Despite its name, the Vaccine Revolt had no single reason, but was instead the culmination of years of popular discontent in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil, against the Old Republic. The city's low income population, already in a tight spot due to a bad economy and urban reforms that evicted thousands of people from their homes, was faced with a law which would establish mandatory vaccination against smallpox. The government, made up of out of touch elites, acted in an authoritarian manner, not bothering to explain the benefits of the vaccine to the common people in an understandable way. Opposition newspapers, meanwhile, circulated lurid stories about the vaccine's supposed effects, saying it caused tumors and whatnot.
The end result was a week of rioting that turned the Brazilian capital into a warzone, with people overturning dozens of trams, breaking street lights and forcing the police to abandon whole neighborhoods. While all hell broke loose in the streets, a group of military officers displeased with the young republic's politics, led by senator Lauro Sodré, plotted a coup. Their plan was simple: one group of conspirators, led by Sodré himself, would rouse the students of the Praia Vermelha military school into revolt and march on the Catete Palace (the president's residence), while another would do the same in the Realengo military school and take over the northern neighborhoods.
The plan went off the rails right from the get go, with the group meant to take over the Realengo school being arrested before they could do anything. This meant everything was up to Sodré and his colleagues, who succeeded in getting the Praia Vermelha students to revolt and were joined by other military units as they marched towards the Catete Palace. Unfortunately for them, they were met by a loyalist detachment, which engaged them in a short yet confusing firefight (it was night, and there were no street lights due to the riots). Both sides withdrew, thinking they had lost, and by the next day the plotters had lost their momentum. The coup attempt was foiled, and the rioters were cracked down upon a few days later.
But what if Lauro Sodré's coup succeeded? Say the conspirators sent to Realengo succeed in getting the students there to mutiny against the government, while his own group defeats the loyalists sent against them and takes over the Catete Palace, either forcing president Rodrigues Alves to flee or taking him prisoner? How would the rest of the country react? Would Sodré's actual authority be restricted to Rio de Janeiro, still very much a warzone, and thus be faded to collapse once/if the loyalists get their act together?
@Gukpard @Guilherme Loureiro @Concerned Brazilian
The end result was a week of rioting that turned the Brazilian capital into a warzone, with people overturning dozens of trams, breaking street lights and forcing the police to abandon whole neighborhoods. While all hell broke loose in the streets, a group of military officers displeased with the young republic's politics, led by senator Lauro Sodré, plotted a coup. Their plan was simple: one group of conspirators, led by Sodré himself, would rouse the students of the Praia Vermelha military school into revolt and march on the Catete Palace (the president's residence), while another would do the same in the Realengo military school and take over the northern neighborhoods.
The plan went off the rails right from the get go, with the group meant to take over the Realengo school being arrested before they could do anything. This meant everything was up to Sodré and his colleagues, who succeeded in getting the Praia Vermelha students to revolt and were joined by other military units as they marched towards the Catete Palace. Unfortunately for them, they were met by a loyalist detachment, which engaged them in a short yet confusing firefight (it was night, and there were no street lights due to the riots). Both sides withdrew, thinking they had lost, and by the next day the plotters had lost their momentum. The coup attempt was foiled, and the rioters were cracked down upon a few days later.
But what if Lauro Sodré's coup succeeded? Say the conspirators sent to Realengo succeed in getting the students there to mutiny against the government, while his own group defeats the loyalists sent against them and takes over the Catete Palace, either forcing president Rodrigues Alves to flee or taking him prisoner? How would the rest of the country react? Would Sodré's actual authority be restricted to Rio de Janeiro, still very much a warzone, and thus be faded to collapse once/if the loyalists get their act together?
@Gukpard @Guilherme Loureiro @Concerned Brazilian