Bahia

Bahia
Bahia Republic
República da Bahia
Location of Bahia
Capital	Salvador
Population	27 million
Government Type	Federated Republic
Languages	Portuguese (Official)

Bahia, officially the Bahia Republic (Portuguese: República da Bahia) is a country in northeast South America. It is considered the birthplace of Lusophone America, as it was in the Bahian city of Porto Seguro where the first Portuguese voyage to reach the continent arrived. Bahia is bordered to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, the north by Pernambuco, the west by Equador and the south by Brazil. It comprises eight states and the Capital District of Salvador. Bahia is considered one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, it’s culture comprises influences from native Americans, European settlers and enslaved Africans. This junction of cultures can be seen in the country's religions, food and festivities. The country also has a diverse landscape, with lush and flat coastlines, a hot semi-arid interior, where part of the Caatinga(a biome that only exists in Bahia and Pernambuco) can be found. And a subtropical hilly southern region. Economically, Bahia has the largest Luso-American GDP, with its economic sectors including industry, mining, tourism and the export of livestock and agricultural products to all over the world.

History

Early History

Prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, the territory that today comprises the Bahia Republic was inhabited by a variety of native groups, the two most prominent being the Tupi-Guarani and the Jê.

During the colonial period, the region became one of the most important in the former Colony of Brazil. At that time, the Captaincy of Bahia, was responsible for the large-scale production of sugar and cotton. Much of the labor force was enslaved Africans brought to South America by Atlantic Slave Trade. This forced immigration granted to the country the biggest black population outside Africa.

For most of the colonial period, the city of Salvador was the center of the government of the colony. This title was lost after the transfer of the government to Rio de Janeiro in the late XVIII century.

War for Independence

During the 1830s, both Europe and the American continent saw a series of revolutions based on liberalism, republicanism and nationalism, the Spring Of Nations. Of the various colonial revolts in both Spanish and Portuguese possessions, Bahia was one of those that managed to succeed. In the middle of 1835, a rebellion began in Salvador, formed by  freed slaves seeking the abolition of slavery, liberals who could no longer support the centralizing policies of power in the hands of the Portuguese crown and bourgeois, especially merchants, who, although rich, had no political power, and low-ranking Brazilian military personnel who had no possibility of corporate ascension due to Portuguese laws.

The rebellion quickly spread through the city, and soon after through the captaincy. With great success in its beginnings, the Bahia Republic was proclaimed at the end of the year. In 1836, in response to the failure of local forces to control the rebellion, reinforcements were sent directly from Portugal to deal with the situation. The insurgents were not able to resist and as a last resort, they fled to the interior and adopted guerrilla warfare as a way to continue fighting.

With almost no advance from either side, the war became stationary until 1843. In that year, the southernmost captaincy of Brazil also rebelled, forcing imperial forces to focus on a new front, moreover, at that time there was a feeling that victory had already been secured in the north, which made the monarchist forces reduce concern for the region, giving the republicans an advantage. Now with two wars to deal with and the Bahians receiving support from the newly independent Colombia, it became very costly for Portugal, which for many decades was no longer the power it once was, to continue to fight. In 1845 a peace treaty was signed in Salvador recognizing the Bahia Republic.

19th Century in Bahia

Constitution of 1846

In 1846, the first Bahian constitution was granted. Among many articles, the main points of the constitution were: abolishment of slavery( slavery was already out of practice since the beginning of the war, but the ban was never inserted in a official documents), suffrage for every men literate men above 20 years old, secularity of the state and a presidential mandate of five years with the possibility of second term.

Relation with other nations:

Colombia

The first country Bahia established relations with was Colombia. Colombia supported Bahian independence and was one of the first nations to recognize the new luso-american country. In 1846, Colombian figureheads attended to the ratification of the constitution and made economic deals with the Bahian government.

Riograndense Republic

Bahia established friendly relations with the Riograndense Republic. Being for most of the century the two only Lusophone nations in the continent, a partnership soon started. Bahia was the second country to recognize the southern republic (only behind Paraguay), and right after their independence, established economic and mutual defense agreements.

Equador and Pernambuco

In the late 19th century, Bahia supported Pernambucan independence. This act made the relation with the neighboring Equador bitter. Belém government cut relations with Salvador and started to boycott Bahian products in response to its support to Pernambuco.

On the other hand, Pernambuco was recognized as independent by Bahia in 1880, two years prior to the end of its war for independence. The country received Bahian monetary support in the aftermath of the conflict and volunteers to assist in rebuilding the affected regions. Due to the cultural similarities between the two nations, they were known as the “sister republics of South America”.

Other nations:

After independence, Bahia lacked resources and infrastructure. During colonial times, Portugal wasn't interested in developing Brazil, and for more than three hundred years, the colony didn’t have any school or university. The road infrastructure was almost nonexistent. Portuguese law forbade the construction of new roads after 1733 due to the traffic of diamonds and gold. The colony also lacked postal service and juridical organs. It was necessary to make the country capable of having its own public services, but due to the little amount of monetary resources, the only solution was to borrow money from foreign powers.

In 1847, the Bahian government borrowed money from Venetian and Genoese banks. Those loans made the country fall into debt for the entirety of the 19th century and part of the 20th century, and got in the way of the country's development.

Portugal and Britain became the two main economic partners of the Bahia Republic. These two nations alone received almost half of the Bahian exports.

Oligarch Period

The first Bahian president was João Ribeiro da Costa, a sergeant major during colonial times, and general of the Bahian Army during the war. He was elected without popular vote, but was able to keep in power due to his deeds during independence. After the end of his mandate, the first popular election took place. From 1851 to 1884, Bahia passed through a period known as the Oligarch Rule or Rule of the Land. During this time, elections to a variety of public offices were influenced by the large landowners of the country. Those rich farmers used their power to rig the elections to their favor using methods such as: buying votes, manipulating ballots count and threatening communities.

During this period, the Bahian government invested little in other economic sectors, focusing on the sugar and cotton plantations, therefore benefiting the landowners.

1884 Military Coup

Since the 1850s, the Bahian army was already feeling underprivileged by the government. Payments were low and their equipment outdated. In 1877, Bahia started to support the Pernambucan independence, equipment and men to fight in the north. To be capable of doing such a thing was necessary to firm an accord with the military, which was unwilling to participate. The government promised new uniforms, equipment and rise on the payments when the conflict became over.

The war in Pernambuco ended in 1882, but two years later, the promises weren’t kept. Not willing to keep this situation, General Antônio Peçanha da Fonseca, along with a hundred men, stormed  the government palace in Salvador in march the 31th of 1884. Arthur Moreira, president at the time, was exiled to the Riograndense Republic.

The public opinion to the military was favorable due a scheme to promote them as the liberators from the old politics, and that their rule would only be of about a few months and new elections would be held soon.

1885 arrived, but no democratic election as it was promised was held, actually, the total opposite happened. Unwilling to leave power, and fearing Bahia, once again, elect some oligarch for the presidency by a fraudulent election, Fonseca used his influence to be elected indirectly as president. During Fonseca's rule, the Bahian army received new equipment, new uniforms and a raise on their payments, especially to those higher in the hierarchy. This period also marked the first steps on Bahia industrialization, since the former governments were heavily connected with the agrarian elite. A few textile industrial facilities were built around Salvador. Using foreign loans, these actions only made Bahia fall even deeper into debt.

The 1884 coup and the 1885 election marked the beginning of more than 40 years of military men occupying the executive power in the country.

20th Century in Bahia

The troublesome 1920s

Bahian flawed democracy

The Bahian constitution states that every literate men above 20 years old has the right to vote and be elected to public offices. The problem was that the country around the beginning of the 20th century had an literacy rate around only 20% of the whole population, thus, more than half of the country didn’t have the right to vote. This inequality made the country ruled by the wealthy elites, the only ones that could give proper education for their children, since much of the people lived outside urban centers, and education would reach these areas only decades later.

Also, since 1884, the executive power has been controlled by high ranking military personnel. Using a false sensation of democracy, generals were capable of winning every single election since this year. Of course, those victories were achieved by the use of unconstitutional ways.

1922 economic crisis and rise of communard ideals

In 1922, Europe was hit by a heavy economic crisis. At this period, European nations such as Britain and Portugal were the biggest economic partners of Bahia, thus the drop in GDP of these countries strongly affected the South American nation. Plantations of sugar and cotton, the two biggest economic activities, suffered from overproduction and devaluation of the price. Also, many customers of Bahian products either focused on local productions rather than the foreign or reduced the quantity of imports. To control the prices, many plantation owners ordered the burning of tons of sugar and cotton. Others focused on the internal market.

Business closed and thousands lost their jobs. One alternative to keep the employees used by some businessmen was to reduce the wages. Since job laws weren’t a reality yet, thousands of employees were subdue to work in slave-like conditions for pitiful payments.

In late 1922, opposition organizations and unofficial parties, especially communard associations, organized public demonstrations in Salvador. After the revolutions in France in the 1870s, Communardism gained popularity among Bahian academics in the city of Salvador, where the main university of the country could be found. These demonstrations had the goal to gain popular support by blaming the crisis on the flawed and undemocratic government.  They advocate a new constitution that would grant more political rights to the common folk, widespread education and an agrarian reform, to give land for those working under large landowners, what was called as “modern day serfdom’’.

The communards grew strong, and to oppose this rapid growth, the Bahian government started to respond to demonstrations with force and banned any publication that was seen as “rebellion inducing”.