This study examines the expressions of demophobia of the political class of the First Republic, faced with demonstrations against the government in Rio de Janeiro, and relates them to the need to move to the seat of the federal government inland. The demophobic literature produced by liberal Europeans against democratization in their countries pervaded the orientation of the Brazilian political class during the period. Committed to building an oligarchic federation, they saw the population of Rio de Janeiro as a threat. Compared to a subversive crowd of people in a huge, artificial capital suffering from foreign influence, oligarchic federalism valued the ‘authentic' Brazilian people, referred to the image of a provincial, orderly population.
First Republic; demophobia; transfer of the federal capital; Vaccine Revolt; Brazil