The history of Brazil has been traditionally divided into four large phases: pre-chabral period, which runs until 1500; Colony, also called the colonial period, which extends from 1500 to 1822, with independence from Portugal; Empire, from 1822 to 1889, year of; And finally, republic, from 1889 to this day.
This is a division subject to questions, but, as historian Pietro Sant’Anna states, one of the authors of, “a data is unquestionable: it is still followed by almost all the country’s history and textbook courses.”
There are also experts who consider five the great periods. In this case, the second phase of the previous model is divided into two parts. They are as follows: Pre-Cabraline, up to 1500; Pre-colony or pre-colonial period, from 1500 to 1530, when colonizing expeditions begin; Colony or colonial period, from 1530 to 1822; Empire, from 1822 to 1889; and Republic, from 1889 to the present.
This last period, the Republic, is divided into five phases. With them, it is natural to resurface interest in the parts that make up these last 136 years of our history. Learn more about these five phases.
1) First Republic – 1889 to 1930
Also known as the Old Republic, this initial phase ranges from the year of the proclamation of the Republic to the arrival of Getúlio Vargas’s power through the 1930 Revolution. This period had as its first president as the last.
There are four decades in which the country was under the domain of regional oligarchies, which conducted a basically agrarian economy.
“During this period prevailed liberal federalism, with little or no state intervention in the economy and social issues, which resulted in a legion of helplessness in the post -abolition period of slavery,” says historian Claudia Viscardi, professor at UFJF (Federal University of Juiz de Fora) and author of the book “Theater of oligarchies – a review of the Coffee with Milk Policy”, 2011, 2011 340 pages).
She also emphasizes the citizenship struggles of this period, from general strikes and riots in cities, such as rural social movements, such as the wars of and.
Another relevant point, according to Viscardi, was the recurring use of the state of siege both nationally and in the states. Elections took place throughout the First Republic, but they were, which prevents, among other reasons, that this period is seen as fully democratic.
According to, a professor of history at UnB (University of Brasilia), the first republic is divided into two very different moments. They are “the republic of the sword (1889-1894), dominated by the military, and the oligarchic republic (1894-1930), which began when the agrarian elite effectively controls power, with the São Paulo elected president.”
2) Era Vargas – 1930 to 1945
There are three phases that make up the Vargas era. The gaucho leader arrived at federal power through, when he assumed the leadership of the provisional government. Four years later, when endorsed by the Constituent Assembly, he became President of the Republic-this interval from 1934 to 1937 can be considered the most democratic of the period.
In 1937, he fought a blow and exercised authority as he was in, dissolving the National Congress and the parties. The president gave way to the dictator in the period that became known as and extended until 1945, when he resigned.
As, a retired professor of history of Brazil at UFF (Fluminense Federal University), told the report in 2022, “the presidents of the First Republic [1889-1930] they circulated through the elite groups and understood themselves with them. They only spoke to a wider audience at the elections. Getúlio not, he had been the first president the population recognized as such. And, of course, that was also because there was a whole pro-Vargas propaganda. “
Those are years of strong state intervention in the economy, one of the main differences of the Vargas era from the First Republic.
3) Democratic Period – 1945 to 1964
Of the five phases of the Republic, this is probably the least studied. It was already called the Populist Republic and the New Republic, denominations that fell into disuse. In addition to a democratic period, it is called by some experts of democratic experience.
“For the first time in history, Brazil had mass democracy, with political parties working and disputing free elections,” says historian Pietro Sant’Anna. The first president of this period was and the last,
In the political field, according to him, “this is our first real polarization experience, that is, not (only) between elite factions, but between installments of the electorate. On the one hand, the labor left, which attracted the growing urban workers. On the other, a conservative udenism, closed by sectors of the middle class and business, contaminated by paranoid anti -communism and increasingly seduced by coup.”
For Sant’Anna, “this is one of the ghosts we could not extir: our first democratic experiment was marked by several coup attempts. They advanced in 1954 against Vargas, who committed suicide; they tried to prevent the inauguration of in 1955; they emptied the presidential powers of João Goulart via parliamentarism in the early 1960s.”
The period ends with the 1964 coup, “in a way, a reaction to what portions of the economic and military elites considered a ‘excessive’ deepening of the young Brazilian democracy.”
4) Military Dictatorship – 1964 to 1985
As had happened during the Estado Novo, under Getúlio, the country returned to live an authoritarian regime. The 1964 coup led to power. It was, however, the second of the five military presidents of this phase, who decreed the, starting the most repressive phase of the 21 years of military dictatorship.
Only in the first two days of the measure, political prisoners processed in the Military Justice audits denounced more than 2,200 cases of torture.
As the journalist, author of the collection “The Dictatorship”, composed of five volumes that offer a detailed view of the Brazilian military regime, “even today, the widows of the dictatorship pretend that the ruins have not happened to this day are, and their opponents are reluctant to admit that some things worked.”
For Gaspari, columnist for Sheetthe government of, the last president of the military regime, “was ruined, but, except for his bad personal habits, it was not the one who caused the misfortunes. The ruins were from the regime.”
The dictatorship “gradually ended and the bumps. Brazil owed Tancredo Neves the sewing of the final acts of this process. He helped build something that still today many people think it did not happen: a conciliation coming from the opposition,” he wrote.
5) New Republic – 1985 today
After 21 years of military dictatorship, Tancredo Neves (PMDB) won in the dispute for the Presidency of the Republic in a vote at the Electoral College. The historic victory of the Minas Gerais politician on January 15, 1985 was considered the starting point of the so -called New Republic, which now completes four decades.
There was no shortage of obstacles in this transition from dictatorship to democracy, starting with Tancredo’s death on April 21 of that year. The following decades either were quiet for the country’s democratic system, which faced at least three major tests of fire: the processes of, and, and attacks on the three powers on January 8, 2023.
Second, a researcher at CEBRAP (Brazilian Center for Political Analysis), despite the mishaps, there is reason to celebrate these last 40 years, the longest period in which the country has lived under a democracy.
“We have to recognize advances since Tancredo’s election and celebrate because a democracy will never be perfect,” the political scientist told Sheet in January this year.
