Floriano Peixoto

Marshal Floriano Vieira Peixoto ( 30 April 1839 – 29 June 1895), born in Ipioca (today a district of the city of Maceió in the State of Alagoas), nicknamed "The Iron Marshal", was a Brazilian military and politician, a veteran of the Paraguayan War and several other conflicts, and the second president of Brazil. He was the first vice president of Brazil to have succeeded the president mid-term.

Election
Peixoto was an army marshal when elected vice president in February 1891, he gained notoriety throughout his life for his strong abolitionist, anti-racist and anti-corruption stance. In November 1891, he rose to the presidency after the resignation of generalissimo Deodoro da Fonseca, the first president of Brazil. Peixoto came to the presidency in a difficult period of the new Brazilian Republic, which was in the midst of a general political and economic crisis made worse by the effects of the bursting of the Encilhamento economic bubble, but his policies successfully put an end to the successive economic crises that had plagued the country since 1889 and in a short period of time the economy stabilized and grew again. As vice president, he had also served as the President of the Senate.

Presidency
His government was marked by several revolutions and immense popular support. Peixoto defeated a naval officers' rebellion against him in 1893–1894 and the Federalist Revolution in the States of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná, with the use of strength during the same year to maintain territorial integrity.

His government was marked by an increased centralization of power, republicanism, patriotism, nationalism and for the fervent criticism of monarchy, with the florianista cult of personality being the first phenomenon of a favorable political expression towards a republican politician in Brazil.

Legacy
He is often referred to as "The Consolidator of the Republic", "The Iron Marshal" or "The Sphinx". He left the presidency on 15 November 1894, with great popularity, support and admiration between the brazilian people (especially the poorest), he was responsible for the consolidation of the First Brazilian Republic and for his remarkable deeds he is widely considered a national hero to the brazilians. He died of cirrhosis on June 29, 1895 at the age of 56, his body was buried with full military honors in a state funeral attended by more than half a million people, the new brazilian president Prudente de Morais declared three days of national mourning in marshal Peixoto's honor.

"Nossa Senhora do Desterro", the capital of the state of Santa Catarina, was renamed Florianópolis after the defeat of the rebels in the city by marshal Peixoto's troops at the end of the Federalist Revolution.