ABSTRACT
The article interprets the process of contestation of the imperial order. It seeks to avoid the causal determinisms of the teleological approaches of a positivist nature. It is guided by a comprehensive approach that, despite recognizing the broader meaning of social change over time, recognizes the relative autonomy of politics. The article equally recognizes the degree of relative uncertainty regarding the events taking place within the imperial order. In this particular case, this means revisiting the last decades of the monarchy without the retrospective illusion that it was condemned to fall on November 15, 1889. The article favors the understanding of the nature of the liberal monarchist reformism at the end of the Empire, which was abruptly interrupted by the republican military coup. In the end, the article makes some considerations of a counterfactual nature.
Keywords:
Brazilian history; fall of the Empire; military issue; liberal reformism; Second Reign