms for the future development of democracy,
such as the Electoral Code of 1932, the creation of the Electoral Justice
and the extension of voting rights to women. In that period, an important
impulse was also given to the country's industrialization, via the import
substitution. The end of the Second World War and the consequent discredit
of right wing dictatorships had internal reflections, allowing for the
growth of the opposition against "Estado Novo" and taking the
military to demand Getúlio Vargas' exit, which occurred in October
1945. Free presidential elections immediately followed. The National Congress
took responsibility for elaborating a new Constitution.
The democratic experience (1945 - 1964)
The period between 1945 - 1964 registered important advances in terms
of democracy, which expressed itself through a multi-party system and
a proportional electoral system. From the institutional point of view,
these period had the following aspects in common whith the current democraty:
(1) presidential system, (2) bicameral system, (3) proportional representation
with open lists, and (4) federalism.
During this period the unions multiplied and began to exercise a significant
influence in the country's life, despite the legal limitations resulting
from the corporatism established under the "Estado Novo". It
was, however, a politically unstable period: the presidents Eurico Dutra
(1945 - 1950) and Juscelino Kubitschek (1955 - 1960) completed their terms
of office normally, but Getúlio Vargas (1950 - 1954) committed
suicide in face of a serious political-military crisis, and Jânio
Quadros resigned in August 1961, having served for only seven months.
There was also the deposing of two vice-presidents: in November 1955,
of Café Filho, who had assumed the presidency in 1954, following
Getúlio Vargas death; and in March 1964, of João Goulart,
who had succeeded Jânio Quadros in 1961. João Goulart's fall
initiated a 21-year period when the government would be directly controlled
by the military.
Brazilian Military Regime (1964 - 1985)
The military regime was born of a Coup d'Etat delivered on the 31st of
March, 1964, against president João Goulart. The coup was supported
by the conservative parties (PSD and UDN), the business community, the
rural proprietors and the urban middle class, united, above all, to combat
communism and corruption. The immediate causes of the collapse of the
1946 Charter's regime are thus resumed by José Guilherme Merquior:
"Governmental instability, disintegration of the party system, virtual
paralysis of the Legislative's decisory capacity, equivocal attitudes
on the part of president Goulart, if nothing else, concerning the succession;
the threat posed by a badly defined land reform; the military uneasiness
in face of the governments' tolerance of the sergents' mutiny; and the
growing radicalism of both the right and the left (...), all this complemented
by rising inflation, and naturally, by the frightening ghost of the Cuban
revolution" (´Patterns of State Building in Brazil and Argentina`,
in Hall, J.A. organiser, States in History, London; Blackwell, 1986, p.
284).
The new regime, however, avoided a complete rupture with representative
democracy's constitutional fundaments. Despite having abolished, already
at the start, direct elections for the presidency and later for governments
of states and main municipalities it maintained the periodicity and the
demand for a minimum of democratic legitimacy for these mandates, by means
of the indirect election by the Congress or by the Assemblies, depending
on the case. Besides, the military leaders reiterated, many times, their
intention to remain in power for a short time.
From 1968 on, in response to the pressure by the students' movement and
the start of armed combat by the opposition's radicalised sectors, the
military regime stiffened, and the country underwent the period of greatest
political repression in its history, under the presidency of General Garrastazu
Médici (1969 - 1974). These facts ended by overtaking the military's
initial intention of remaining in power for a short while. However, the
military lacked a clear idea about economic and political-institutional
reforms which they would have to implement with their extension in power.
Neither could the military system propose itself as definitive, since
this would implicate in definitively breaking the bridges that secured
them with a minimum of legitimacy.
With General Geisel's ascension to the presidency, in March 1974, the
so-called "gradual opening" ("abertura gradual") was
initiated, aiming at loosening a little the regime's dictatorial ties,
and thus avoiding traumatic confrontations. The main characteristic of
the "opening" process sponsored by Geisel was its extreme gradualism,
its experimental character, so to speak, and consequently the permanent
uncertainty that for many years hovered over it, in terms of its courses
and even concerning its continuity.
Still, in 1974, there were elections for the Congress, when nobody doubted
one more tranquil victory of the government's party, the Arena. The result
was the opposite: a round defeat for the government. The MDB grew from
12% to 30% of the Senate, conquering 16 of the 22 disputed seats, and
from 28% to 44% in the Chamber of Deputies. The magnitude of the opposition
gains brought forward two difficulties not contemplated by the "opening's"
initial directives: (1) the possibility of a new institutional impasse,
due to the system's two-party character; and (2) the oppositionist votes
being concentrated in the most economically dynamic states in the country.
With the 1974 elections, the government then found itself before contradictory
pressures: on one side, the necessity to start building bridges with the
civil society, having in mind the magnitude and the clearly plebiscitary
(anti-government) contours of the MDB's electoral growth; on the other
side, the need to preserve the political cohesion of the governist field
and especially of the Armed Forces.
One of the alternatives adopted by the regime in order to face the growing
oppositionist wave was to maintain the fast rhythm of economic growth
in 1967, although the necessity to cool the economy was already becoming
evident.
General Geisel's succession by General João Baptista de Oliveira
Figueiredo in the beginning of 1979 concluded, in frustrating manner,
a stage of the liberalisation process. It frustrated the expectation that
the succession represented the culmination of the "opening"
process and would conduct the country directly to the democratic plenitude,
signalling that the regime had decided to extend the "gradual and
safe" strategy of political "opening". However, important
demands from the opposition such as amnesty to all citizens who had been
punished before with the banning and loss of political rights, as well
as those exiled for participation in armed actions, and the practically
total re-establishment of press freedom, were answered in 1978/ 79.
In December 1979, the government promoted party reform also demanded
by opposition leaders who did not wish to be integrated to the MDB. In
realising the reform, the government took, at the same time, a large step
to undo the old opposition front and to free itself from the plebiscitary
impasse built into the two-party structure. At the start of the 80's,
five new parties managed to establish themselves in the political arena:
PDS (the government's party), PMDB, PT, PDT and PTB. In 1982, these parties
competed in the first direct elections for governor (of the states) since
1965, together with the elections for Congress and state assemblies. Once
the votes had been counted, there was the constatation that the electoral
process remained practically a two-party dispute, and that the opposition
had elected ten of the 22 governors, including those from São Paulo,
Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. The plebiscitary confrontation, which
the 1979 party reform wished to eliminate, was back, and now in a context
of acute recession, growing unemployment and visible debilitation of important
political leader of the regime.
Having conquered the main governments of the states, the opposition began
to have, at its disposal, sufficiently powerful support to try and produce
General Figueiredo's successor. Absorbing desertions from the government
party's troops, and knowing how to capitalise the civic energy mobilised
by the frustrated movement in favour of direct presidential elections
(unleashed in 1984's first trimester), the opposition, seizing the candidature
of Tancredo Neves of Minas Gerais' PMDB, a moderate and conciliatory politician,
managed to form the necessary majority to win the succession dispute in
the Electoral College, in January 1985, thus closing the cycle of military
governments.
The Brazilian re-democratization (1985 - 2002)
The Brazilian re-democratization, formally resumed in 1985, may be described
as a process of "opening through elections" (abertura através
de eleições). Since the 1974 legislative elections, the
MDB (opposition) had the support of a significant portion of the electorate,
as shown in the graphic. In 1979 the government promoted a party reform,
re-establishing the multi-party system. However, the opposition's division
into various acronyms did not alter the already configurated tendency
in the 1970's elections: an inviable "diarchy", represented
on one side by the military control of the presidency, and on the other
side by the growing opposition's presence in municipal and state governments,
in the legislative, the press and the majority of non-government organizations
relevant to the regime's legitimization. The final stage of this transitional
process was the election of Tancredo Neves, a moderate oppositionist leader,
for the Republic's Presidency.
Chosen by the Electoral College in January 1985, Tancredo Neves was hospitalised
on the 14th of March, of the same year, the day before the prescribed
date when he was to assume the Presidency. He would die 36 days later,
and his vice-president and interim successor was confirmed as the constitutional
president.
Still in the first semester of 1985, the National Congress revoked the
restrictions of ideological character, which had existed since the Second
World War, to the formation and parliamentary functioning of political
parties considered extremist (in practice, the communist parties). A Constituent
Congress was elected in November 1986, and a new Constitution promulgated
on the 5th of October 1988. In November 1989, the first direct presidential
elections for 29 years took place. The second round of the election was
fought by Fernando Collor de Mello and Luís Inácio Lula
da Silva, widely recognised as the most important union leader in Brazilian
history. Fernando Collor de Mello was elected in 1989.
Elected in 1989, president Fernando Collor de Mello was accused of corruption
and removed from the post via the impeachment process. This was the first
time in history that this procedure had been applied to the president
of a Republic. References to a possible involvement of the president in
corruption schemes had been made by the press for several months, but
they gained intensity in May 1992, when they were ratified by Pedro Collor
de Mello, the president's brother, in declarations to the press. Faced
with the gravity of this fact, the Chamber of Deputies (Câmara dos
Deputados) insisted on a Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry, which confirmed
the existence of a corruption scheme co-ordinated by businessman Paulo
César Farias, "PC", who in 1989 had been treasurer of
Collor's victorious campaign for the Presidency. On the 29th of September,
1992, the Chamber of Deputies voted in favour of the admissibility of
the president's judgement by the Federal Senate (Senado Federal), according
to article 86 of the Constitution: "if charges against the President
of the Republic are accepted by two-thirds of the Chamber of Deputies,
he shall be submitted to trial before the Supreme Federal Court for common
criminal offenses or before the Federal Senate for criminal malversation."
Following the accusation being admitted by the Chamber, the process of
crime responsibility was instituted in the Federal Senate. The moment
the judgement session started, Fernando Collor resigned, and was consequently
substituted by vice-president Itamar Franco, who remained in power until
the end of the term (31 /12/1994). Even so, the Federal Senate concluded
Collor's judgement, in December 1992, deciding for the impeachment and
also giving the president a sentence of suspension of political rights
for eight years, making him ineligible for any public function during
this period.
In April 1993 a plebiscite on the form (Republic or Monarchy) and the
system (presidential or parliamentary) of government was called. The majority
of the electorate voted for maintaining the republic and the presidency.
The 1994 presidential elections were decided already in the first round,
with the victory of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a sociologist and senator
who was supported by a coalition of social democrats (PSDB) and liberals
(PFL), over Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, supported by PT (the
Workers' Party) and the other left wing parties.
When the constitutional amendment which allowed for reelection for the
Presidency of the Republic passed in 1997, the 1998 presidential elections
were also decided in the first round, with the second victory of Fernando
Henrique Cardoso over Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. His term of office
ended on January 1st, 2003.
Elected in October 2002, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva started his
term on 01/01/2003. His term of office will end on 01/01/2007.
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© César Ramos, "Brazil - History", www.cesarramos.com,
April 2006, São Paulo, Brazil.
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