Peixoto, Floriano Vieira (1839–1895)

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Peixoto, Floriano Vieira (1839–1895)

Floriano Vieira Peixoto (b. 30 April 1839; d. 29 June 1895), Brazil's "Iron Marshal" and second head of the Brazilian republic (1891–1894). Born in Alagoas, in Brazil's poor Northeast, Peixoto achieved a distinguished army career, serving in the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870), and rising to the rank of brigadier general in 1883.

Peixoto's role in the crucial days prior to the military overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the republic on 15 November 1889 has long been a subject of debate. Both sides in the impending clash, republicans and monarchists alike, felt that they could trust this popular army officer who occupied the key post of adjutant general. But the monarchists had misjudged Peixoto. On 15 November he refused to obey repeated orders to fire on the advancing rebels, thus sealing the fate of the monarchy. He then began to serve as a member of the military-dominated provisional republican government established on that same day. In February 1891 the Constituent Congress elected Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, the so-called Proclaimer of the Republic, president, and Peixoto vice president.

Peixoto, noted for his personal honesty, unpretentiousness, and astuteness, kept out of the squabbles and struggles between President Fonseca and a basically civilian and hostile congress that often protested what it regarded as Fonseca's infringements on civil liberties. But Peixoto played a crucial role in the military movement that overthrew Fonseca following his unconstitutional dissolution of Congress in November 1891, and thereby ensured his own succession to the presidency.

More than any other chief executive of the Old Republic (1889–1930), Peixoto has been held up as a friend of the "people." But his major supporters, middle-class nationalists and army officers, derived far greater benefits from his regime than did the lower classes. His government did much more to aid industry than did his immediate successors. Regarded as a forceful, capable leader by his admirers, he was denounced as a dictator by his opponents. Cleverly using rising anti-Portuguese sentiments to strengthen his own position, Peixoto succeeded in maintaining himself in office despite very difficult times for the infant republic. Not only was a civil war, the Federalist Revolt, raging in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, but a naval revolt under the leadership of Admiral Custódio de Melo against Peixoto's army-dominated government broke out in Rio de Janeiro's harbor late in 1893, and took six months to quell. Peixoto's success in restoring order earned him the title "Consolidator of the Republic." Less than a year after he completed his term of office and turned over the presidential palace to his elected civilian successor, Prudente de Morais of São Paulo, Peixoto died, and his funeral drew large crowds.

See alsoBrazil: Since 1889 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

June E. Hahner, Civilian-Military Relations in Brazil, 1889–1898 (1969); and "Floriano Peixoto, Brazil's 'Iron Marshall': A Re-Evaluation," in The Americas 21, no. 3 (1975): 252-271.