Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, PC (; 7 July 1848 – 16 January 1919) was a Brazilian

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who first served as president of the Province of São Paulo in 1887, then as Treasury minister in the 1890s. Rodrigues Alves was elected the fifth

president of Brazil The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...

in 1902 and served until 1906. During this term he remodeled the then Brazilian capital,

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, an effort punctuated by the 1904 "

Vaccine Revolt The Vaccine Revolt or Vaccine Rebellion (Portuguese: ''Revolta da Vacina'') was a period of civil disorder which occurred in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (November 10–18, 1904). Background At the beginning of the 20th century the city o ...

". He was elected president for a second term in 1918, but died in the influenza pandemic before assuming power, on 16 January 1919. He was succeeded by his vice-president,

Delfim Moreira Delfim Moreira da Costa Ribeiro (; 7 November 1868 – 1 July 1920) was a Brazilian politician who served as tenth president of Brazil. Biography He was born in Minas Gerais state to a Portuguese father and to a Portuguese Brazilian mother wh ...

Biography

Rodrigues Alves was born in the city of

Guaratinguetá Guaratinguetá is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte. The population is 122,505 (2020 est.) in an area of 752.64 km2. It is located in the region of ...

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

. He graduated as a lawyer from the '' Faculdade de Direito do Largo de São Francisco'',

, in 1870. His public career started as councilman in his native city, from 1866 to 1870. He became prosecutor in 1870. In 1872 he became a member of the state house of representatives until 1879. Also during the period of the

Empire of Brazil The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pe ...

, he took office as president of the province of São Paulo, from 1887 until 1888. After the proclamation of the Republic, he was a member of the Constitutional Assembly, and also a member of the house of representatives (1891/1893). He occupied the position of Treasury Secretary twice, from 1891 to 1892 and from 1894 to 1896. Rodrigues Alves e família em Aparecida

He assumed his second mandate as state president in São Paulo from 1 May 1900 to 13 February 1902). On February 13 he resigned to run for Brazil's presidency. He was elected to rule as

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

's 5th president from 1902 to 1906. He distinguished himself as a great city planner and public financier. He applied his experience in the re-urbanization of the capital of the Republic,

. He ran again for the presidency in 1918, won the election with over 99% of the vote, and was scheduled to take office on 15 November 1918. He was unable to do so because of illness, and he died on 16 January 1919, a victim of the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

epidemic of 1918–1919. 40 years later in 1959, his grand-nephew, Carlos Alberto Alves de Carvalho Pinto, assumed his title of state president in São Paulo where he was the president of the state for 4 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigues Alves, Francisco De Paula 1848 births 1919 deaths Brazilian people of Portuguese descent Deaths from Spanish flu Governors of São Paulo (state) Infectious disease deaths in Rio de Janeiro (state) Finance Ministers of Brazil Ministers of Justice of Brazil People from Guaratinguetá Presidents of Brazil Republican Party of São Paulo politicians Coffee with milk politics politicians University of São Paulo alumni Elected officials who died without taking their seats