Coluna Prestes

The Coluna Prestes, also known as the Coluna Miguel Costa-Prestes or, formally, the 1st Revolutionary Division, was a Brazilian political-military movement associated with Tenentism that operated between 1924 and 1927. It emerged from dissatisfaction with the government of Artur Bernardes and with the oligarchic order of the First Brazilian Republic, especially the political arrangements commonly associated with the café com leite system. Its demands included the secret ballot, the defense of public education, and broader criticism of poverty and social injustice in Brazil. Although the Column was organized as an armed march, several authors have noted that its composition was not limited to professional officers. Many of its rank-and-file participants were rural workers, including illiterate or semi-literate men, and about fifty women accompanied the march, several of whom took part in combat. Over roughly two and a half years, the Column, usually estimated at about 1,500 combatants, marched approximately 25,000 kilometres through thirteen Brazilian states while avoiding destruction by government forces. Its survival helped weaken the prestige of the oligarchic government and kept tenentist opposition active until the political crisis that culminated in the Revolution of 1930.