Republican Party of São Paulo

The Republican Party of São Paulo a.k.a Partido Republicano Paulista or PRP was a Brazilian political party founded in April 18, 1873 during the Itu Convention and sparked the first modern republican movement in Brazil.

Initially a band of revolutionaries supported by a local newspaper, the PRP was created by liberal professionals, (lawyers, doctors, engineers etc.) and, more importantly by important rural landowners from São Paulo. The primary objective of the party was to implement a republican federation in Brazil, with a weak central government, giving a degree of autonomy to the states, which did not exist during the Imperial era.

The proclamation of the Brazilian Republic on November 15, 1889, initiated a new order of political power in Brazil, which was to be called República Velha, and the country was to be governed by presidents strongly influenced by powerful landowners. The presidents were always candidates of the PRP or of the PRM (Partido Republicano Mineiro from the state of Minas Gerais). Both these parties being supported by powerful landowners.

This policy was to be nicknamed "política do café com leite" ("coffee with milk" policy) alluding to the fact that São Paulo state made its wealth on the exportation of coffee, and Minas Gerais was famous for producing milk.

With the new republican regime, the PRP is no longer a band of revolutionaries, as it was during the Empire, but an institution dedicated to a form of bureaucracy that would dictate government policy until 1930, when Getúlio Vargas assumed control and abolished the PRP and the PRM.

Main representatives

*Prudente de Morais - President of the Brazilian Republic (1894-1898)
*Campos Sales - President of the Brazilian Republic (1898-1902)
*Rodrigues Alves - President of the Brazilian Republic (1902-1906)
*Washington Luís - President of the Brazilian Republic (1926-1930)
*Júlio Prestes - President of the Brazilian Republic (1930-1934), President of São Paulo (1927-1930)
*Bernardino de Campos - President of São Paulo (1892-1896)
*João Tibiriçá Piratininga
*Jorge Tibiriçá Piratininga - President and Governor of São Paulo (1904-1908)
*Albuquerque Lins - President of São Paulo (1908-1912)
*Altino Arantes - President of São Paulo (1916-1920)
*Carlos de Campos - President of São Paulo (1924-1927)