Pedro II was overthrown by a coup within the military in 1889. The “First Republic” was hardly more democratic than the empire, with the country ruled first by members of the military and then by regional oligarchs. Government crest.
As the nineteenth century came to a close, the “religion of humanity”?positivism?came to dominate the political and social policy of the country. The question of abolition dominated the 1870s and 1880s, and the Golden Rule finally freed all slaves in 1888. By this time, Emperor Pedro II had lost the popularity and prestige of his past, and the majority of the Brazilian elite were looking forward toward a new kind of government. A virtually bloodless coup deposed the emperor in 1889, and the new Republic focused on increasing Brazil’s economic power, whitening its population, and selling its image abroad. Fluctuating coffee prices and a slow process of industrialization created problems for the new republic, whose positivist national slogan?Order and Progress?motivated its policies toward the lower classes and native populations.