Foreign battalions in the São Paulo Revolt of 1924
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The foreign battalions were three military units in the São Paulo Revolt of 1924 recruited from among immigrant communities by tenentist rebels in the city of São Paulo. 750 foreigners and their descendants, from a wide variety of nationalities, signed up; they were usually workers motivated by hunger and unemployment caused by the conflict. They formed the German, Hungarian and Italian battalions, in which even the commanders and officers were immigrants.
The largest and most active battalion was the German one. A minority of its members were World War I veterans, contributing valuable skills to the rebels' war effort. Some were immediately employed in the fighting across the city, while others worked in the maintenance and creation of ordnance in workshops behind the front lines. Part of the combatants accompanied the rebels after their withdrawal from São Paulo, at the end of July 1924, and some joined the Miguel Costa-Prestes Column in the following years. The recruitment of immigrants outraged government supporters, who called them mercenaries and emphasized the image of immigrant workers as sources of political radicalism.
In the 1920s, immigrants and their direct descendants formed more than half of the population of São Paulo, which reached around 700,000 inhabitants in 1924. Attracted by the rapid industrialization, foreign communities settled mainly in the working-class neighborhoods of the east of the city, such as Brás, Mooca and Belenzinho. Italians were the most numerous, with smaller populations of Spaniards, Germans, Arabs, and Japanese.[1][2][3] The Hungarian community, with about six thousand people, was concentrated in the neighborhoods of Lapa and Vila Pompeia.[4] Mooca and Brás were the scene of the 1917 general strike, the largest in the country until then.[5] The São Paulo labor movement was the target of the image of the "foreign agitator", typically Italian or Spanish, disseminating socialist or anarchist ideas.[6]
On 5 July 1924, tenentists led by general Isidoro Dias Lopes took up arms in the city against the federal government of Artur Bernardes. The resulting urban warfare brought starvation and violence to the civilian population.[7] From 11 April, loyalist forces began an intense artillery bombardment, which claimed, for the most part, the lives of civilians, especially in the working-class neighborhoods.[8][9][10] Employment in factories and workshops came to a standstill,[11] while food supplies were in crisis.[12] Among the population, there was a perception that the government specifically attacked the Italians of Brás and Mooca.[13] Previously existing grievances and the loyalist bombardment created popular support for the rebels.[14][15] It was in this context that the revolutionaries enlisted volunteers to reinforce their front lines.[16]
Formation and composition
The battalions were organized after 20 July, when the financial conditions of many of their members had already deteriorated from days of work interruption. The most cited reasons for joining, according to the testimonies collected after the revolt, were precisely the lack of resources, hunger and unemployment. Some were lured by the revolutionaries' promises—[17] at least 50 bushels of land inland, alongside a railroad track. According to journalist Milton Heller, this commitment was never taken seriously by the revolutionary leadership.[18] But the immediate benefits were attractive: the pay was 10,000 réis for soldiers, 25,000 for lieutenants and 30,000 for captains. The revolutionary command paid 20 days in advance.[19] Other participants, in their testimonies, cited coercion by the revolutionaries, or the fear of being shot after the government returned to the city. In either case, it was common for neighbors and relatives to volunteer.[17]
The revolutionaries did not accept any volunteers, but only those who accepted or did not interfere with their political project; accordingly, the offer of support from leftist proletarian leaders was turned down.[20] Even so, ideological motivations may explain the participation of some "middle class" volunteers (journalists, lawyers and bank employees). There were fighters inspired by socialist, communist, and anarchist ideas,[21] especially within the Italian battalion.[19]
The number of foreign fighters was 700[22] or 750, organized into three battalions: German, Hungarian, and Italian.[23] Its participants were not restricted to these three nationalities: their origins also included Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, Poland, Russia, Portugal and Spain. Some were Brazilians. Officers were chosen from among those who could prove a post previously held in a European army. The commanders were directly subordinate to the revolutionary staff and had an interpreter and a liaison officer. In the German battalion, officers did not communicate with the troops in Portuguese, and all documentation was written in German; the Hungarian battalion had a similar organization.[24][25]
The so-called "Patriotic Battalion of the German Colony" was the largest and most militarily active of the three. Its membership, including Austrians, Swiss, Danes, and Swedes, numbered 300 men.[26] Another report quantified 650 men, of which 200 would be German, 80 Italian and 370 Brazilian.[27] The most cited leader in the testimonies of participants was captain Arnaldo Kuhn; others mentioned João Joaquim Tuchen, Antonio Missoni and Henrique Schulz.[28] The organization's headquarters were on Liberdade Avenue.[4]
The Hungarian Patriotic Battalion, or "Hungarian Cavalry Squadron",[29] would have numbered 180, including Poles, Romanians, and Czechoslovaks. Commanded by Maximiliano Agid,[30] it was headquartered on Tiradentes Avenue.[4] Documentation seized from that battalion listed 122 members.[31]
The Italian battalion was organized by Lamberti Sorrentino, Aldo Mario Geri and Ítalo Landucci. It numbered about 60 men, of which 40 were Italians and the rest were Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian. This number is very small considering the large Italian population in the city. This can be explained by the repression of the trade union movement, in which Italians actively participated, before the revolt.[32] The Italian community was older and more structured, therefore the battalion's members had greater chances of escaping the police and its documentation, unlike the other two, was not seized by government forces, reducing the availability of information.[33]