Last update before I leave is done. I'll respond to comments later tonight.
Part One-Hundred Nineteen: The Brazilian Civil War
The End of Slavery in Brazil:
Around the time of the Great War, another set of conflicts was brewing in Ibero-America. In Brazil, after the death of Emperor Pedro II in 1902, there was some uncertainty whether his son and successor Afonso I would continue the practice of slavery in Brazil. It was well known that Pedro II personally opposed it, and slavery was already in decline in the south of the country in the early 19th century. However, the slow removal of the Emperor from public affairs as he aged and the influx of former Confederate planters revitalized slavery, especially in the northern regions of the country where labor intensive plantation crops like cotton and sugar were commonly grown. This quickly contrasted with the more urban southern region of Brazil.
During the early 19th century, there was some semblance of a slow path to reform and abolitionism. One of the major proponents of reform, Joao Mauricio Vanderlei the first Baron of Cotejipe, was influential behind the outlawing of the importation of slaves to Brazil in 1860 while Minister of Foreign Relations, and as President of the Council of Ministers Vanderlei helped pass the Sexagenarian Law in 1882, which freed all slaves who were of 60 years of age or older[1]. However, despite this gradual emancipation, the revitalization of slavery in the north made opposition to the laws sectional. And while Pedro II was able to maintain neutrality on the subject, Afonso I held a more convicted opinion on the matter.
During the later years of Pedro II's reign, then Prince Imperial Afonso frequently complained to his father about the slow progress of abolitionism in correspondence between the two[2]. When Afonso I succeeded his father, one of his first prerogatives was to fully outlaw slavery. He had the support of his younger sister Isabel and of much of the public on this matter. However, the more conservative elite that dominated Brazilian politics opposed the matter, and began touting the idea of abolishing the monarchy and establishing a republic. The issue festered and finally came to blows in 1905 when Afonso passed the Lei Aurea or Golden Law, that unequivocally free all the slaves in Brazil. An attempted coup was launched and when that failed, the northern states of Maranahao, Piahui, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Alagoas, and Pernambuco formed the Republic of Brazil[3]. The state of Sao Paulo could have been expected to join with the main production of the state being coffee, but an abolitionist sentiment had been promoted by Afro-Brazilians over the previous decades. There was some fighting in the state during the civil war and a republican presence in the interior, but the coast of the state never fall to the republic.
The Republic of Brazil, unlike the CSA in the National War, was not formed out of a desire for secession but in order to overthrow the emperor in Rio de Janeiro. And so the Brazilian Civil War began, with the Republic holding much of northeast Brazil and interior regions of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais. The Republican forces were also bolstered in the beginning by the defection of several army officers who had participated in the attempted coup, including the republic's general Floriano Peixoto[4].
The Republican forces moved west and south along the coasts quickly, aiming to capture the ports at Belem and Salvador and further entrench their hold on northeast Brazil. By August of 1905, Belem had been captured and the Republican forces were nearing Salvador. However, while Peixoto had gained the defection of much of the Brazilian army, the navy remained loyal to king Afonso[5]. The republican army launched its assault on Salvador in September, and while the city soon fell, the navy continued to sit outside the Bahia dos Santos blockading the bay. As the republican forces continued south, Salvador revolted and the city was soon back in monarchist hands.
After the capture of Salvador, the main republican forces struck south further inland. The republican army was mainly composed of two armies, one following the Sao Francisco River and one following the Tocantins River. With the fighting in Salvador, the republican army advancing down the Tocantins moved quicker than the one moving down the Sao Francisco. The Tocantins Army, moving south from Belem, and found little resistance from the sparsely populated interior of the country. The Tocantins army reached Sao Felix do Tocantins by October of 1905[6], and the monarchist forces only encountered the army at Vila Boa de Goias. At the encounter of the Brazilian army after the long march, however, the weary Tocantins army was shattered and the commanding general captured. The republican army on the Sao Francisco fared better, defeating a monarchist army at Januaria, before being routed at Pirapora. The republican rebellion began to collapse after these defeats, with assistance from the British navy. While the majority of territory was brought under control by the end of the year, holdouts remained in Fortaleza, Maceio, the interior of Sao Paulo, and the island of Sao Luis for months. Peixoto was captured at Sao Luis on May 12, 1906 and slavery in the Americas was ended at last.
[1] The Sexagenarian Law was passed in OTL in 1885. ITTL there was no Law of Free Birth.
[2] Pedro II is more active in his later life due to having an heir, but his old age still slows him down.
[3] Basically everything in
Northeast Brazil except for Bahia.
[4] OTL president in the early Republic.
[5] The navy was loyal to the monarchy, and led a few revolts after the establishment of the First Republic in OTL.
[6] Sao Felix appears on some old maps but I couldn't find it on google maps. It's on the Tocantins River at about the same latitude as Salvador.
Critics may say you're killing too many butterflies, but I see it as an intellectual game you set for us readers, looking for why those obscure figures were chosen. Like Gillette, at first I'm like "the razor guy?" 
