Brazilian Republic

The Flag of the Brazilian Republic

## Lore Overview

The Brazilian Republic is a global superpower with uncontested dominance over South America. Arising from the flames of the Flash with significantly less damage then other nations, Brazil’s post-Flash recovery was rapid, regaining full control over the nation by 2071. Now a nationalistic, militarist state primarily run by a rogue military far out-powering its civilian government, Brazil has waged countless wars of conquest across and beyond the continent in its quest for power and influence over the Americas.

## History

### Pre-Flash

In the lead up to the Third World War, Brazil officially declared itself neutral, yet in practice, it increasingly pursued economic cooperation with the ACMF. This was the outcome of a gradual deterioration of US-Brazil relations in the aftermath of numerous scandals in the early 2020s that indicated US corporate involvement in government corruption. At the start of WW3, Brazil would face heavy pressure from NATO to align itself against the ACMF, requests which Brazil refused. US-Brazil tensions would peak in 2028 after the sinking of a Brazilian merchant vessel leaving South Africa, killing 261 sailors. Refusal from the US to take accountability pushed Brazil deeper into ties with the ACMF and fears of a NATO intervention in their country became a real fear for many Brazilians.

Fearing the escalating nature of WW3, the Brazilian government would establish the Nuclear Emergency Preparedness Commission (C.P.E.N - Comissão de Preparação para Emergências Nucleares) which would lay out protocols for the continuation of the Brazilian government in the event of a nuclear disaster. Taking the threat of nuclear war seriously, Brazil would begin ambitious projects for the protection of their people, commissioning the creation of numerous “closed cities” within rural and jungled areas of Brazil, major vacant settlements which could host tens of thousands of refugees. The nuclear bombing of Pyongyang in 2031 would dramatically increase the budget of the C.P.E.N program, and concurrent to this the Brazilian government would enact laws giving the government and military much more power and influence over everyday lives of Brazilians, suppressing freedom of speech and enacting state-wide censorship in order to protect the Brazilian state.

### Post-Flash

In November 2032, despite her neutrality, Brazil was targeted by nuclear missiles as part of America’s ‘Nuke your neighbor’ policy, succumbing to the flames of the Flash. Many interpret this move decades after also as a move of vengeance for Brazil’s troublesome relationship with the ACMF and their lack of support to NATO in WW3. Come to be known as “The Great Betrayal” (A Grande Traição), America’s unprovoked bombing would play an immense factor in Brazil’s foreign policy in the Reconstruction Era, cementing their militarism and revanchist desire to not only rid South America of US interference, but to humiliate and permanently weaken the US state.

With preparations already made, the President would enact the C.P.E.N forming an emergency government with the Presidency being granted absolute power. In the weeks following the Flash, remnants of the military would begin evacuating huge swathes of civilian refugees and industry towards the closed cities hidden within the Brazilian countryside and jungles. Prioritizing key workers such as doctors, engineers and scientists, the allowing the economy to be reignited in service of aiding the nation’s recovery. Life became incredibly harsh for common Brazilians. Lower working ages, rationed medicine, and back-breaking work quotas meant that many people simply worked themselves to death in early post-Flash Brazil, all while intense censorship and curfews kept the remaining populace in permanent fear of being imprisoned or exiled from their community if they dared to criticize the government. This era of post-Flash Brazil is simply known as “The Hardship” (A Dificuldade) by people..

Pressing on, the Brazilian military would start to recapture massive parts of Brazilian territory in 2034, fighting harsh battles against cartels, marauding raider gangs and strange plant-human hybrid mutants. “The Reclamation'' (A Reclamação) as it would come to be known, would later be accelerated by the end of the Nuclear Winter and the stabilization of the climate, leading to significant progress. Such was the miraculous advances of the military that by as early as 2052, the former capital, Brasilia was fully recaptured and decontaminated. In a strange display of the growing ideological factionalism prevalent in the emergency government, Marshal João Barreto, the supreme commander of the Brazilian army would jingotistically declare the founding of Greater Brazil, alongside its new capital Nova Brasilia and the formation of the Maior Exército Brasileiro (MEB), or Greater Brazilian Army, all without consulting the government. In a large and controversial rally, the Marshal spoke about “Brazil’s destiny for glory” and used the victory over Brasilia to spread his nationalist and imperialist rhetoric to the soldiers and liberated people of the city.

Exalted amongst the military and the civilian population, the Marshal's popularity for his conquest had cemented him as a celebrity, and labeled the MEB as heroes and defenders of Brazil, much to the shock and worry of the emergency government. This incident would intensify already ongoing tensions between the emergency government and the military, both of whom would compete for power and influence in post-Flash Brazil. The “Nova Brasilia Victory Rally”, as it would become known, is widely cited as the beginning of militarism and ultranationalist rhetoric becoming mainstream in Brazil.

### Reconstruction

Two decades after the declaration of Greater Brazil, on July 12th 2071, the last remaining pockets of large-scale organized cartel resistance in the North of Brazil would be destroyed, July 12th going on to be celebrated as “National Reclamation Day”. That year, Brazil began to trade on a large scale with other nations, sending out diplomatic missions abroad and quickly becoming recognized as a global military and economic powerhouse, rivaled only by the maritime empire of the United Enclave of British Counties (UEBC), the United Kingdom's successor state. In the culmination of military and governmental tensions, President Luiz Fonseca would enforce a decree putting an end to the C.P.E.N protocols in 2072, attempting to liberalize the country to gradually undo the vast power the military held, falsely believing the military would comply in a shared goal for stability and peace. This action would lead to the “August Incident”, a bloodless coup wherein Marshal Baretto would order 40,000 of the MEB to storm the capital and capture it, proving that the military had no interest in ceding power.

After a day-long siege at the Presidential Palace, the Presidency would reluctantly agree to reinforce the C.P.E.N protocols and recognize the military as an equal in governing Brazil. The impact of the August Incident is significant, the civilian government being effectively neutered in its aftermath and regulated to domestic administration, with the military being handed de-facto control of all aspects of the state, in particular foreign policy. In the weeks following the August Incident, the “Green Terror'' would begin. The three month long reign of terror marked the implementation of even harsher totalitarian laws, propagandist education reform, and widespread purges of any opponents to the new military order, including government officials and oligarchs.

Mere months after the August Coup, the start of Brazilian irredentist expansion would begin with the invasion of the territories that constituted the states of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, officially under the pretext of pursuing cartels fleeing persecution from Brazil, in reality the provinces were swiftly annexed and massively exploited for their rich natural resources. The following year, Brazilian involvement in the emergency governments of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay would also expand following years of financial and military aid. This heavy economic dominance, combined with military strong-arming turned these nations into puppet states indebted to Brazil, to the point that Venezuela freely allowed Brazil to occupy its southern half.

In 2080, MERCOSUR was revived as a supposedly mutually beneficial defensive and economic “Pan-American” pact between the nations of Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay. Officially its purpose was to strengthen economic ties and serve as a defensive bloc against foreign aggressors, but in reality it was a mere tool of Brazilian imperialism to strengthen Brazil’s grasp on its puppets. Brazil’s imperialism would become virtually unopposed in 2082 after a successful war against Argentina, Peru and Chile, constituents of the anti-MERCOSUR coalition “La Gran Unión del río Plata” (URP). Despite winning a costly war against the coalition and dismantling it in the process, Brazil was begrudgingly forced to allow the three nations to retain much of their independence due to the high cost an occupation would entail, only annexing the Malvinas (Falklands) and Tierra Del Fuego (Southern Argentina), giving Brazil full access to the Drake Passage, Brazil’s control over the Southern Atlantic and Pacific ocean strengthened even more by the occupation of the Panama Canal later that year.

### Atlanta Crisis

With their position as the dominant power in South America secured, Brazil would begin increasingly involving itself in North America through an alliance with the CDF. Behind closed doors, Brazil would begin plotting a coup with anti-US unification CDF nationalists, culminating in 2096 with the Atlanta Crisis which saw the covert deployment of thousands of Brazilian troops to assist the newly formed People’s Republic of Tidewater (PRT), the involvement of the MEB proving instrumental in the PRT coming into power and the development of the regime, Brazil directly laying the foundation for the authoritarian police state the PRT would become and forging it into a puppet state.

A year after the beginning of the Atlanta Crisis, the Greater Brazilian Navy would establish a blockade on all RCO shipping to North America, causing the UEBC to join the 2nd American Civil War on the side of the United States. In the aftermath of the PRT’s purge called the “Blue Terror” which crippled their military through the loss of talented administrators and military officials, Brazil was forced to deepen its involvement in the war in 2098, deploying hundreds of thousands of troops into the PRT, halting the US counter offensive.

During this time, the MEB in particular had proved itself as a world class fighting force. The dominant branch of the military, the MEB, holds an enormous budget and is one of the only institutions in Brazil that isn’t deeply corrupt. This is something achieved by a massive presence of ideologically indoctrinated military police and large-scale use of informants spying on MEB activity. This of course only applies for the common soldiery of the army, as the senior command (including and especially the Marshal) are all deeply corrupt and intertwined with Brazilian politics and corporations, this has little direct influence on the MEB’s fighting effectiveness though.

### Post-Ceasefire

By 2110, the 2nd American Civil War had stalled into a “forever war” with the frontline seeing no significant changes on either side, something which led the PRT and US to sign a nation-wide ceasefire two years later  in 2112. By 2115 (the start date of TW) Brazil had invested an enormous amount of resources in economic and military aid to the PRT over its existence which alongside propaganda has created a carefully cultured reputation of Brazil as a benevolent benefactor aiding the PRT’s revolutionary struggle for independence. Behind closed doors however Brazil frequently intervenes in the Tidewater’s government and has immense sway in all government institutions.

Brazil has cautiously welcomed the ceasefire alongside peace negotiations in hopes of finally securing the PRT’s position as an independent nation. Despite the ceasefire, Brazil continues to fight a secret war with the US through the usage of proxies (such as Reuben’s Corsairs). There is also the ongoing guerilla insurgency conducted by “The Reds” an organization with unknown origins or goals. Meanwhile in South America, Brazil is currently devoting massive amounts of resources and troops to counter-insurgency missions across the MERCOSUR states and the mainland, fighting anti-government rebels and cartels vying for power, limiting the resources it can devote to North America. “The Northern Campaign'' as it has come to be known is the MEB’s most costly, with 400,000 total troops being deployed, 150,000 of which are combat troops, many consisting of the most seasoned and well-equipped units Brazil has to offer. One such combat unit is the prestigious 27th Parachutist Brigade, with its 12th company currently garrisoned in the Halfmoon region. Despite the heavy loss of life and resources in the war, morale among soldiers and back home in Brazil stays strong as a result of immense propaganda, many civilians viewing the war as a patriotic crusade against the country that destroyed their nation in the Flash.

It is an understatement to say that the 2nd American Civil War is significant to Brazil, it is the culmination of decades of Brazilian propaganda and indoctrination demonizing the United States as the harbingers of the Flash and the murderers of millions of Brazilians. Even disregarding the ideological aspects, the Brazilian war economy which has so far been built on conquest and colonialism, has become fragile and overstretched, and if the MEB fail in securing victory alongside the vast resources of the PRT (or the US) to repay their debt, Brazil’s aspirations for trans-continental dominance will fall alongside the PRT.