Empire of Brazil

Brazil, Empire of 

The Brazilian Empire is much as it always had been, -with the exception of slavery- a monument to an era when true imperial and colonial might was an overwhelming force in the face of unprepared and uncentralized native states. While Brazil has had brief border incidents with nearly every single neighbour from time to time, no major wars had materialized in recent memory. It’s industry is rather underdeveloped, due to a consistent preference by the nobility and landed gentry towards agriculture, and primary goods. Unlike it’s wealthier or more industrialized neighbours, the Brazilian king is content to let royally appointed advisors, all staunchly conservative and bearing the heritage of the old “peninsular” system of Iberian administrators in colonies. While there are many large and varied minorities within the nation. The authority of the king, and the relative stability of life has made the situation tolerable. Brazilian distaste for it’s Bolivarian neighbour had grown steadily in the past decade, as harsh economic times spurred populist and socialist movements calling for reform and even some radical declarations of Republican government. These were brutally cracked down upon, and while no longer public, there still remain small elements of leftist-radicals in the major cities, particularly by the coast and near the Bolivarian border.

The Brazilian Monarch’s of this century have been almost uncanny in their preference for continuity, and due to this, the navy has enjoyed the lion’s share of royal treasury funding for the armed forces. While quite obsolete compared to the battle fleets of Europe, the Brazilian navy does nominally hold the rank of 10th greatest fleet in the world (by numerical size). The efficacy of such a force is however in doubt, as the officer corps is exclusively dominated either by born nobility, or men who have earned titles, but such meritocratic nobles are few and far between. The head of the navy as well, a known alcoholic, and cousin to the King, is rarely seen attending his duties, and so this attitude prevails from commander down, with many ships in recent years suffering from strikes, or even mutinies in some instances by frustrated, and underpaid sailors.

The Sailor’s War as it was called, between 1934-37, a series of detached intermittent, but related incidents aboard various ships culminated with the disaster of the Sao Paulo. Originally Brazil had purchased, at huge cost, a total of 6 Dreadnought class battleships from UK shipbuilders throughout the 1910’s. The renamed “Brasilia” class battleships culminated into the largest naval program build-up in the whole of Latin America to date. Not only did it cause much alarm at the time for Brazil’s neighbours, but it also spawned an entire hemisphere wide naval race, even among the Californian and American navies. Worst of all, rather than the expected public support of nationalistic pride, it had soured the perception of the King and his councilors as being extremely unnecessary and a gross waste of funds. One way in which the Brazilian government compensated for the cost was to cut the wages, freeze raises, and slash benefits to the enlisted men of the navy. This process was done gradually in the hope of falling below the radar of the public and more importantly sailors, but by the late 20’s, the effects were becoming all too apparent that this trend was not a temporary solution to an immense new naval step. Many of the ships, particularly smaller cruisers had suffered from strikes, and occasional “blood-less mutinies” while in port or at sea. Nothing however, could have prepared the country for the Sao Paulo Massacre. The Dreadnought Battleship Sao Paulo, suffered a bloody mutiny in 1937 while performing exercises near Recife in the northern coast. The new leaders of the ship, senior sailors and warrant officers, decided to sail the ship away from its patrol of the northern coast, and head towards Rio de Janeiro, at the time the de jure capital. While for the first 2 days the ship steamed towards it’s new objective, the newly appointed officers began writing up lists of demands for the navy to redress against the enlisted men that served within it. Much of the demands simply wished to reinstate the old system and to provide a better wage and living standard for active and retired seamen.

Upon arriving at the bay of Rio however, this largest mutiny so far, became infamous in the country, with thousands looking on first hand. A small corvette approached the ship to bring a representative to the government, as had become the norm in dealing with such affairs. When negotiations broke down, and the official realized how extensive the demands were, he promptly left telling the men they would be hanged by their genitals if they did not surrender themselves to the navy, branding them all traitors for their actions. A hot-tempered marine shot the emissary and soon the situation, fed by bitter years of service and freely released rum rations, descended into butchery. All of the government men and their escorts sent to negotiate had been shot and strung up at the ship’s stern, like ancient mermaid’s along wooden ships-of-the-line. Upon seeing this, and after more ships had joined the lonely corvette in shielding Rio Bay from the Sao Paulo entering it, a botched order to fire if engaged was delivered, which was taken by a light cruiser as an order to fire. While some damage was done to the Sao Paulo by the blockading fleet, which joined in as soon as the cruiser Crystobal opened fire. the return by the Sao Paulo was devastating upon the loyalist flotilla.

Already en-route as a precaution were 3 other Brasilia class battleships to block and trap the Sao Paulo, but they had not been expecting an actual engagement. Sao Paulos crew immediately began shelling government districts and buildings as best they could, for over an hour the pride of the fleet rained down destruction upon the city. While Sao Paulo was eventually destroyed when ambushed by the 3 other sister ships later that same day, had it not been for a catastrophic magazine explosion near the superstructure, more lives, and vessels could have been lost that day. So dark was the event, that the king forbid any future vessel, civilian or military in Brazil from being named “Sao Paulo”.