São Paulo Revolt in Brazil 1932

After the revolution of 1930, Getúlio Dorneles Vargas set out to dismantle the old political system. He replaced entrenched state administrations with interventors, most of them tenente (junior army officers, literally lieutenants) military officers from the victorious Liberation Alliance (Aliança Libertadora). The idea was to bring in administrators loyal to his policies. The province of São Paulo, however, bristled under the interventorship of João Alberto Lins de Barros, a dour and tactless officer who refused to cater to the sensitivities of the defeated paulista (native of São Paulo) incumbency. When João Alberto established the Revolutionary Legion in São Paulo, the Democratic Party broke with the government. Vargas sought to stave off the coming revolt by announcing elections for a constituent assembly to be held in May 1933. Nonetheless, by May 1932, Brazil found itself on the brink of civil war. The roots of the conflict were economic as well as political. São Paulo had dominated the Old Republic because of its massive coffee exports and growing industrial and commercial base.

By July 1932, chafing under what many considered a military occupation, the province of São Paulo revolted, demanding a return to constitutional rule and the ouster of Vargas. Only the reluctance of other provinces to join the revolt prevented a nationwide civil war for the first time in Brazilian history. Flôres da Cunha in Rio Grande do Sul remained loyal to Vargas and thus doomed the revolt. Minas Gerais sent local militia against São Paulo, and there was no military uprising in Rio de Janeiro -- from where instead waves of reinforcements left for the front, bolstered by troops sent by the tenente interventors in the north and northeast.

The São Paulo revolt was led by a coalition of conservative landowners and industrialists; many military officers who had lost out in 1930, or were otherwise disgruntled, joined the rebellion. Nearly the entire paulista population supported and joined the struggle. Young men from all classes flocked to enlist as volunteer soldiers, and women mobilized themselves to raise money, serve as nurses, and safeguard the home front. A campaign to collect gold and jewelry to pay for armaments obtained by September 87,120 wedding rings and other articles valued in the millions of dollars.

Although São Paulo put nearly 40,000 armed men into the field, well over half were poorly trained civilian volunteers. By contrast, government forces eventually totaled at least 75,000 on the three main fronts. The armed conflict lasted continued through September 1932. On October 2 the São Paulo government resigned, ending a valiant struggle against overwhelming odds. Vargas wisely pardoned the leaders of the revolt and took over the state's war debt. Within a year he decreed that a constituent assembly would be called (as he had announced earlier), on paper a fulfillment of the primary goal of the paulistas. Even so, the São Paulo uprising spurred the breakup of the Liberation Alliance (Aliança Libertadora).

References

History of Brazil, 101-2; Brazil: Culture and Politics, 60-1; Military History, 1149; Brazil - A Country Study.

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