Power centers can shift in a large country with internal migration and economic change. During this time Sao Paulo was in open rebellion after it’s monopoly on power was removed. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The stamp celebrates the first century of the small city of Vassouras near Rio. One century sounds like a short time but Vassouras was an older city that harkened back to the days of Empire, before Sao Paulo took center stage.
Todays stamp is issue A112, a 200 Reis stamp issued by the Central government of Brazil on January 15, 1933. That year the rebels in Sao Paulo had their own stamps which were weirdly declared real Brazil stamps after the uprising was put down. This was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents used.
In the 1880s slavery was abolished and there was a large migration of the newly freed to the south. The economy was also shifting with less emphasis on the sugar cane agriculture up north to coffee production in the south. The Monarchy was also fizzling out with no realistic heir and what replaced it was the new coffee and cream politics centered on fast growing Sao Paulo. Between 1890 and 1930 an informal arrangement was made between the comparatively rich and populous southern states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais that former governors of the two states would rotate as President of Brazil. The style of ruling was called coffee and cream politics because of the backing of gentry coffee planters and the creamy whiteness of the politicians.
Change is constant and the early 20th century began to see a growth of a middle class and industry in the cities. These people were to the left of the coffee and creamers that had an electoral lock on the Presidency. In 1930 a new coffee and cream guy was elected but the state refused to inaugurate him. Instead the army appointed former general Getulio Vargas as interim President and suspended the constitution. In 1932 Sao Paulo rebelled demanding a reinstatement of the Constitution and the seating of elected in 1930 coffee and creme guy. In control in Sau Paulo, the Paulites began to march toward the capital then still in Rio.
The Army proved loyal to Vargus and successfully blocked the path to Rio. The Brazilian Navy then began to blockade Sao Paulo preventing the arming of the army the coffee planters had raised with imported heavy weapons. The fight than seemed to shift to the idea of Sao Paulo breaking away to become independent of Brazil. However the Paulista rebels were badly outnumbered and gave up before the national army reached Sao Paulo.
In 1934, Vargas was elected as President and ruled off and on into the 1950s. His opposition increasingly became hard leftists and facists. This took the form of coup scheme called the Cohen plan. Then there was a Nazi Intregalist coup attempt. Despite surviving all this and being one of Brazil’s longest rulers, Vargas got tired of the fight and killed himself while in office in 1954.
Well my drink is empty and I am now convinced that it is no fun being the President of Brazil. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.