It was not British capital that laid the first tracks across Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, and Uruguay. Nor in Paraguay, as we have seen;
but the railroads built by the Paraguayan state, with the help of European
technicians, passed into British hands after the defeat. The other countries'
railroads went the same way without producing a single centavo of new
investment; furthermore, the state contracts took care to assure the companies a
minimum profit level, to avoid possible unpleasant surprises. Decades later, at
the end of World War II, when the railroads yielded no more dividends and had
fallen into relative disuse, the public authorities got them back. Almost all of
the states bought the scrap iron from the British and thus nationalized the
companies' losses.
When the railroads were booming, the British concerns had often obtained considerable land concessions on either side of the tracks, in addition to the railbeds themselves and the right to build new branch lines. The land was an additional business bonanza. A fabulous gift to the Brazilian railway in 1911 led to the burning of countless huts and the eviction or death of peasant families in the concession area. It was this that triggered off the "Contestado" revolt, one of the greatest outbursts of popular fury in Brazilian history.
The Contestado movement occurred in the south of the country in a frontier area disputed by the states of Parana and Santa Catarina. It began in 1911 under the leadership of Jose Maria, who died in the first clashes and was heralded as a saint by the rebels of the Contestado. Unlike Canudos, the movement did not limit itself to one particular centre, but shifted to various points in the region, under pressure from military forces. The rebellion was put down in late 1915, when rebel strongholds were attacked and destroyed by 6,000 soldiers from the army and the police force, assisted by 1,000 civilians who joined in the process of repression.
In considering the principal social movements in the interior of Brazil during the First Republic, Joazeiro, a city in the south of the state of Ceara, which became the centre of activities of the priest Cicero Romao Batista between 1872 and 1924, also deserves mention. There are many common features between events in Joazeiro and the Canudos and Contestado movements. For example, from the point of view of the history of the transformation of the Catholic church in Brazil, particularly in the north-east, Canudos and Joazeiro were manifestations of similar developments. On the other hand, when considering social movements as manifestations of rebellion, Joazeiro has little in common with the other two movements. Although Padre Cicero clashed continuously with the ecclesiastical authorities, and at times with factions of the oligarchy, his movement for better or worse fell within the system of domination which prevailed during the First Republic. Put simply, the city of Joazeiro can be seen as an area controlled by a priest-coronel, who had a considerable degree of influence within the political oligarchy, particularly after 1909 when Padre Cicero began to involve himself directly in the political struggles.
The Canudos and Contestado movements were attempts to create an alternative way of life, and were considered sufficiently dangerous for both to be brutally crushed by military forces. This does not mean that they were totally opposed to the power structure of the coronets. Before settling in Canudos, Antonio Conselheiro had been a practising member of the Catholic church, living an ascetic, nomadic life. He summoned the people together in order to build or rebuild churches. He built walls around cemeteries, and he showed concern for the small parish churches of the interior. There is evidence that at this stage he was well looked upon by certain coronets, for whom his disciplined followers built roads and dams. The village of Canudos itself did not depart very much from the traditional pattern of settlement in the interior. There was a certain degree of social and economic differentiation, a considerable degree of trade with the surrounding area, and religious links with the priests of the neighbouring parishes. Canudos was also a source of votes and influence at election time.
The instigators of the Contesdado movement were the followers of a coronet who was a member of the opposition and seen as a friend of the poor. Others of varying origins joined this group, among them those who were the victims of the process of modernization in both urban and rural areas: rural workers driven off the land by the construction of a railway and a timber plant, people who had been recruited for railway construction from among the unemployed of large cities and then abandoned at the end of their contract, and criminals who were at large in the region. However, the village settlements which grew up during the Contestado, with their emphasis on equality and fraternity, clashed with established social values, and assumed characteristics which were clearly messianic. This can be seen, among other features, through the way many of the members of the Contestado remained loyal to the monarchy which, it has been argued, represented an eschatological kingdom more than a political institution. The theme of the monarchy, whether because of the form it took or because of the period in which the Contestado movement occurred, was not exploited to any extent by the government. In contrast, the earlier monarchism of Antonio Conselheiro, with its attacks on the Republic, responsible for the introduction of civil marriage and for the taking of cemeteries away from the control of the church, took more concrete forms. As a result it was a mobilizing factor against Canudos in the urban centres, at a time when the possibility of the restoration of the monarchy was seen as a real threat. Canudos, Contestado and Joazeiro were not episodes devoid of significance, nor were they isolated expressions by an ignorant rural population in contrast to the centres of civilization on the coast. In different degrees, these movements can be linked to changes in the Catholic church, to socio-economic changes in their respective areas, and to the political development of the nation itself. Their particular strength as a demonstration of popular religious belief cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, as attempts at independent organization on the part of the rural population, they effectively illustrate the severe limitations of such organization during the period of the First Republic.