Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves

Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, PC (Portuguese pronunciation: [fɾɐ̃ˈsisku dʒi ˈpawlɐ ʁoˈdɾiɡiz ˈawvis]; 7 July 1848 – 16 January 1919) was a Brazilian politician 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 in 1902 and served until 1906.

During this term he remodeled the then Brazilian capital, Rio de Janeiro, an effort punctuated by the 1904 "Vaccine Revolt". 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.

Rodrigues Alves was born in the city of Guaratinguetá, São Paulo. He graduated as a lawyer from the Faculdade de Direito do Largo de São Francisco, São Paulo, 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, 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.

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's 5th president from 1902 to 1906, and declared that: "the country would be able to face the future with complete confidence."^[1] According to his biographer, Gastão Pereira da Silva, his main objective was to improve the sanitation in the capital city, Rio de Janeiro. Alves believed that the city's poor sanitation weakened all of the entire nation's communities.^[1] Among his presidencial cabinet was the first minister of the navy in the history of Brazil, Julio de César Noronha.^[1] During his presidency, he appointed Oswaldo Cruz to handle public health. He had only hardly announced his measures when strong opposition lined up against him, headed by groups of politicians and military officers who aimed to revive the idea of a military dictatorship.^[1] In response, 'Alves dispatched forces against the mutineers and ruthlessly quelled their attempts at revolt. One such revolt was the Vaccine revolt of 1904, which was caused when vaccination in Rio de Janeiro became mandatory.^[1] Rodrigues Alves was never popular among politicians, though he did have the affection and esteem of the nation at large.^[1] He was a monarchist which suspicion from republican politicians.^[1] He also did not have the full support of São Paulo and its' politicians, who still held a grudge against him for rejecting their coffee Valorisation proposal and for refusing to name Bernardino de Campos as his successor in the 1906 presidential election.^[1] The reason as to why he refused these proposals was because the majority of the states opposed Bernardino's candidacy, while attempts in Brazil's history to artificially increase the price of coffee up to that point had been unsuccessful.^[1]

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 epidemic of 1918–1919.^[2]

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