Bahia: Difference between revisions

In 1922, Europe was hit by a heavy economic crisis. Britain and Portugal, Bahia's biggest economic partners, faced major economic decline, heavily affecting Bahia as well. Sugar and cotton plantation products were devalued. Imports were drastically reduced. To control the prices, many plantation owners ordered the burning kilograms upon kilograms of sugar and cotton. Unemployment skyrocketed, and the few working class industrial workers were subjected to slave-likedire conditions due to the absence of employment and worker rights laws.

In November 1924, Bahia held the presidential and state governor elections. The presidency was won by the general Emílio Castelo, who started his second term. In the dispute for the southern state of Porto Seguro, the candidate João Augusto Albuquerque, an important figure in the Bahian Democratic Party (''Partido Democrático Baiano''), which sold itself as a less radical solution, was the most popular. Due to his eloquent speeches, he easily gained support from the people.

In February, BrazilBrasil started to directly support the southern government. BrazilBrasil also prioritized imports from the south rather than from the north. To choke the northern economy, Albuquerque sent various messages to other south american countries, as well European and north american countries, asking for support by cutting economic ties with the military rule in the north. In exchange, southern production would be exported with the lowest reasonable taxation during the conflict. By 1925, several American nations declared support for the Second Bahian Republic by ending economic ties with the north.