Lauro Müller
Lauro Severiano Müller was a Brazilian politician and military engineer. Responsible for the transition of Santa Catarina from a province to a state, he is recognised as one of those who helped achieve the Brazilian diplomatic victory over Bolivia through the Treaty of Petrópolis, which allowed for the purchase of Acre and its incorporation into Brazil. Müller occupied the 34th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1912 until his death in 1926. Born in Itajaí, Santa Catarina, he was the son of the German immigrants Peter Müller and Anna Michels from the Rhineland. On his mother's side, his first cousin was Filipe Schmidt, who served two terms as President of Santa Catarina. A passionate follower of Benjamin Constant's positivism in his youth, he embarked on a military career in his native province after a brief stint in a merchant's office, his political career began in 1889, when the first President of Brazil, Deodoro da Fonseca, made him President of Santa Catarina and charged him with organising the province, transformed into a state.
He served as a federal deputy, member of the Academy of Letters, minister of state. He carried out great reforms while holding the ministerial portfolios of Industry and Public Works, during the presidency of Rodrigues Alves; as Minister of Foreign Affairs a post he assumed in 1912 upon the untimely death of the Barão do Rio Branco, he pursued economic integration with Argentina and Chile. He was forced to resign in 1917 because Brazil had entered World War I on the side of the Allies, anti-German sentiment created opposition to him due to his German roots, he preferred to remain a senator. During an official visit to the U. S. as Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was offered the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by Harvard University. He was made an honorary samurai on an official visit to Japan; the positions he held in his long political career include: Member of the Constitutional Assembly Member of Congress Governor of the State Minister of Public Works General of the Army Minister of Foreign Affairs Senator of the Republic He became popular for his important public works, such as the construction of Rio de Janeiro's Avenida Central, today Avenida Rio Branco, improvements to that city's port.
He died in Rio in 1926. Brazilian Regional Bio-Bibliographic Dictionary Some famous people named Müller Newspaper clippings about Lauro Müller in the 20th Century Press Archives of the German National Library of Economics
Floriano Peixoto
Floriano Vieira Peixoto, born in Ipioca, nicknamed the "Iron Marshal", was a Brazilian soldier and politician, a veteran of the Paraguayan War, the second President of Brazil. He is the first Vice President of Brazil to have succeeded a former President mid-term. Floriano Peixoto was an army Marshal when elected vice-president in February 1891. In November 1891, he rose to the presidency following the resignation of Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, the first president of Brazil. Floriano Peixoto came to the presidency in a difficult period of the new Brazilian Republic, in the midst of a general political and economic crisis made worse by the effects of the bursting of the Encilhamento economic bubble, his government was marked by several revolutions. Ruling in authoritarian fashion, Floriano Peixoto defeated a naval officers' rebellion against him in 1893–1894 and a seditious military movement in the States of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina during the same years, his government was marked by increased centralization of power and nationalism, with the florianista cult of personality being the first phenomena of favorable political expression towards a Republican politician in Brazil.
He is referred to as "the Consolidator of the Republic" or "The Iron Marshal". He left the presidency on 15 November 1894. In spite of his unpopularity, he was responsible for the consolidation of the new Republican Government. Desterro, the capital of the state of Santa Catarina, was renamed Florianópolis after its defeat by loyalist troops, in the end of the Federalist Riograndense Revolution. Floriano Peixoto at Find a Grave
Prudente de Morais
Prudente José de Morais e Barros was the third President of Brazil. He is notable as the first civilian president of the country, the first to be elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of Brazil's 1891 Constitution, the first to serve his term in its entirety, his presidency, which lasted from 15 November 1894 until 14 November 1898, was marked by the War of Canudos, a campesinant revolt in the northeast of the country, crushed by the Brazilian Army. He had to face a break in diplomatic relations with Portugal, mediated by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, he had been the Governor of the State of São Paulo and President of the Senate from 1891 to 1894. He was president of the Constituent Congress that drafted and approved Brazil's 1891 Constitution; the city of Presidente Prudente, located in the western part of the State of São Paulo, is named after him. His ancestry dated back to the early Portuguese settlers of Brazil. Prudente de Morais was born in the vicinity of Itu on 4 October 1841.
At the age of three he lost his father, an animal dealer, murdered by a slave. After his mother remarried, Morais took up residence in the city, he graduated with a law degree from the Law School of São Paulo in 1863 and moved to Piracicaba that same year. He practiced law there for two years and began his political career in 1865. During the period of the Empire of Brazil, Morais belonged first to the Liberal Party as a monarchist, he was elected an alderman in presiding over the city of Piracicaba. In 1873, he joined the Paulista Republican Party and declared himself a republican as a representative in the Provincial Assembly, he was a provincial deputy in the city of São Paulo and deputy to the General Assembly of the Empire as a supporter of the republican form of government, abolition of slavery and federalism. As provincial deputy, he worked with the complex issue of the borders of São Paulo with Minas Gerais, a subject on which he was an expert. After the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, his Party began to dominate national politics, Moraes was elected to the Constituent Congress as Senator for São Paulo.
Due to his leading position in the Party, he was chosen by his peers as President of the Constituent Congress, that promulgated the Brazil's first republican Constitution in 1891. Morais ran in the first Brazilian presidential election, but lost to incumbent Head of the Provisional Government Deodoro da Fonseca. After that election and the inauguration of the first President and Vice-President, the Congress's function as a Constituent Assembly ceased, it became an ordinary bicameral National Congress, whereupon Morais' role as President of the Constituent Congress ended. Senator Prudente de Moraes was elected Vice-President of the Federal Senate, the Legislature's upper house; the Presidency of the Senate was vested by the Constitution in the Vice-President of the Republic. In November 1891 however, President Deodoro da Fonseca attempted to dissolve Congress and rule as a dictator, but after a few weeks he was forced to resign the Presidency due to the First Revolt of the Armada; as a consequence, who until was Vice-President of the Senate, succeeded Peixoto as President of the Senate on 23 November 1891.
In the contest for the succession of Floriano Peixoto, Morais was nominated by the Republican Federal Party, founded by Paulo Glicerio Francisco in 1893. He won the presidential election on 1 March 1894 and took office on 15 November that year, becoming the first president of Brazil to be elected by direct vote and the first civilian president of Brazil. Prudente gleaned 276,583 votes against 38,291 for Afonso Pena; the election had more than 29 politicians polled. His vice-president was Dr. Manuel Vitorino Pereira, his election marked the coming to power of the coffee oligarchy of São Paulo in place of the military. The four-year government of Prudente de Morais was shaken both by partisan political issues and continued fighting in Rio Grande do Sul, the center of the Federalist Revolt. Early in his government, he was able to resolve the latter difficulty by signing a peace treaty with the rebels, who received amnesty. Prudente de Morais devoted all of his efforts to pacify the policial factions within his country, which included extreme advocates of the centralist policies of Floriano Peixoto and supporters of the monarchy.
During his rule, he abandoned the innovative measures of Floriano Peixoto one by one. A gradual approach was necessary since the Florianists still had some influence in the army, the vice-president was connected to the ideas of the Florianists. In 1896, he faced a diplomatic issue involving the British, who saw fit to take possession of the island of Trinidade and Martim Vaz in 1895, the revolt of the Military School, he asserted his authority by closing military club. The diplomatic issue was resolved favorably in favor of Brazil. Prudente de Morais re-established relations with Portugal and signed a Treaty of Friendship with Japan in November 1895 with the aim of encouraging the arrival of Japanese immigrants, but shortly after the rebel movement in Rio Grande do Sul, would face an greater challenge: the War
Brazil during World War I
During World War I, Brazil adopted a neutral position, in accordance with the Hague Convention, in an attempt to maintain the markets for its export products coffee and industrial manufactured items. However, following repeated sinking of Brazilian merchant ships by German submarines, Brazilian President Venceslau Brás declared war against the Central Powers in 1917, was the only country in Latin America to be directly involved in the war; the major participation was the Brazilian Navy's patrol of areas of the Atlantic Ocean. Brazil declared neutrality on August 4, 1914. At the beginning of the war, although neutral, Brazil faced a complicated social and economic situation, its economy was based on exports of agricultural products such as coffee and limited industrial manufacturing. As these products exported by Brazil were not considered essential by foreign consumers, customs duties and export fees decreased as the conflict continued; this was accentuated further by the German blockade of Allied ports, by a British ban on the importation of coffee into England in 1917.
This arose because the British government now considered the cargo space on ships necessary for more vital goods, given the great losses of merchant ships as a result of German attacks. The Brazilian merchant ship Rio Branco was sunk by a German submarine on May 3, 1916, but as this was in restricted waters and registered under the British flag and with most of its crew composed of Norwegians, it was not considered an illegal attack by the Brazilian government, despite the public uproar the event caused. Relations between Brazil and the German Empire were shaken by the German decision to introduce unrestricted submarine warfare, allowing its submarines to sink any ship that breached the blockade. On April 5, 1917, the large Brazilian steamship Paraná, loaded with coffee and travelling in accordance with the demands made on neutral countries, was torpedoed by a German submarine with three Brazilians being killed; when news of the sinking of the Paraná arrived in Brazil a few days several protests erupted in the capital.
The Minister of Foreign Relations, Lauro Müller, a citizen of German origin with a pro-neutrality position, was forced to resign. In Porto Alegre, marches were organized with thousands of people peaceful; the demonstrators began attacking shops and properties owned by ethnic Germans or their descendants, like the Hotel Schmidt, the Germany Society, the club and the newspaper Deutsche Zeitung, the Turnerbund, which were raided and torched. On 1 November 1917, an enraged mob damaged houses and factories in Petropolis, including the restaurant Brahma, the Gesellschaft Germania, the German school, the company Arp, the German Journal, among others. At the same time, in other cities there were minor demonstrations. Episodes with violence repeated until Brazil's declaration of war against Germany and its allies in October 1917. Although the nationalist and pro-war demonstrations intensified over 1917, they never surpassed the anti-war and anti-militarist demonstrations led by trade unionists and pacifists, who opposed the war and accused the government of diverting attention from internal problems, sometimes coming into conflict with nationalist groups that supported Brazil's active participation in the war.
Violent repression followed a general strike late in 1917, the declaration of war in October served as a means to declare a state of emergency and persecute opponents. April 11, 1917: Brazil broke diplomatic relations with Germany May 20, 1917: the ship Tijuca was torpedoed near the French coast by SM UC-36, a German submarine. In the following months, the Brazilian government seized 42 German merchant ships that were in Brazilian ports. May 22, 1917: the steamer Lapa was hit by torpedoes from a German submarine. October 23, 1917: the Brazilian freighter Macau, one of the vessels seized in the course of the war, was torpedoed by the German submarine SM U-93 near the coast of Spain, the captain taken prisoner. October 26, 1917: Brazil declared war on the Central Powers with limited popular support. November 4, 1917: the Acari and another ship Guaíba were torpedoed by the same German submarine, SM U-151. Although the administration of Venceslau Brás, to end in his last year in office, had made statements implying that it did not intend to involve the country deeper into the conflict.
This report, coordinated by the parliamentary expert on foreign policy and military affairs, João Pandiá Calogeras, regarding the entry of Brazil in the conflict, recommended that the country should send an expeditionary force of considerable size to fight in the war, using all necessary means to disembark the troops on French soil where they would be trained and equipped by the French, all financed with US bank loans, which in turn would be settled by compensation imposed on the defeated enemies after the war. The Calogeras Plan contained several proposals for the new elected administration, across several government areas. Referring to the country's participation in the conflict, the plan was not dependent on the lack of military-industrial infrastructure, a feature of the country at that time. However, the direction taken by internal and external events that year, as well as the specific circumstances of Brazilian politics (then including opposition from the population to
Wenceslau Braz, Paraná
Wenceslau Braz, Paraná is a municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil. List of municipalities in Paraná
Itajubá
Itajubá is a municipality in southeastern Minas Gerais state of the Federative Republic of Brazil. Itajubá lies in a valley by the Sapucaí river and has terrain elevations ranging from 827 to 1500 metres, occupying an area of 290.45 km2, with a population of 86,000 people. Neighboring the city are the mountain slopes of the Serra da Mantiqueira range; the climate holds well delimited weather seasons, with heavy rain in the summer months and dry climate in the winter, as a typical "altitude tropical system". The municipality is privileged in its location, not only for being in an urban network of prosperous middle size cities, but due to its position with regards to the capitals of the southeast: Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro; the city is a center with direct influence over 14 other municipalities of a region that polarizes an amount of 48% of the population of the south-end of Minas Gerais or, equivalently, 6% of the population of the entire state. The local economy is based on industry and agriculture.
There are industries of auto parts, fiber optics, electronic components and military weapons. The city is famed by cultural life. In agriculture most of the production is coffee, potatoes in the vicinity of Maria da Fé city where the overall climate is colder. Itajubá is notable for the large quantity of choirs. In the beginning of the 19th century, the region was occupied by native Brazilians, the Puri-Coroados. In January 1819, a priest moved to the parish of Delfim Moreira; the place was deserted, since it was just a small village in the middle of the woods of the Serra da Mantiqueira, far away from a river. Father Lourenço told the people in the settlement that its topography was unfavorable to its development, he invited them to move the village to a place closer to the Sapucaí River, down the mountains. About 80 families accepted the invitation and, on the morning of March 1819 they moved; the next day Father Lourenço celebrated the first catholic mass in the new location. The new Itajubá was founded.
After comparisons of topography had been made, part of the population decided to build a new church. Father Lourenço gathered the people and they moved the old church's pictures and items to the new church. According to historians Geraldino Campista and J. Armelim Bernardo Guimarães, the name Itajubá means "water that falls on the rock" or "waterfall". There are several small waterfalls scattered in the vicinities of Itajubá; the town is known as the home for the Federal University of Itajubá, founded in 1913, which offers degrees in several technical fields, three other regionally important educational institutions: the Centro Universitário de Itajubá - Universitas, the Faculdade de Medicina de Itajubá and the FACESM - Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Econômicas do Sul de Minas. The city boasts six radio stations and a local TV station. Of the six radio stations, one is a federal university station; the city has a major armament and blade weapons factory, the Indústria de Material Bélico do Brasil - IMBEL, builder of a licensed copy of the FN FAL assault rifle and several models of military-issue knives.
The current mayor is Rodrigo Riera, elected by popular vote in 2012. Federal University of Itajubá Federal University of Itajubá City government site
Deodoro da Fonseca
Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca was a Brazilian politician and military officer who served as the first President of Brazil. He took office after heading a military coup that deposed Emperor Pedro II and proclaimed the Republic in 1889, disestablishing the Empire, stepped down little more than two years in 1891, under great political pressure, he is therefore the first Brazilian President to have resigned from office. Fonseca was born the third child of a large military family in Vila Madalena, Alagoas, a town that today bears his name as Marechal Deodoro, in Northeast Brazil, he was the son of Manuel Mendes da Fonseca Galvão and his wife Rosa Maria Paulina de Barros Cavalcanti. In the period of the Brazilian Empire, his older brother Severino Martins da Fonseca was nominated the first Baron of Alagoas. Another notable relative was his remote uncle. Fonseca pursued a military career, notable for his suppression of the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco in 1848, Brazil's response to the European year of failed liberal revolutions.
He saw action during the Paraguayan War, attaining the rank of captain. In 1884 he was promoted to the rank of field-marshal, he achieved the rank of full marshal, his personal courage, military competence and manly personal style made him a national figure. As Governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Fonseca was courted by republican intellectuals such as Benjamin Constant and Rui Barbosa in the café society of São Paulo. In 1886, alerted that the imperial government was ordering the arrest of prominent republicans, Fonseca went to Rio de Janeiro and assumed leadership of the army faction, favorable to the abolition of slavery. Emperor Pedro II had advocated the abolition of slavery for decades, freeing his own slaves in 1840, but he believed slavery should be done away with so as not to damage the Brazilian economy; the government nominally headed by His daughter, Princess Imperial of Brazil, abolished slavery in 1888, during her third regency. Enraged oligarchs played a role in the subsequent coup d'état.
Fonseca's prestige placed him at the head of the military coup that deposed the emperor on 15 November 1889, he was the head of the provisional government that called a Constituent Congress to draft a new constitution for a United States of Brazil. Soon, however, he was in conflict with the civilian republican leaders, his election as president on 25 February 1891, by a narrow plurality, was backed with military pressure on Congress. The Fonseca administration, divided by political and personal animosity between the president and Vice President Floriano Peixoto, encountered strong opposition within the Congress, which chose a policy of obstruction. During the first months of his presidency, he permitted his ministers unrestricted control of their ministries. Arbitrary presidential decrees and the disastrous conduct of economic policy during the bubble of the Encilhamento strengthened the resistance in Congress, which coalesced round Vice-President Peixoto, soured public opinion; this caused republicans of the South to withdraw their support from the marshal and provisional government.
The situation reached a crisis stage when Fonseca dissolved the National Congress and declared a "state of emergency" on 3 November 1891. A group of deputies opposed this decision and found support among the high-ranking officers of the Navy, including Admiral Custódio José de Melo; the marshal found himself on the brink of a civil war. On 23 November 1891 he turned over the presidency to Floriano Peixoto. Deodoro da Fonseca died in Rio de Janeiro on 23 August 1892. Deodoro da Fonseca in art List of presidents of Brazil Media related to Deodoro da Fonseca at Wikimedia Commons Charles Willis Simmons, Marshal Deodoro and the fall of Dom Pedro II, 1966
