Deodoro da Fonseca Net Worth

Background and career

Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca (5 August 1827 – 23 August 1892) was a Brazilian military officer and politician who served as the first president of Brazil after leading the coup d'état that deposed Emperor Pedro II and established the First Brazilian Republic on 15 November 1889. Following the coup, Fonseca served as head of the provisional government and was subsequently elected in 1891 by the Constituent Congress as Brazil's first constitutional president. Fonseca resigned from office on 23 November 1891 under great political pressure after dissolving the National Congress on 3 November, being succeeded by vice president Floriano Peixoto. He died less than a year later.

Born in Alagoas in a military family, Fonseca studied artillery at the Military School of Rio de Janeiro between 1843 and 1847, and later took part in several military campaigns during the Brazilian Empire, most notably the Praieira Revolt, the Uruguayan War, and the Paraguayan War, becoming a national figure. In 1885, he became vice-president of the province of Rio Grande do Sul; the following year, upon the resignation of the incumbent president, the Baron of Lucena, Fonseca became president of Rio Grande do Sul. Due to his involvement in what became known as the "Military Question"—clashes between the armed forces and the imperial government—he returned to Rio de Janeiro. Appointed to the military command of the province of Mato Grosso in 1888, he resigned from office the following year following the appointment of the Empire's final ministerial cabinet, led by Prime Minister Afonso Celso, the Viscount of Ouro Preto. Amidst various crises plaguing the Brazilian monarchy, Fonseca led the coup d'état that deposed the Empire and proclaimed the republic in the country.

With the change in the system of government, Fonseca assumed command of the country as head of the Provisional Government of the Republic. The initial changes under his administration included the creation of the Brazilian Penal Code, the reform of the Brazilian Commercial Code, and measures that formalized the separation of Church and State—such as the establishment of civil marriage and the secularization of cemeteries. On the economic front, the country experienced the so-called "Encilhamento" crisis, a massive speculative bubble and high inflation, which stemmed from the economic policies of his Minister of Finance, Ruy Barbosa. In 1891, the nation's first republican constitution was enacted, and Fonseca was elected president through indirect vote. His constitutional government was marked by intense political tension between his own centralizing tendencies and the federalist inclinations held by civil society and segments of the military—a conflict that ultimately led to the dissolution of the National Congress on 3 November. Faced with the threat of the First Naval Revolt, Fonseca resigned from the presidency on 23 November 1891. He died the following year, on 23 August, after suffering a severe bout of dyspnea.