page_title: Brazilian battleship Minas Geraes
section_title: First World War
hierarchical_section_title: Brazilian battleship Minas Geraes / First World War
caption_attribution_description: Português: Encouraçado Minas Geraes disparo de canhões de 12 polegadas. English: Caption from Scientific American: "During the gun trial of "Minas Geraes" ten 12-inch guns were trained on the broadside and discharged simultaneously. The combined energy of the projectiles amounted to 500,000 foot-tons, or sufficient to lift the ship bodily 26 feet into the air. ... The Greatest Broadside ever fired from a battleship."
context_page_description: Minas Geraes, spelled Minas Gerais in some sources, was a dreadnought battleship of the Brazilian Navy. Named in honor of the state of Minas Gerais, the ship was laid down in April 1907 as the lead ship of its class, making the country the third to have a dreadnought under construction and igniting a naval arms race between Brazil, Argentina, and Chile.
  Two months after its completion in January 1910, Minas Geraes was featured in Scientific American, which described it as "the last word in heavy battleship design and the ... most powerfully armed warship afloat". In November 1910, Minas Geraes was the focal point of the Revolt of the Lash. The mutiny, triggered by racism and physical abuse, spread from Minas Geraes to other ships in the Navy, including its sister São Paulo, the elderly coastal defense ship Deodoro, and the recently commissioned cruiser Bahia. Led by the "Black Admiral" João Cândido Felisberto, the mutineers threatened to bombard the Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro if their demands were not met.
context_section_description: Even though the First World War did not touch Brazilian soil, it had crushing effects on Brazil's economy. Prices for rubber and coffee plummeted; the war had only a small need for rubber, and Britain allowed no coffee into Europe as space on merchant ships was reserved for "essential items". In addition, coffee was declared to be contraband, so every Brazilian shipment to the Central Powers was subject to search and seizure; even shipments to some neutral countries were barred to ensure that no coffee would get through. Despite these restrictions, neutral Brazil was pro-Allied for the first three years of the war because of its sizable merchant fleet; as merchantmen from Allied countries were sunk, Brazilian ships were able to take over routes that had been vacated. This policy exposed them to attack by German submarines, and after the German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917, several Brazilian ships were sunk, driving the country closer to declaring war on the Central Powers.
  Brazil revoked its neutrality in the war between the United States and Germany on 1 June 1917, but did not declare war. At the same time, all German merchant ships interned in Brazilian harbors, 45 in all, were boarded and seized; most were unusable due to neglect or sabotage. On 28 June, Brazil revoked its neutrality between all of the Allied and Central Powers but again stopped short of declaring war; this move allowed Brazilian merchantmen to travel in Allied convoys.
  The Brazilian Navy was sent out to patrol the South Atlantic with French, British and American naval units, even though none of its ships had anti-submarine capabilities and, not being at war with the Central Powers, its ships were not supposed to engage any threat outside territorial waters. Another Brazilian merchant ship, Macao, was sunk by German submarine U-93 off Spain on 18 October, and eight days later Brazil declared war.
  Brazil offered to send Minas Geraes and São Paulo to serve with the British Grand Fleet, but this offer was declined because both ships were in poor condition and lacked modern fire-control systems. Neither of the two dreadnoughts had undergone any form of refitting since their original construction in Britain.  Fourteen of São Paulo's eighteen boilers failed when voyaging to New York in June 1918 for a modernization.
caption: Minas Geraes' gun trials; this picture was taken when ten 12-inch guns were trained to port to fire a full broadside. A Scientific American article of 1910 remarked that this was "the greatest broadside ever fired from a battleship".[8]
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