Manoel Deodoro da Fonseca (1827-1892) was the first president of Brazil. Perhaps his greatest contribution was the assumption of authority in the last days of the empire and his leading role in the establishment of the republic.

Manoel Deodoro da Fonseca was born on Aug. 5, 1827, in Alagoas. In 1843 he entered the Military School in Rio de Janeiro and after graduation in 1847 began a series of assignments that took him to all parts of the empire. In 1864 he participated in military campaigns in Uruguay and later against Francisco Solano López in the Paraguayan War. He later rose to field marshal.

Militarism, nurtured during the Paraguayan War, became reality in the late 1870s. The army looked upon itself as the savior of the nation, and the Military School was the center of positivist propaganda. Deodoro's prestige had grown to such stature that when the Duque de Caxias died...