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The image of national stability with which the earlier Campos Sales
administration had tried to dazzle foreign bankers also was shattered by a
series of military interventions, known as the Salvations, that replaced a
number of state governments. The national government, somewhat against Hermes da
Fonseca's inclination, sponsored what amounted to coups d'état against state
governments in Sergipe, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Pará, Piauí, Bahia, and Ceará.
In disorderly fashion, one oligarchic alliance substituted for another, often
with an army officer in charge. In the disastrous case of Bahia, the local army
commander bombarded the governor's palace and surrounding buildings. In 1911 São
Paulo's French-trained Public Force (Força Pública) and civilian Patriotic
Battalions saved the city from similar federal intervention.
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