Brazil today and tomorrow

by L. E. Elliott Joyce

The royal party arrived first at Bahia, where the town turned out in enthusiastic welcome and invited Dom João to make this city his seat of government; but his destination was Rio, and he sailed on, first giving out a proclamation which ensured him a good reception in the Capital—the Abertura dos Portos, or opening of the ports of Brazil freely to the ships of all the world “friendly to Portugal.” Public printing presses were now permitted, a newspaper was started, chiefly engaged in training the minds of the nascidos no Brasil (Brazilian born) to appreciation of the monarchical presence, but still the commencement of Brazilian journalism; foreign capital began to come, and active Europeans, attracted by the advertisement that the transference of the monarchy gave Brazil, entered and established businesses; the Banco do Brasil was inaugurated; fine buildings were erected in Rio; the Regent’s collection of pictures and books, brought with him, formed the nucleus of the excellent museum and library of modern Rio; the harbour was improved, a School of Art and Naval College founded. By the time that Portugal was free from the Napoleonic shadow, and, in 1821, called Dom João home again, he left behind a Brazil to which a tremendous impetus had been given, and which had been raised to the dignity of a kingdom equal in importance with Portugal and Algarves six years earlier. North and south of Brazil the newly freed Spanish American countries were deep in troubles born of a sudden injection into independence of unaccustomed populations. Brazil herself could scarcely have avoided being drawn into the vortex had her citizens still to complain of the narrow policies and repressive measures of the colonial system; they had become too proud and too strong for development to be longer retarded, and the European turn of fortune came in the nick of time. It was lucky that Dom João was a man of shrewd good sense. Dom Pedro, son of Dom João, remained in Brazil as Regent, and the country was still linked to Portugal; it was soon apparent that this condition could not endure. The jealous legislature in Lisbon wished to reduce Brazil again to the level of a colony under tutelage, despite the efforts of Dom João; the news came to Rio together with a peremptory order for the return of the prince, and he, a good diplomat, elected to throw his lot in with Brazil, and declared the Independence on the historic hillside of Ypiranga, in 1822.[^[4]]

Proclaimed Emperor soon afterwards, Pedro ruled for nine years and then abdicated in favour of his five-year-old child, Dom Pedro segundo. To this rather stormy period of control is due the commencement of deliberate colonization of Europeans into Brazil; it was a policy widely continued later on by Pedro II, and afterwards adopted both by the Federal Government and by separate States of the Union. A regency lasted until Pedro was fourteen years old, the most remarkable hand on the reins of power meanwhile being that of the astute priest, Father Diogo Feijó.

Pedro II endeared himself to Brazil by his kindly and tactful spirit, his genial broadmindedness; he was a scholar by instinct, and did his best to advance Brazil by the encouragement of railroad building, invitation to foreign capital, and the throwing open of wide spaces of southern land to good class immigrants. It was during his reign that the English, who had established themselves firmly during the first monarchical periods, sending ships regularly and opening markets for Brazilian products, were followed by the commercial French and later by the German merchant. The industrial and educational advance of Brazil is largely owing to the personal initiative of Dom Pedro II. His reign was one of the longest in history, from 1831 to 1889, and the development within this period includes inauguration of city tramways as well as railroads; the discovery that coffee would grow in Brazil and its systematic cultivation; discovery of the properties of rubber; the introduction of factories; use of hydraulic power.

Following the world agitation against slavery, Brazil in 1854 forbade the introduction of negroes; there were however still large numbers of these people in bondage as well as a much larger number free.

Public feeling was much excited about the question in the eighties, and at last in 1888, when Dom Pedro during a period of illness had made his daughter, the Princess Isabel, Regent, the powerful influence of many highminded Brazilians was brought to bear, and the decree of abolition was signed.

Slave holders were not so pleased as statesmen, when their farm workers immediately forsook the field and flocked into the cities; agriculture undoubtedly suffered, and to the discontent of the planters is credited the agitation that now gathered head against the continuation of the monarchical system. The truth seems rather to be that the Empire had outlived its usefulness, and surrounded by republics could not survive. There was also a general fear lest Isabel, said to be priest-dominated, should be permanently appointed Regent, and this idea hastened the day that would otherwise have been postponed, in all probability, until the death of the good and highly revered Dom Pedro. A growing band of republicans, some of the foremost men in Brazilian affairs today, found themselves strong enough to proclaim the end of the Empire; Dom Pedro was informed and asked to leave the country within twenty-four hours, and did so; the Republic in Brazil dates from November 15, 1889.

The first years of the new régime were darkened by disorders, the worst being the revolt, long-drawn-out, in Rio Grande do Sul. Two military presidents were succeeded by four civilians, and these in turn by a third militarist, and notably extravagant, presidency from 1910 to 1914. The present President, a lawyer, Dr. Wencesláo Braz Pereira Gomez, is making heroic efforts to redeem the financial condition of the country, and is fortunate in being aided by a group of exceedingly able men. The country became deeply involved during the last twenty-five years; if she were an old land the burden would be severe: her strength lies in her youth, internal vigour, and unsurpassed abundance of untapped resources.

The tremendous money spending of Republican times has been sharply censured since the outbreak of war in Europe suddenly pulled up the country to a realization of her debts; it is probably fortunate that she was just too late to arrange yet another, for which negotiations were opened in 1914. But while it is true that literally tons of money were borrowed and spent after 1889, it is also from that date that the great leap forward of the country is reckoned; her extravagance was a wide advertisement—the attention of the world was called to this spoilt child of the nations as no modest jogging along the beaten track would have done. Bankers, commercial firms, writers, settlers came to Brazil; there was a feverish expansion in railroad building, and from this period dates the inauguration of good modern port works in Rio, Bahia, Pará, Pernambuco, Santos, Victoria, and many other points of call for ocean-going vessels; waterworks and town drainage, the better paving of a score of cities, extinction of yellow fever and other tropical pests, were all accomplished with money borrowed in the hey-day of Brazil.

The check in facile borrowing of very large sums on easy terms has undoubtedly acted as a cold shower upon South America in general, somewhat accustomed to financial sunshine; the result has been salutary in awakening the people all over the continent to the need for unprecedented personal effort. It has, too, brought about a new sense of North American relations, created and needed, with South America. The European War has turned the United States from the position of a debtor to that of a creditor country, and while up to the end of 1922 her loans to the whole of South America have not exceeded two hundred million dollars, chiefly short-time State borrowings, caution is mutually beneficial. There is, however, much work to be done which calls urgently for gold supplies, and it is but logical that the country accumulating money rapidly should be willing to take up a due share of the development work waiting; European interests need not and should not be ousted, but can be readily and happily supplemented.

The United States of Brazil today contain over 24,000,000 people, still largely concentrated upon the sea coast, in a score of thriving cities. She is at peace with her neighbours, with no shadow upon her political horizon; her only great problem is the industrial, financial one, and this, with the concentrated effort of Brazilians and the right kind of external help, can be solved. The entry of Brazil into the War upon the side of the Allies, after the torpedoing of the Brazilian vessels and the declaration of war by the United States against Germany, brought about a new international comradeship, and has awakened the world to a better understanding of the spirit and power of the country.