[2][13][14] Upon receiving his doctorate, Pena gave a speech in which he expressed his abolitionist thoughts, concluding that "the entire country is agitated to solve, in accordance with the principles of justice, the great question of the centuries – the emancipation of an enslaved race".

[19] Guilhermina was the daughter of João Fernandes de Oliveira Pena, the Viscount of Carandaí, and the niece of Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, the Marquis of Paraná, one of the most prominent politicians in the Empire of Brazil.

[65] The final constitutional draft, promulgated on 15 June 1891 with several amendments proposed by Pena, granted more autonomy for the municipalities, as he had envisioned years before, and established a bicameral legislature, with the senators being elected by direct vote; it also provided for the creation of a new state capital to replace Ouro Preto.

This would yield the following result: after young people have acquired knowledge of the subjects taught in these institutes, instead of directing their efforts toward public employment, they would apply them to the state's most important industries, such as agriculture, extraction, and manufacturing.The first years of the republic in Brazil were plagued by disputes and political instability.

[82] On 2 February 1893, parallel to the events unfolding in the capital, a civil war broke out in Rio Grande do Sul under the leadership of Gaspar da Silveira Martins and Gumercindo Saraiva, against governor Júlio de Castilhos, the latter brought to power by Peixoto.

[106] Pena's appointment was due to the fact that Rodrigues Alves, then Brazil's Minister of Finance, was his colleague from the Faculty of Law; together they worked to solve the economic crisis caused by the Encilhamento through a set of reforms that sought to contain government spending, restore the country's credit, and revalue the currency's exchange rate.

With no alternative against the official candidate, and despite his lack of sympathy for a former member of the monarchy, Pinheiro Machado approached Pena, who was also supported by the army – still resentful of Rodrigues Alves for the repression during the Vaccine Revolt – and Campos Sales himself.

[115] Ruy Barbosa withdrew his candidacy in order to support the alliance, and the newspaper Gazeta de Notícias declared: "[i]t seems that Mr. senator Pinheiro Machado's sword has cut, for once, the Gordian knot of the presidential election.

[128] His inauguration ceremony took place as usual: the official car, followed by a cavalry picket, with military honors at the Conde dos Arcos and Catete palaces, and the reading of the constitutional oath before the Senate's vice president, Ruy Barbosa.

[141] Believing the solution to other economic, political, and social issues depended on the completion of the work, Pena appointed colonel Cândido Rondon as chief engineer of the Commission for the Construction of Telegraph Lines from Mato Grosso to Amazonas.

The expedition, known as the Rondon Commission, also had the additional goals of carrying out scientific exploration and delimiting the lands of the Casalvasco farm, which extended from the Aguapeí mountain range in Mato Grosso to Brazil's border with Bolivia.

[143][145] In the second half of 1905, still during the government of president Rodrigues Alves, producers of Brazilian coffee, a product whose importance in Brazil's economy had grown considerably since the mid-19th century, expected a record harvest of 16 million bags.

[148][149] A coffee valorization proposal had already been made by Alessandro Siciliano [pt], an industrialist and importer from São Paulo, in 1903, but it was refused by president Rodrigues Alves, who remained faithful to his policy of containing public spending, which had begun in 1898 during Joaquim Murtinho's tenure in the Ministry of Finance.

[154] The agreement was met with opposition from several sectors, including president Rodrigues Alves, who was against state intervention in the exchange rate with the creation of the Caixa de Conversão (Conversion Bank).

[158][159] The Caixa de Conversão would receive deposits of legal tender gold coins and in return issue bills of equal value to the depositors; the exchange rate would also be fixed at 15 pence to milréis.

[164][165] Promoted by the federal government, the exhibition also represented the final event in the series of urban and sanitary reforms undertaken in the city of Rio de Janeiro during the administration of mayor Pereira Passos and physician Oswaldo Cruz since 1903.

[165] Preparations for the exposition began under the Pena administration, when Miguel Calmon, then minister of industry, transport and public works, formed a 41-member commission headed by engineer Antônio Olinto in October 1907.

Commenting on the matter, Pena declared:[175] The small number [of soldiers] established in the law of forces, the same for many years, clearly shows that we do not have the desire to constitute ourselves into a military power, and that we are only fulfilling the elementary duty of prudence, providing the security and defense of the nation against possible threats.As minister of war, Hermes da Fonseca sought to strengthen relations with Germany, whose army was considered exemplary, with the aim of implementing the German training model in Brazil.

[183] In addition to modernizing the fleet, the program also aimed at restoring Brazilian naval hegemony in the South Atlantic and providing the means for joint continental defense in case of an invasion by European powers or the United States.

[184] Pena appointed Alexandrino Faria de Alencar to replace Noronha, and the program was modified in 1907, with the three projected 13,000 ton ironclads being changed to the new "Dreadnought" type battleships, which were significantly heavier.

[206] According to Richard Graham, by 1907 Brazil was "producing more than half of its needs in cottons, shoes and leather goods, hats, matches, beer, macaroni and similar products, all of which had once been entirely imported, not to mention items which had often come from abroad like bricks, earthenware, and candy".

[212] In his report to president Pena, Rio Branco declared that the treaty represented "a prudent transaction because it forever dispels old concerns about conflicts that have already occurred in the uncertain border region and where they would only increase given the development of activity and private interests that takes place there".

The 1907 convention was broader in scope than the previous one, and sought to establish "more jurisdicity between people-to-people relations" and "as far as possible, replace will with law, violence with reason, intolerance with justice", in the words of Batista Pereira, a member of the Brazilian delegation.

[226][231][232] In 1908, Ruy Barbosa warned president Afonso Pena that the Argentines could attack by surprise and, in Stanley E. Hilton words, "Brazilian strategists became convinced that the country could suddenly find itself at war".

[227] That year, Zeballos sent a secret letter to Roque Sáenz Peña, the Argentine minister plenipotentiary to Spain, in which he stated that he had written evidence signed by Rio Branco that Brazil was preparing to attack Argentina.

The false document was read by the new Argentine foreign minister, Victorino de la Plaza, in the Senate, which pushed Congress to approve the arms build-up and shifted public opinion against Brazil.

David Morethson Campista, nominated by Pena to succeed him in the presidency, was rejected by groups supporting Hermes da Fonseca (mainly by Pinheiro Machado, the most influential congressman at the time).

In a session of the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute, held on 30 June 1909, the Baron of Rio Branco stated that "[a]ll of Brazil, which also accompanied him in this undertaking, does him the justice of believing in the purity of his intentions, seeing in him a true statesman eager to assure us the peace that we so desperately need and that all people need".

[258] Years later, Mário Casasanta, a teacher at the faculty, remarked that "Afonso Pena created a true school, and it is no small reason for glory for this generation that it managed to preserve it, to the best of its structure, because the presence of the ideals that nourished its founder's soul can still be felt within it".

[266] On 13 February 2009, the mausoleum and remains of Afonso Pena, his wife, and three of their children were transferred from the São João Batista Cemetery, in Rio de Janeiro, to the old colonial house where he was born, in the historic center of Santa Bárbara.