Revolta da Armada

The Brazilian Naval Revolts, or the Revoltas da Armada (in Portuguese), were armed mutinies promoted mainly by Admirals Custodio de Mello and Saldanha da Gama and their fleet of Brazilian Navy ships against unconstitutional staying in power of the central government in Rio de Janeiro.

First revolt
In November 1891, President Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, amid a political crisis compounded by the effects of an economic crisis, in flagrant violation of the new constitution, decided to "solve" the political crisis by ordering the closure of Congress, supported mainly by Paulista oligarchy. The Navy, still resented by circumstances and outcomes of the coup that had put an end to the monarchy in Brazil, under the leadership of Admiral Custodio de Melo, rose up and threatened to bombard the town of Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the Republic. To avoid a civil war, Marshal Deodoro resigned the presidency in November 23.

With the resignation of Deodoro, after just nine months from the beginning of his administration, the vice president, Floriano Peixoto, took office (1892). The 1891 Constitution, however, provided for a new election if the presidency or vice-presidency became vacant sooner than two years in office. The opposition then accused Floriano of staying as head of the nation illegally.

Second revolt
Began to emerge in March 1892, when thirteen generals sent a letter and manifesto to the President Marshal Floriano Peixoto. This document wanted the calling of new elections to fulfilling the constitutional provision should establish internal tranquility in the nation. Floriano harshly suppressed the movement, determining the arrest of their leaders.

Thus, not legally solved, political tensions were just piling up, and in September 1893, the revolt broke out at Rio de Janeiro, having been suppressed only in March 1894 after a long blockade of the city and a confrontation with US warships.

Details of conflict
Brazil's navy was once the most powerful in the hemisphere, even more than the US, which had been allowed to decay into uselessness after the Civil War. So, Brazilian government had to improvise a new fleet to battle the rebel fleet. The "cardboard squadron" had to face off against a mutiny that had overtaken most of the powerful ships of the original navy. Local bloody conflicts in some regions of Brazil ensued. The navy's mutiny off Rio de Janeiro (Guanabara Bay) also was a challenge, and became linked to the Federalist Rebellion.



The revolt included the powerful battleship Aquidaban and a collection of small ironclads, modern cruisers and older wood 'cruiser' or steam frigate type ships. Two of the navy's major ships were overseas and supposedly away from the conflict: the battleship Riachuelo was under repairs in France, and the corvette Barrozo was on a round-the world training voyage (during which she sank). This did not leave the government with much left to challenge the mutineers, who could have controlled the seas and influenced the concurrent conflicts on land.

The government basically bought itself a new naval force on the open markets, of small and sometimes unusual ships including torpedo gunboats, various medium and small torpedo boats, small armed yachts, and a transport converted to carry a Zalinsky "dynamite gun" (a pneumatic gun launching a dynamite charge of massive explosive force and marginal accuracy). Such improvised stocking up was common at that time: the US pressed a similar mix of ships into action to supplement its fleet in the 1898 war with Spain (or to buy them before Spain could), and Japan also scrambled to purchase available ships for its conflict with Russia in 1904-5. In this case, however, the new fleet was dedicated to confronting the original navy of the same country.