In November of 1891, an armed rebellion by the Navy rose up against the Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca government with the objective of equal rights and salaries for the Navy and the Army, the branch to which Deodoro belonged. The revolt developed in two stages: the first against Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, first president of Brazil, and the second against Floriano Peixoto, military officer and vice-president of Deodoro.
The conflict established itself after Deodoro da Fonseca, having difficulties negotiating with the opposition and in the middle of an institutional and economic crisis, ordered the closing of the Congress, violating the recently ratified Constitution. Some Navy bases, such as the one in Guanabara bay, threated to bombard the city of Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the Republic. To avoid the attack, Deodoro decided to resign the presidency, with vice-president Marshal Floriano Peixoto, also of the Army, provisionally assuming.
The second stage of the revolt began in 1892, when the opposition warned that Floriano intended to illegally continue his government and called for a new election, as per the Constitution. On September 7, 1893, the journal A Gazeta de Notícias related the actions of the movement: “Serious news has been spreading throughout the city since early this morning: a section of the nation’s armed forces has risen up and there has been a frightening strike at the Central train station. Not all of this was true. The successes which occurred at the station were not as serious as announced; but what is certain is that the squadron finds itself in a frankly hostile attitude towards the government.”
In March of 1894, president Floriano Peixoto severely repressed the protestors and imprisoned the leaders Saldanha da Gama and Custódio de Melo, who had declared himself a candidate for the presidency. The repression forced the movement to migrate to the south of the country, where it quickly weakened.