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Britain and the Brazilian Naval Revolt of 1893–4*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Joseph Smith
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Extract

Historical writing in English on the diplomatic aspects of the Brazilian naval revolt of 1893–4 tends to be based on United States sources and, consequently, an American interpretation runs through most writing on the subject. This interpretation regards the revolt as an attempt to restore the monarchy by the insurgents with secret support from the European Powers, especially Britain, who were jealous of the increasing American political and economic influence in the newly established Republic of Brazil.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , November 1970 , pp. 175 - 198
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

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References

1 See Hill, Lawrence F., Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Brazil (Durham, 1932), pp. 265–81Google Scholar; LaFeber, Walter, ‘United States Depression Diplomacy and the Brazilian Revolution, 1893–1894’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 40 (02 1960), pp. 107–18Google Scholar; LaFeber, , The New Empire (Ithaca, 1963), pp. 210–18Google Scholar; also Foster, John W., A Century of American Diplomacy (New York, 1901), p. 466Google Scholar; Gresham, Matilda, Life of Walter Q. Gresham (2 vols., Chicago, 1919), II 777–81Google Scholar; Montgomery Schuyler on Gresham in Bemis, Samuel F. (ed.), American Secretaries of State and their Diplomacy, vols. 7, 8 (New York, 1958), 8 252–4Google Scholar; Grenville, J. A. S. and Young, George B., Politics, Strategy, and American Diplomacy (New Haven and London, 1966), pp. 117–8Google Scholar. For accounts emphasizing problems of international law, see Moore, John B., A Digest of International Law (8 vols., Washington D.C., 1906), II 1113–20Google Scholar; Martin, Charles E., The Policy of the United States as Regards Intervention (New York, 1921), pp. 118–23Google Scholar. More balanced accounts are Timm, Charles A., ‘The Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Brazil during the Naval Revolt of 1893’, Southwestern Political and Social Science Quarterly, 5 (09 1924), pp. 119–38Google Scholar; Martin, Percy A. in Wilgus, A. Curtis (ed.), Argentina, Brazil and Chile since Independence (Washington D.C., 1935), pp. 213–34Google Scholar; McCloskey, Michael B., ‘The United States and the Brazilian Naval Revolt, 1893–1894’, Americas, 2 (1946), pp. 296–321Google Scholar. See also Graham, Richard, Britain and the Onset of Modernisation in Brazil 1850–1914 (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 306–11.Google Scholar

2 Congressional Record, 53rd Congress, 3rd Session, 2 03 1895, p. 3109.Google Scholar

3 Foster, John W., Century of American Diplomacy, p. 466Google Scholar. Benham informed the insurgent Admiral, Saldanha da Gama, that he would intervene by force if necessary to protect American merchant shipping in the harbour. By successfully escorting an American merchant ship to the docks, an incident in which some shots were fired, Benham broke Da Gama's attempt to enforce a blockade of the harbour.

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58 See No. 48, Wyndham, to Rosebery, , 5 02 1894, F.O. 13/724Google Scholar. Thompson appears to have been unaware of this attempt at mediation; see No. 13, Wyndham, to Rosebery, , 29 01 1894Google Scholar, F.O. 13/728; McCloskey, , ‘Brazilian Naval Revolt’, p. 311.Google Scholar

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64 Wyndham, to Rosebery, , 5 12 1893, F.O. 13/707.Google Scholar

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76 Ibid., see F.O. minute.

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85 Ibid., 17 Nov. 1893.

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