The end of the Paraguayan War coincides…

The end of the Paraguayan War coincides with the resurgence of republicanism as disenchanted liberals cast about for a new route to power.

The 1867 collapse of the short-lived, French-sponsored Mexican monarchy of Maximilian leaves Brazil as the hemisphere's only monarchical regime, and because Argentina will appear to prosper in the 1870s and 1880s, it will serve as a powerful advertisement for republican government.

The republican ideology spreads in urban areas and in provinces, such as São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, where the people do not believe they benefit from imperial economic policies.

The republican manifesto of 1870 proclaims that "We are in America and we want to be Americans."

Monarchy is, the writers asserted, hostile to the interests of the American states and will be a continuous source of conflict with Brazil's neighbors.

The republicans embrace the abolition of slavery to remove the stigma of Brazil's being the only remaining slave-holding country (save for Spanish Cuba) in the hemisphere.

It is not so much that they believe that slavery is wrong as that it gives the country an image distasteful to Europeans.

Abolition, which will come in 1888, does not imply that liberals want deep social reform or desire a democratic society.

Indeed, their arguments against slavery are weighted toward efficiency rather than morality.

Once in power, the republicans will look to discipline the legally free work force with various systems of social control.