At the Faculty of Law

Pena in his youth, unknown date

During his studies at the Faculty of Law, Pena was a colleague of Ruy Barbosa, Bias Fortes, Joaquim Nabuco, Castro Alves and Rodrigues Alves. With the latter, he founded the journal Imprensa Acadêmica, focused on debating academic and political issues. From the few remaining copies of this journal's articles it is possible to point out the influence of French authors such as Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola.^[2] In the Faculty of Law he also joined the Bucha, a secret student society, inspired by the German Burschenschaft associations and founded by professor Julius Frank, becoming chief of the Bucha's "general communion". This association helped students that could not afford to pay for their studies at the Faculty.^[6][7]

Pena was an adept of the natural law ideas and an opponent of positivism, as he was a fervent catholic and sympathetic to the monarchy in Brazil. His ideas distanced him from the Brazilian positivists, who defended the separation of Church and State and the implantation of a military republic in the country. Two other movements divided Brazil during his years at the Faculty of Law: abolitionism and republicanism. Pena supported the former but not the latter, refusing to sign the 1870 Republican Manifesto, as he considered Brazil was not ready for a regime change.^[8][9]

Early law career

Pena graduated with a Law degree on 23 October 1870. The following year, he became a doctor at the same institution, after defending the thesis Letra de Câmbio on 19 June 1871.^[2][10] After turning down an invitation to teach at his alma mater, he returned to Minas Gerais, where he began to work as a lawyer, at first practicing law in his hometown and later in Barbacena.^[11]

There he became known for advocating in defense of slaves and even for helping them escape, for which he came close to being denounced on the court in Rio de Janeiro by a local military officer.^[12] Despite this, he was concerned with the economic effects the immediate abolition of slavery could cause; for this reason, he was in favor of compensating slave owners after abolition and also supported immigration as a way to replace slave labor.^[9] This brought him closer to other politicians of his time, especially the conservatives, who, according to Cláudia Viscardi, were "responsible for the progressive delay of the end of slavery in Brazil".^[6]

Marriage and family

Afonso Pena married Maria Guilhermina de Oliveira on 23 January 1875.^[13] The couple went on their honeymoon to Rio de Janeiro, where they met emperor Pedro II.^[14] Guilhermina was the daughter of Belisário Augusto de Oliveira Pena, the Viscount of Carandaí, and the niece of Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, the Marquis of Paraná, one of the most prominent politicians of the Empire of Brazil.^[15] They had nine children, including Afonso Júnior, who was later Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs to president Artur Bernardes and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters;^[16][17] and Octávio Moreira Pena, an engineer who carried out several public works in Rio de Janeiro, including the landfill that gave rise to the Urca neighborhood.^[18]

Pena inherited properties from his parents, including a gold mine, which he sold by the end of the 19th century as its gold production declined. He also had a textile factory, which he sold in the 1900s, and several investiments in Brazil and abroad. In order to better manage his investiments, Pena was helped by João Ribeiro de Oliveira Sousa, who became president of Crédito Real, then Minas Gerais' largest bank, on Pena's recommendation.^[17]

Parliamentarian and Minister of State (1874–1889)

Maria Guilhermina and Afonso Pena aged about 35, 1882

Afonso Pena joined the Liberal Party in 1874, beginning his political career that same year after being elected provincial deputy to the 20th legislature in Minas Gerais.^{[11][19][20][lower-alpha 2]} He remained in this office until 1878, after being successively reelected to the 21st (1876–1877) and 22nd (1878–1879) legislatures, when he was elected general deputy, beginning his term in the Chamber of Deputies in the 17th legislature (1878–1880).^[20][21] His political career was initially sponsored by Martinho Campos and Afonso Celso, two prominent politicians who helped him in his rise in the Liberal Party.^[11]

He was successively reelected to the 18th (1881–1883), 19th (1884–1886) and 20th (1887–1889) legislatures in the Chamber of Deputies.^[15][20] During this period, he defended the increase in the number of citizens eligible to vote, based on the reduction of the requirements to do so; even conflicting with his own party.^[11] Thus, he defended the adoption of the direct and district vote.^[15] He also defended the increase of municipal autonomy, progressively aligning himself with political and economic liberalism, for which he also supported the non intervention of the State in the economy.^[11]

In 1882, Pena took a leave of absence from his position as general deputy, beginning his experience in executive positions after being appointed Minister of War in the cabinet of prime minister Martinho Campos at the age of 35; Pena was one of only two civilians to hold the office, the other being Pandiá Calógeras.^[19][20] Despite this, he was well received by the military, as he defended their freedom of speech and military reforms, which included the army's professionalization.^[22]

In the following years, he was Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works in the cabinet of Lafayette Rodrigues (1883 to 1884), and Interior and Justice in the cabinet of José Antônio Saraiva (1885).^[15] As Minister of Justice, Pena entirely reformed the police and improved the prison system; in this office he was also one of signatories of the Sexagenarians Law, which granted freedom to slaves aged 60 and over.^[15][23] However, he reinforced the capture of fugitive slaves and prosecuted the abolitionists who helped them.^[22]

Pena's stance on slavery became ambiguous. He did not own slaves, although this is not certain.^{[6][lower-alpha 3]} However, his political prominence made him abandon his youth abolitionist ideal, as he became increasingly concerned with the economic impacts of abolition and sought to be loyal to his party. Pena accompanied the party in congressional debates regarding slavery; Minas Gerais' congressmen feared abolition could harm the province's economy, which largely relied on coffee.^[24] In any case, he later voted in favor of the Golden Law, which finally abolished slavery in Brazil in 1888, but expressed his concerns regarding the effects the law would have.^[25]

In 1888, due to his proximity to Afonso Celso, he was appointed a member of the Council of State by emperor Pedro II.^[15][20] Despite criticizing nominations based on political affinity, even committing himself to fighting them, Pena could not detach himself from it, as not to harm his political career.^[11] That same year, as state councilor, Pena became member of the commission tasked with drafting Brazil's first Civil Code, as the country lacked one.^[26] Pena wrote the chapter pertaining to inheritance.^[20] However, the works were interrupted with the coup d'état that abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the republic in Brazil on 15 November 1889.^[15]

After the republic was proclaimed, Pena returned to Barbacena and withdrew from public life, saddened by the banishment of emperor Pedro II.^[20][27] He thought about abandoning politics to resume his law career.^[26] Like many other monarchist politicians of his time, he ended up adopting a "resigned acceptance" to the new regime, as he feared any reaction could lead the country to a civil war.^[25] Afonso Pena remained a convinced monarchist and continued to defend the figure of emperor Pedro II, whom he considered to be a man of "great knowledge and deeds".^[26]

State Senator (1891)

The new republican government, headed by Deodoro da Fonseca, appointed Cesário Alvim as president of Minas Gerais; Alvim did not join the republican movement until late, which caused dissatisfaction on Minas Gerais' so-called "historical republicans", who felt betrayed.^{[25][lower-alpha 4]} Pena's retirement from politics, however, did not last long: as he was famous for being a conciliatory politician, he was invited by the newly founded Minas Gerais Republican Party to be a candidate for the State's Senate and help the Minas Gerais' Constituent Assembly in 1891.^[25]

Pena was then elected for the 1st legislature in the state's Senate (1891–1895), helping in Minas Gerais' transition from province to state by pacifying its political conflicts and presiding over the commission that was tasked with drafting the state's constitution.^[28][29] As president of the commission, Pena opposed an initial constitutional draft sent to the assembly by the state government, as he deemed it a centralizing one; he argued that the draft should be rejected as it was "inspired by a unitary political model, like the monarchichal regime that had just failed". The constitutional draft provided for the election of the governor by the state congress and the election to the Senate by a "special electorate", which Pena opposed.^[30] The very existence of the Minas Gerais senate, thus forming a bicameral legislature, was disputed, with David Campista being its biggest opponent. Campista accused the senate of "disguising aristocratic tendencies". In response, Afonso Pena argued that the senate was a moderating power and perfected the legislative process, without which the lower house would "reach omnipotence".^[31]

The final constitutional draft, promulgated on 15 June 1891 with several amendments proposed by Pena, granted more autonomy for the municipalities, as he had envisioned years before, and established a bicameral system, with the senators being elected by direct vote; it also provided for the creation of a new state capital to replace Ouro Preto and a bicameral legislature.^[30][32][33] The change of the capital from Ouro Preto was the most controversial point; Pena then proposed to postpone the decision until a commission of specialists presented the new possible locations, which was agreed.^[32]

As state senator Pena also clashed with the Leopoldina Railway Company, which was the largest railway in Minas Gerais, approving a measure that forced the company to abide by its contract duties or else lose its concession to operate.^[32] He also proposed that members of the judiciary be appointed through public competition, instead of personalistic criteria, as had been the case until then; this stance was in line with his preference for personal ability instead of political nominations, although it is not possible to say he did not made nominations based on political criteria rather than individual merit during his political career.^[32] This preference would be reflected in his cabinet when president years later.^[32]

Pena defended the expansion of railways in Minas Gerais and the organization of public education. He was against what he called "empregomania", that is, the students' excessive preference, at the time, for public jobs, which consumed public finances. This was also the opinion of other politicians at the time. For this reason, he defended technical education. In his own words:^[28]

Empregomania is an endemic disease in our country. What orientation do parents give their children? They send them to the faculties of law, engineering and medicine, and many only wait to be placed in jobs in public administration, thus sterilizing many activities. I think that, once technical education is established, parents' attention will be asked to direct their children's career towards attending technical institutes. This would give the following result: after the young men have acquired the knowledge of the subjects taught in these institutes, instead of directing their activities towards public jobs, they will employ them in the most important industries of the State, such as agriculture, extraction and manufacture.

President of Minas Gerais (1892–1894)

The first years of the republic in Brazil were plagued by disputes and political instability.^[34] Deodoro da Fonseca closed Congress on 3 November 1891 and Pena resigned his position in the constituent assembly in protest, arguing that "the coexistence of constitutional powers with the state of dictatorship proclaimed by president Deodoro da Fonseca was incompatible".^{[30][35][lower-alpha 5]} This act distanced him from Alvim and gave him the support of most of Minas Gerais' elite.^[34] Tensions were high in the federal government and Deodoro ended up resigning on 23 November 1891, being succeeded by Floriano Peixoto.^[34][35]

Upon assuming government, Peixoto reopened Congress and began a process of deposing the state governors who had supported Deodoro da Fonseca. Such a process could take place through a federal military intervention with the justification of guaranteeing law and order. In Minas Gerais, Alvim's position, who had supported Deodoro, became untenable. In protest, the city of Campanha, in the south of the state, assumed a separatist attitude and proclaimed itself the capital of a new state, Minas do Sul. Knowing that a federal intervention would be inevitable, Alvim stepped forward and resigned in February 1892.^[28][34][36] Pena was then chosen by consensus of the different political currents in the state to succeed him,^[28][34] running for president of Minas Gerais, on a single ticket, and becoming the first democratically elected president (governor) of the state by direct vote on 30 June 1892 with a total of 48 thousand votes and taking office on 14 July.^[26][37]

A Brazilian Army battery in Morro do Castelo, Rio de Janeiro, during the Navy Revolt, 1893

As president of Minas Gerais, Pena opposed the authoritarian government of president Floriano Peixoto and housed his opponents in the state, notably Olavo Bilac and Carlos de Laet.^[26] With the outbreak of the Naval Revolt in 1893, admiral Saldanha da Gama, the leader of the revolt, consulted the citizens whether they wanted the return of the monarchy or the maintenance of the republic;^[38] in response, Afonso Pena published his Manifesto dos Mineiros in the journal O Paiz on 11 December, in which he declared:^[39][40][41]

Everyone knows that I did not applaud, and rather regretted, the revolution of 1889, which destroyed the Monarchy. I understood, however, from the outset, that the Monarchy could no longer be restored in conditions to give us: peace, order and guide the country towards its aggrandizement. Patience is the essential virtue of democracies, and their beauty lies in the fact that nobody can do anything, nor can one always do things. I ask God to enlighten the spirit of those who fight, making them see that the blood of children, women, the elderly and our brothers does not fertilize – on the contrary, it sterilizes the soil of the homeland.

Thus, despite housing several opponents of the federal government in his state, including monarchists and rebels, who fled persecution by the central government, and disapproving of Floriano Peixoto's actions, Pena urged the people not to join the rebellion,^[42][43] siding with the president against the rebellion, as he deemed it necessary to maintain the country's unity.^[44] He went as far as to offer the federal government the help of the Public Force of Minas Gerais, if necessary; this did not mean he supported Floriano Peixoto's stay in power, as he wanted the country's return to civilian rule; in this sense he supported Prudente de Morais' run for the presidency; Morais' became the first civilian president of Brazil.^[45] As a reward for his loyalty, Pena was given the rank of brigadier general.^[41] His actions also dissipated the threat of a federal intervention in Minas Gerais.^[40]

During his tenure as state president, Pena strengthened and reformed public education, creating several schools in the state's interior, built railways, modernized the tax system and promoted public debt amortization.^[34][46] He was also the founder of the Free Faculty of Law of Minas Gerais, in Ouro Preto, on 13 November 1892, being elected the Faculty's first director,^{[lower-alpha 6]} and was also a teacher at the institution, lecturing Finance Sciences and Public Accounting.^[47] The institution formally began to function on 2 January 1893; a federal decree of 21 February 1893 granted it the status of "free faculty", equating it to official federal institutions.^[48] Three students completed the course as early as 1893: Antônio Gomes de Lima, Augusto Cesar Pedreira and Rodolfo Jacob.^[49]

On 13 December 1893, the state's legislature met in Barbacena and approved the law that created the city of Belo Horizonte in what was then the old colonial village of Curral d'el Rey, replacing Ouro Preto as the state's capital; the law had been proposed by Afonso Pena.^[26] Ouro Preto's geographic features were considered an obstacle to the development of Minas Gerais.^[44]

Afonso Pena also sought to improve the state's economy by solving some of its most immediate issues; these included the loss of income in coffee exports due to the fact that, by being a landlocked state, Minas Gerais' production had to be exported by the port of Rio de Janeiro, which kept the tax revenues. To tackle this issue, Pena created a dry port in the municipality of Juiz de Fora, where most of the state's coffee production was located, and made an agreement with president Floriano Peixoto in which each coffee producing state would keep its production's revenue, thus greatly reducing Minas Gerais' dependency on Rio de Janeiro.^[34]

At that time, Pena also defended the taxation of imported goods as a way to promote local production.^[50] Ever since his tenure at executive positions in the 1880s, he began to deviate towards a more protectionist stance, in contrast to his early liberal and laissez-faire ideas; in his own words, his position became a "moderate protectionism".^[51] He also began to envision the state as a modernizing actor, with the role of promoting economic growth.^[40] He later declared that:^[52]

In modern times, the issue par excellence that preoccupies the attention of governments, statesmen, assemblies, and the press is economics. The theory of the gendarme State, simple maintainer of order and dispenser of justice, has had its time, today finding few publicists who support it in its purity, and is positively contradicted by the politics of civilized peoples, without exception in England. Another is the dominant concept: the high mission of the State also encompasses caring for the people, exercising its beneficial action in areas of social activity, provided that individual initiative, in its various forms, proves to be impotent or insufficient.

Pena also adopted a more proactive state action by promoting immigration to Minas Gerais, in particular German immigration, whose immigrants were perceived as skilled labors, necessary for the development of the state; this was in line with the ideas, common at the time, of social darwinisn and racial determinism.^[40][50] The government actions aimed at bringing entire families in order to make their establishment permanent.^[40] During the imperial era, Pena had argued against the proposed Chinese immigration, as he deemed it "the introduction of another deleterious element to the many that are in our country" and that it would contribute to the "decay of the race".^[40][50] Despite his efforts, the number of people that immigrated to Minas Gerais was smaller than other Brazilian states, as they offered better payment and working conditions; the system of indentured servitude, the local climate and cholera epidemics made Minas Gerais less attractive for immigrants.^[40]

President of the Bank of the Republic (1895–1898)

The founding of Belo Horizonte in 1897

Pena left the government of Minas Gerais on 7 September 1894, being succeeded by Bias Fortes.^[30][34] Upon leaving office, he was invited by president Prudente de Morais to occupy a position in the Supreme Federal Court and become Brazil's plenipotentiary minister in Uruguay, but refused, arguing that he did not want to leave Minas Gerais.^[41] Pena only accepted the position of president of the Bank of the Republic, the current Bank of Brazil, which he held from 1895 to 1898; it was the main Brazilian banking institution at the time.^[53]

His appointment was due to the fact that Rodrigues Alves, who was the minister of finance at the time, was his colleague from the Faculty of Law; together they worked to solve the economic crisis caused by the Encilhamento through a set of reforms that sought to contain government spending and value the currency's exchange rate.^[53] Pena adopted an even more protectionist stance, suggesting that imported products that had similar ones produced in Brazil be taxed, especially textiles and food, which was approved by Congress in 1896.^[53]

Pena returned to Minas Gerais in 1899 and reassumed his position as director and teacher at the Faculty of Law. That same year, he was elected the first president of the Deliberative Council of Belo Horizonte (1899–1904). In 1900, he was elected to the State Senate in order to replace Francisco Sales for the remainder of the 3rd legislature (1899–1902) and then reelected for the 4th legislature (1903–1906), but resigned in 1903, when he was elected vice president of Brazil on 18 February, following the death of Silviano Brandão, taking office on 23 June.^[41][54] Brandão, elected vice president on 1 March 1902, died on 20 September of that year, less than two months before taking office.^[55] At the time, the vice presidents exercised, cumulatively, the position of president of the Senate.^[56]

Presidential election of 1906

The Brazilian presidential election of 1906 was one of the least disputed at the time,^[57] but the issue of president Rodrigues Alves' succession was intensely disputed by the states. On one side, São Paulo elites intended to elect a fourth consecutive president from the state with the nomination of Bernardino de Campos, while the other states saw this as an obstacle to their intentions. Thus, for the first time since the republic was proclaimed in Brazil, some of the large states united against São Paulo, forming the Bloco (Block) coalition. The coalition, formed by the states of Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, nomitated Afonso Pena and Nilo Peçanha for president and vice president respectively.^[58] Pena presented his government program on 12 October 1905 in the Cassino Fluminense.^[41][50] The election was held on 1 March 1906 and Pena was elected with 97.9% of the votes.^[41][58] Before taking office, Pena toured the country, traveling over 21,000 kilometers and visiting eighteen state capitals.^[58] He became the sixth president of Brazil after being inaugurated on 15 November 1906.^[59]

Domestic policy

Despite being elected on the basis of the so-called "coffee with milk politics", Pena carried out an administration that was not entirely tied to regional interests. He greatly encouraged the construction of railroads, especially the construction of the Northwest Brazil Railroad and the connection between the São Paulo and Paraná railroads, allowing, for the first time, the connection of Southeastern Brazil with the South by train. Pena also modernized Brazilian capitals and ports. During his term, the Brazilian National Exposition of 1908 was held in Urca, Rio de Janeiro, featuring pavilions of Brazilian states and Portugal.^[60] Pena's government encouraged immigration. His motto was "to govern is to populate". The first wave of Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in the ship Kasato Maru, disembarking in the Port of Santos in June 1908.^[61] He also supported Cândido Rondon's expedition to the Amazon rainforest, which connected it to Rio de Janeiro by telegraph.^[62]

The Taubaté Agrement

Main article: Taubaté Agreement

"The three Magi", O Malho cover of 5 January 1907 depicting Afonso Pena and the governors of Minas Gerais (João Pinheiro), Rio de Janeiro (Alfredo Backer), and São Paulo (Jorge Tibiriçá), satirizing the Taubaté Agreement

In the second half of 1905, during the government of president Rodrigues Alves, Brazilian coffee producers, a product whose importance in Brazil's economy had grown considerably since the mid-19th century, expected a record harvest of 16 million bags.^[63] Coupled with the global stock of coffee, which numbered about 10 million bags, and production from other countries, the total supply of the product for the period was expected to reach 30 million bags, while global demand did not exceed 16 million. The estimate proved to be much lower than the actual harvest, which totaled 20 million bags in the period of 1906–1907, the largest crop ever harvested in the country at the time. As a result, international coffee prices were expected to fall considerably. The situation was made worse by the fact that the exchange rate of the Brazilian currency was valued.^{[64][lower-alpha 7]}

In this context, producers began to call for urgent government intervention: led by São Paulo, the largest coffee producing state in the country and also the most dependent on coffee revenues, the other coffee producing states, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, were called upon to discuss and sign an agreement in order to protect coffee prices.^[65][66] A coffee valorization proposal had already been made by Alessandro Siciliano, an industrialist and importer from São Paulo, in 1903, but it was refused by president Rodrigues Alves, who remained faithful to his policy of containing public spending, which had begun in 1898 during Joaquim Murtinho's tenure in the Ministry of Finance.^[65][67] On 26 February 1906, the governors of the three coffee producing states met in the city of Taubaté and signed the homonymous agreement, inspired on Siciliano's earlier proposal.^[65][68]

The agreement provided for a series of measures to increase the price of coffee, including the purchase of surplus production by the federal government, which would be done through the taking of a foreign loan of 15 million pounds.^[68][69] This large inflow of capital threatened to increase Brazil's exchange rate and, as a result, diminish profits from the sale of coffee; for this reason, the agreement also provided for the creation of the Caixa de Conversão  (Conversion Bank) in order to keep the exchange rate stable.^[68][69][70] Furthermore, for the loan to be viable, the federal government would need to act as a guarantor, as the guarantees required by international lenders went beyond the states' budgetary conditions.^[71]

The agreement was met with opposition from several sectors, including president Rodrigues Alves, who was against state intervention in the exchange rate with the creation of the Caixa de Conversão.^{[lower-alpha 8]} In order to be put into practice, it had to be voted and approved in Congress.^[68][70][72] Fearing that the president would veto the agreement, the signatory states made changes to the text and sent the proposal to create the Caixa de Conversão to be voted on separately.^[70]

A 500 thousand réis bill issued by the Caixa de Conversão with Pena's effigy

Discussions in Congress began on 19 July 1906 and the agreement was approved with a large majority on 6 August 1906, becoming Decree No. 1,489.^[73][74] Contrary to his predecessor, Afonso Pena – then president-elect – was in favor of the Caixa de Conversão, as he deemed it "essential to the balance of public finances".^[75] The bill for its creation was then approved in Congress on 6 December 1906 and signed by Pena, already sworn in office.^[76][77] The Caixa de Conversão would receive deposits of legal tender gold coins and in return issue bills of equal value to the depositors; the exchange rate would also be fixed at 15 pence to 1 thousand réis. Thus, Brazil effectively adopted the gold standard.^[77][78]

Pena made the first state purchase of coffee stocks in the Old Republic, thus transferring the burden of coffee value appreciation to the federal government, which was previously only practiced regionally by São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, which had signed the Taubaté Agreement. These measures would later result in a period of great prosperity and inflationary control, interrupted with the advent of the First World War. The great influx of foreign capital to Brazil, obtained with the exportation of coffee, and the measures aimed at restricting the expansion of coffee crops adopted in the Taubaté Agreement made it possible to expand the industrial sector during the period.^[74] In an industrial census held in 1907, 3,258 companies were counted, which together employed 150,841 factory workers. This census included manufacturing and large industries. However, out of the large factories, 85% were concentrated in São Paulo.^[59]

The "kindergarten"

Satire by the magazine O Malho, criticizing Pena for his young cabinet ministers. The sign reads: "Jardim da Infância", the kindergarten

The ministries during Pena's presidency were held by young politicians, as the president wanted to diminish Congress influence in his government and stabilize the country's currency, one of his main goals. These nominations displeased state leaderships, as they expected them to based on hierarchy and prestige. Pena's intention of diminishing Congress influence led to an initial troubled period between the government and Congress. The president supported Carlos Peixoto Filho, who was then less than 40 years old, as the government's leader in the Chamber of Deputies. The government's leadership in Congress also included other young politicians such as João Luís Alves and James Darci. Together they were pejoratively nicknamed "the kindergarten".^[79]

Pena even declared, in a letter to Ruy Barbosa, that the function of the ministers was to carry out his thinking: "In the distribution of ministries, I did not worry about politics, because that direction falls to me, according to the good rules of the regime. The ministers will carry out my thought. I make the policy".

Army and navy reforms

See also: Brazilian Army in the First Republic and Reorganization of the Brazilian Army in the Old Republic

Pena (in the center with a topper) watching military maneuvers

Afonso Pena appointed Hermes da Fonseca as minister of war; upon taking office, Fonseca warned the president that conditions in the Brazilian Army were "woeful". A congressman stated that the country's Armed Forces were "sadly unequipped to defend the nation against any enemy, even a 3rd or 4th class power". Brazil's minister of foreign affairs stated that conditions in the Armed Forces were "the most regrettable possible".^[80]

In order to tackle this issue, the government reorganized the army and the National Guard, and instituted compulsory military service through draft lottery with the introduction of the Sortition Law (Law No. 1,860 of 4 November 1908).^[81][82] The previous law on the matter had kept forced recruitment, and proved to be insufficient. The new one, inspired on what was already practiced in the "most civilized countries", created a military reserve in order to comply with the Brazilian Constitution of 1891, which stated that all men were obliged to military service. Other countries in South America had already adopted the lottery.^[83] Sectors in society worried that the country would be militarizad and there would be a lack of manpower to work in agriculture and industry. Commenting on the matter, Pena declared:^[84]

The small number [of soldiers] established in the law of forces, the same for many years, clearly shows that we do not have the desire to constitute ourselves into a military power, and that we are only fulfilling the elementary duty of prudence, providing the security and defense of the nation against possible threats.

Foreign policy

Pena (fourth from left, front row) with former Argentine president Julio Argentino Roca (second from right, front row) and other dignitaries at the Catete Palace, 12 March 1907. Mrs. Pena can be seen at her husband's right shoulder

Possible war with Argentina

See also: South American dreadnought race and Brazilian Army in the First Republic § Possible war with Argentina

War fears between Brazil and Argentina increased during the period, encouraging militarization in both countries and reaching a peak in 1908, when the two nations hovered on the brink of war.^[91][92][93] At the time, the "armed peace" doctrine was common on the international scene and was also applied in Argentine–Brazilian relations.^[92][94] In 1902, when Rio Branco assumed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil's external policy shifted to a hegemony goal in the Southern Cone.^{[91][lower-alpha 9]} Tensions between both countries began in 1904, when the Brazilian Congress approved a naval rearmament program,^{[lower-alpha 10]} which threatened Argentine naval dominance in the South Atlantic Ocean and caused distrust regarding Brazil's perceived imperialist intentions. The situation worsened when Figueroa Alcorta became president of Argentina in 1906. Alcorta appointed Estanislao Zeballos, a long time rival of Rio Branco, as minister of foreign affairs.^{[92][lower-alpha 11]} Convinced of Brazil's "political and military resurgence", Zeballos sought to diplomatically isolate it, prevent its naval build up and improve relations with Uruguay and Paraguay.^[95]

Argentine newspapers such as La Prensa attacked Brazil and defended arms acquisitions for Argentina, whose navy, once the strongest in South America, had fallen behind the Brazilian one.^{[96][lower-alpha 12]} Zeballos accused Brazil of breaking the naval balance of forces between both countries and considered Brazil was "excessively arming its navy".^[97] The Argentine minister led an extensive anti-Brazilian and arms campaign in the press, which prompted some sectors in Argentina to plan his removal from office.^[92][98][99] In 1908 Ruy Barbosa warned president Afonso Pena that the Argentines could attack by surprise and, in Stanley E. Hilton words, "Brazilian strategists became convinced that the country could suddenly find itself at war".^[93]

"The war... by telegrams!", O Malho cover, 12 September 1908

That year, Zeballos sent a secret letter to Roque Sáenz Peña, the Argentine plenipotentiary minister in Spain, in which he stated that he had written evidence signed by Rio Branco that Brazil was preparing to attack Argentina. Zeballos then detailed his plan: Argentina would demand that Brazil give it one of its dreadnoughts that were under construction. If Brazil refused, an ultimatum would be sent, giving the country eight days to settle the issue, after which the Argentine Navy would attack Rio de Janeiro, which the Argentine ministers claimed was a "studied and easy point, due to the defenseless situation of Brazil". The secret plan was discussed with president Alcorta and his cabinet on 10 June and two days later Zeballos would present it to Congress with the "secret documents" signed by Rio Branco in order to request funds to mobilize the military. However, the plan was leaked in the Argentine press on 11 June, which alarmed public opinion and harmed Zeballos' image, being aborted. Under pressure, Alcorta then asked Zeballos to resign his position as foreign minister and assume the Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction. Zeballos refused the proposal and presented his resignation on 16 June 1908.^[100][101]

Despite resigning, Zeballos continued to claim he had documents signed by Rio Branco in which Brazil's aggressive intentions were evident.^[102] One of these documents was an encrypted telegram, known as Telegram No. 9, sent by Rio Branco to Domício da Gama, the Brazilian minister in Santiago, Chile. The telegram, dated 17 June 1908, was intercepted, decrypted, and its contents were distorted and published in the press by Zeballos. In the falsified version, Rio Branco instructed Domício da Gama to spread "the 'imperialist' pretensions of the Argentine Republic, letting it be known in the high political circles that in its vanity it dreams of the domination of Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and also our Rio Grande". The false document was read by the new Argentine foreign minister, Victorino de la Plaza, in the Senate, which pushed Congress to approve the arms build up and shifted public opinion against Brazil. Rio Branco promptly denied the allegations, stating that the document was "absolutely false" and the accusations could only be the product of "some man of the most exquisite bad faith".^{[97][103][104]}

Zeballos then claimed, through La Prensa, that he had photographs of the documents and challenged Rio Branco "to review his secret Pacific archive and read the original document that exists in it, with the following addresses: 17 June 1908, at 06:57, number 9".^[105] La Prensa wrote that Rio Branco would need "to prove that he had not promoted anything hostile to the Argentine Republic, in the spirit of any American chancellery".^[106] In an unexpected move, Rio Branco then published the Brazilian cipher and the original text in order to prove that the Argentine version was false and that there were no aggressive Brazilian plans against Argentina.^[107][108] The situation caused enormous embarrassment in Argentine political circles.^[108] Demoralized, Zeballos was removed from the chancellery.^[103]

With Zeballos' fall, relations between Argentina and Brazil gradually improved and the ABC Pact, based on Rio Branco's "cordial political intelligence", was negotiated.^{[103][108][109]} Rio Branco later stated: "[m]ore than ever, we need to put ourselves in a state of defense against this neighbor, since crazy people like Zeballos can stir up opinion there".^[108]

Succession crisis

Due to his departure from the traditional interests of the oligarchies, in the so-called oligarchic Old Republic, Pena faced a crisis at the time of his succession. David Morethson Campista, nominated by Pena to succeed him in the presidency, was rejected by groups supporting Hermes da Fonseca (mainly by Pinheiro Machado, the most influential congressman at the time). Pena tried to nominate Campos Sales and Rodrigues Alves, without success. In the midst of all this, the Civilist Campaign also began, launched by Ruy Barbosa.

Back to his origins

On 13 February 2009, the mausoleum and remains of former president Afonso Pena arrived in the historic city of Santa Bárbara. The transfer departed from the São João Batista Cemetery, in Rio de Janeiro, to the old house where he was born.

The monument where Pena's remains were, in Rio de Janeiro, was inaugurated in 1912. It was probably carved in Italy, being built in Carrara marble by Rodolfo Bernardelli, a Mexican-born Brazilian artist at the end of the 19th century. The figure, a woman crying over the three-ton headstone, represents Brazil. The mausoleum's style is eclectic, mixing the neoclassical and art-nouveau styles.

Ministers

Presidency organs

Citations

Bibliography

Books

Articles and academic works

Websites

• Pessoa, Gláucia Tomaz de Aquino (2019). "Caixa de Conversão". Mapa: Memória da Administração Pública Brasileira (in Portuguese). Retrieved 19 December 2023.
• Presidência da República (2006). "Ministros de Estado" [Ministers of State]. Presidência da República. Archived from the original on 15 November 2006. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
• Presidência da República (2007). "Affonso Augusto Moreira Penna". Presidência da República. Archived from the original on 22 April 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2022.