Reflections on Brazilian Jacobinism of the First Decade of the Republic (1893-1897)
The study of the first decade of the Republic permits one to reflect on the numerous myths that permeate Brazil's history. These myths have served to reduce social conflict and to provide ideological foundations for the holders of power. In particular, examination of the 1890s challenges the commonly accepted notion of the peaceful character of the Brazilian historical process and the myth of consensus. The roots of these traditions, according to Henry Keith, date from the viceregal period. But the republicans were particularly active in reinforcing it by exalting the bloodless character of the change of regime in 1889. “Revolution without blood” the politicians Martim Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada of São Paulo and Karl von Koseritz of Rio Grande do Sul would say. The Correio Mercantil of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul agreed; the country had witnessed a “marvelous political change that Brazil brought about instantaneously without shedding a drop of blood, without firing a single bullet.”