Getulio Vargas | president of Brazil | Britannica.com president of Brazil Alternative Title: Getúlio Dorneles Vargas Getulio Vargas Michel Temer Getúlio Vargas, in full Getúlio Dorneles Vargas (born April 19, 1882 [see Researchers Note ], , São Borja, Braz.—died Aug. 24, 1954, Rio de Janeiro ), president of Brazil (1930–45, 1951–54), who brought social and economic changes that helped modernize the country. Although denounced by some as an unprincipled dictator, Vargas was revered by his followers as the “Father of the Poor,” for his battle against big business and large landowners. His greatest accomplishment was to guide Brazil as it weathered the far-reaching consequences of the Great Depression and the accompanying polarization between communism and fascism during his long tenure in office. Vargas, 1951 AP Vargas was born in the state of Rio Grande do Sul , into a family prominent in state politics. Contemplating a military career, he joined the army when he was 16 but soon decided to study law.

In 1908, shortly after graduating from the Porto Alegre Law School, he entered politics. By 1922 he had risen rapidly in state politics and was elected to the National Congress, in which he served for four years. In 1926 Vargas became minister of finance in the Cabinet of President Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa , a post he retained until his election as governor of Rio Grande do Sul in 1928. From his position as state governor, Vargas campaigned unsuccessfully as reform candidate for the presidency of Brazil in 1930. While appearing to accept defeat, Vargas in October of that year led the revolution, organized by his friends, that overthrew the oligarchical republic. For the next 15 years Vargas assumed largely dictatorial powers, ruling most of that time without a congress. He held sole power as provisional president from Nov. 3, 1930, until July 17, 1934, when he was elected president by the constituent assembly. During this time he survived a São Paulo-led revolt in 1932 and an attempted communist revolution in 1935. On Nov.

10, 1937, Vargas presided over a coup d’état that set aside the constitutional government and set up the populist authoritarian Estado Novo (“New State”). In 1938 he, along with members of his family and staff, personally resisted an attempt to overthrow his government by Brazilian fascists. Prior to 1930 the federal government had been in effect a federation of autonomous states, dominated by rural landholders and financed largely by the proceeds of agricultural exports. Under Vargas this system was destroyed. The tax structure was revised to make state and local administrations dependent upon the central authority, the electorate was quadrupled and granted the secret ballot, women were enfranchised, extensive educational reforms were introduced, social-security laws were enacted, labour was organized and controlled by the government, and workers were assured a wide range of benefits, including a minimum wage , while business was stimulated by a program of rapid industrialization . Vargas, however, did not change the private-enterprise system, nor did his social reforms extend in practice to the rural poor. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent But on Oct.

29, 1945, Vargas was overthrown by a coup d’état in a wave of democratic sentiment sweeping postwar Brazil. He still, however, retained wide popular support. Although elected as senator from Rio Grande do Sul in December 1945, he went into semiretirement until 1950, when he emerged as the successful presidential candidate of the Brazilian Labour Party. He took office on Jan. 31, 1951. As an elected president restrained by congress, a profusion of political parties, and public opinion, Vargas was unable to satisfy his labour following or to placate mounting middle-class opposition. Thus, he resorted increasingly to ultranationalistic appeals to hold popular support and incurred the animosity of the U.S. government, which encouraged intransigent opposition from his enemies. By mid-1954 criticism of the government was widespread, and the armed forces, professing shock over scandals within the regime, joined in the call for Vargas’s withdrawal. Rather than accept forced retirement, Vargas took his life on Aug. 24, 1954.

His dramatic deathbed testament to the country led to a great resurgence of mass support, allowing for a rapid return of his followers to power. Brazil - The Era of Get�lio Vargas, 1930-54 The Era of Get�lio Vargas, 1930-54 Brazil Table of Contents Just as the 1889 regime change led to a decade of unrest and painful adjustment, so too did the revolts of 1930. Provisional President Get�lio Dorneles Vargas ruled as dictator (1930-34), congressionally elected president (1934-37), and again dictator (1937-45), with the backing of his revolutionary coalition. He also served as a senator (1946-51) and the popularly elected president (1951-54). Vargas was a member of the gaucho-landed oligarchy and had risen through the system of patronage and clientelism, but he had a fresh vision of how Brazilian politics could be shaped to support national development.

He understood that with the breakdown of direct relations between workers and owners in the expanding factories of Brazil, workers could become the basis for a new form of political power--populism. Using such insights, he would gradually establish such mastery over the Brazilian political world that he would stay in power for fifteen years. During those years, the preeminence of the agricultural elites ended, new urban industrial leaders acquired more influence nationally, and the middle class began to show some strength. Tenentismo , or the lieutenants' rebellion against the army and governmental hierarchies, faded as a distinctive movement after 1931, in part because its adherents promoted the preservation of state autonomy when the trend toward increased centralization was strong. Individual lieutenants continued to exercise important roles, but they made their peace with the traditional political forces. In 1932 S�o Paulo, whose interests and pride suffered under the new regime, rose in revolt. The three-month civil war saw many officers who had lost out in 1930 or were otherwise disgruntled join the Paulistas, but federal forces defeated them. A new constitution in 1934 reorganized the political system by creating a legislature with both state and social-sector representatives.

It contained some electoral reforms, including women's suffrage, a secret ballot, and special courts to supervise elections. The Constituent Assembly elected Vargas president for a four-year term. However, the attempt to harness the revolution to the old system, somewhat remodeled, would soon fail completely and take Brazil into prolonged dictatorship. The left helped in that process by becoming a creditable threat. On misguided instructions from Moscow based on misinformation from Brazil, the Brazilian communists, led by a former tenente, staged a revolt in 1935, but it was rapidly suppressed. In the 1930s, the civilian elites feared that Brazil would suffer a civil war similar to Spain's, and so for the first time in Brazilian history they supported a strong, unified military. The Estado Novo gave the army its long-held desire for control over the states' Military Police (Policia Militar) units. The elites of the old state p�trias gave up their independent military power in return for federal protection of their interests. This process was not always a willing one, as the Paulista revolt of 1932 showed, but federal monopoly of military force escalated the power of the central government to levels previously unknown.

A significant turning point in the history of Brazil had been reached. Under the Estado Novo, state autonomy ended, appointed federal officials replaced governors, and patronage flowed from the president downward. All political parties were dissolved until 1944, thus limiting opportunities for an opposition to organize. In the process, Vargas eliminated threats from the left and the right. At the local level, "colonels" survived by declaring their loyalty and accepting their share of patronage for distribution to their own underlings. The Vargas years had their greatest impact on national politics and economics and their least impact at the local level where the older forms of power continued well into the 1950s. Even in the 1990s, local political bosses were tagged "colonels." Vargas took care to absorb the rural and commercial elites into his power base. He had the ability to make former enemies supporters, or at least neutrals. The Vargas years saw the reorganization of the armed forces, the economy, international trade, and foreign relations. The government restored the old imperial palace in Petr�polis and encouraged the preservation of historic buildings and towns.

The average annual rise in the gross domestic product (GDP--see Glossary) was nearly 4 percent. Brazil's first steel mill at Volta Redonda (1944) was the start of the great industrial output of the second half of the century. The 1930-45 era added corporatism (see Glossary) to the Brazilian political lexicon. Even as it channeled investment into industry, the Estado Novo classified strikes as crimes and grouped the government-controlled unions into separate sector federations that were not allowed to form across-the-board national organizations. The idea was to keep the lines of control vertical (vertical integration--see Glossary). The government decreed regular wage and benefits increases and slowly expanded an incomplete social security system. Its minimum wage levels were never satisfactory. The regime's propaganda touted state paternalism and protection and depicted Vargas as the benefactor of the working classes. He also was the benefactor of the factory owners, who saw industry expand 11.2 percent a year throughout the 1930s, which meant that it more than doubled during the decade. Indeed, growth and repression were the twin orders of the day.

Journalists and novelists were censored, jailed, and discouraged. The army restricted access to the military schools to those with acceptable racial, familial, religious, educational, and political characteristics. As a result of these repressive measures, the suspension of political activities, and the government's support of rearming and modernizing the military, the army gained a coherence and unity that it had not experienced since before 1922. The popular status that the army won by participating in the Italian campaign (1944-45) of World War II also permitted the High Command, under General Pedro Aur�lio de G�es Monteiro, a long-time supporter of Vargas, to step into the successionist crisis of October 1945 to depose Vargas and to cut short the political mobilization of the masses that the generals believed would upset the social order. Not to have acted would have violated the implicit agreement made with the elites when the latter surrendered their independent state military forces to federal control. The elected government over which President Eurico Gaspar Dutra presided from 1946 to 1951 opened under the decree laws of the Estado Novo and continued under the new constitution of 1946.

This charter reflected the strong conservative tendency in Brazilian politics by incorporating ideas from the constitution of 1934 and the social legislation of the Estado Novo. Over the next years, the various cabinet changes traced the government's steady movement toward the right. The Dutra administration was supported by the same conservative interventionist army that had backed the previous regime. Indeed, Dutra, who though retired from active duty, was inaugurated in his dress uniform and was promoted to general of the army and then to marshal while in office, made the point that he still belonged to the military class (classe militar ), that he would not neglect its needs, and that he would guide the army politically. More dispassionate observers see the ending of Vargas's productive leadership--during which the average annual rise in the GDP was nearly 4 percent--as the reaction of the landowning and business elite allied with the urban middle class against the processes of change. Dutra's years in office displayed a minimal level of state participation and intervention in the economy.

It was indeed ironic that the man who led Brazil through the first steps of its "experiment with democracy" was a general who, in the early years of World War II, was so antiliberal that he had opposed aligning Brazil with the democratic countries against Nazi Germany. He was a fervent anticommunist, who quickly broke the diplomatic ties Vargas had established with the Soviet Union, outlawed the Brazilian Communist Party, and supported the United States in the opening phases of the Cold War. He exchanged official visits with President Harry S. Truman and sought American aid for continued economic development. Dutra's government improved the railways, completed construction of roads that connected Rio de Janeiro to Salvador and S�o Paulo, and expanded the electrical generating and transmission systems. It also cooperated with the states in building more than 4,000 new rural schools and supported construction of new university buildings in various states. In 1951 it also created the National Research Council (Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas--CNPq), which would be important in developing capabilities and university faculties in coming decades (see Science and Technology as Modernization, 1945-64, ch. 6).

His mandate was marked by heated disputes over the nationalization of oil and plans for an international institute to study Amaz�nia. The latter were shelved amidst emotional charges that they would lead to the loss of half of the national territory; and the campaign for the former was suppressed violently. Dutra's military program included domestic arms production, sending many officers for training in the United States, expanding air force and naval schools and modernizing their equipment, and establishing the War College (Escola Superior de Guerra--ESG), which played such an important role in the political crises of the 1960s. Although Dutra could be criticized for not containing inflation and for allowing an importing frenzy that soon exhausted the savings of the war years, he managed to govern without declaring a state of siege, and he was the first elected president since 1926 to pass the office to his elected successor. As a candidate for president in the 1950 elections, Vargas advocated accelerating industrialization and expanding social legislation, and he was rewarded with a sizeable 49 percent of the vote.

Vargas's attempts to base his elected government (1951-54) firmly on populism induced military, elite, and United States fears of nationalism. Even so, it was a period of deepening political polarization. Anticommunist military officers saw red in every attempt to expand labor's influence and objected to wage increases for workers when the value of their own salaries was eroding steadily. The United States refused economic assistance that Brazilian leaders believed they deserved for providing bases, natural resources, and troops during World War II. The lack of postwar benefits, especially for the service of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (For�a Expedicion�ria Brasileira--FEB), caused Vargas and part of the military to reject the idea of sending troops to fight in Korea. Although the United States government did not want to provide economic aid, it also did not want the Brazilian government to take an active role in developing the country's resources. Washington's desire to secure Brazil as a safe place for private United States investment clashed with Brazil's treatment of foreign-owned utilities.

Foreign interests had been too slow in developing energy resources, so the Vargas government created the Brazilian Petroleum Corporation (Petr�leo Brasileiro S.A.--Petrobr�s) in 1953 and the Brazilian Electric Power Company (Centrais El�tricas Brasileiras S.A.--Eletrobr�s) in 1961. The "Petroleum is Ours!" campaign of the nationalists caused arguments within the military over what was best to do. Some officers embraced the antistatist attitude that Washington was sponsoring. The bitterly fought, emotional debate over the creation of Petrobr�s poisoned political life and contributed to the subsequent military interventions. The Vargas administration dissolved in frustration and charges of corruption; faced with military demands for his resignation, Vargas shot himself on August 24, 1954. His death produced considerable public sympathy, which in turn strengthened his reputation as "father of the poor." His influence in Brazilian politics was felt for decades.

Custom Search Getulio Vargas - On This Day On This Day Nationality: Brazilian Profession: President and Dictator of Brazil Why Famous: Served as the President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and then in a democratically elected term from 1951 until 1954. He led Brazil for 18 years, the most of any President, and second in Brazilian history only to Emperor Pedro II among heads of government. He favored nationalism, industrialization, centralization, social welfare and populism. He was both a proponent of workers' rights and a staunch anti-communist. Died: August 24 , 1954 (aged 71) Cause of Death: Suicide Historical Events in the Life of Getulio Vargas 1930-10-24 A bloodless coup d'état in Brazil ousts Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last President of the First Republic.

Getúlio Vargas then installed as "provisional president." 1930-11-03 Getúlio Dornelles Vargas became Head of the Provisional Government in Brazil after a bloodless coup on October 24. 1933-11-16 Brazilian President Getulio Vargas declares himself dictator 1937-11-10 Brazilian dictator Getulio Vargas proclaims "Estado novo" 1945-10-29 Getulio Vargas, President of Brazil, resigns. 1954-08-23 President Getulio Vargas of Brazil resigns temporarily Brazil The Era of Get�lio Vargas, 1930-54 - Flags, Maps, Economy, History, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System << Back to Brazil Society Just as the 1889 regime change led to a decade of unrest and painful adjustment, so too did the revolts of 1930.

Provisional President Get�lio Dorneles Vargas ruled as dictator (1930-34), congressionally elected president (1934-37), and again dictator (1937-45), with the backing of his revolutionary coalition. He also served as a senator (1946-51) and the popularly elected president (1951-54). Vargas was a member of the gaucho-landed oligarchy and had risen through the system of patronage and clientelism, but he had a fresh vision of how Brazilian politics could be shaped to support national development. He understood that with the breakdown of direct relations between workers and owners in the expanding factories of Brazil, workers could become the basis for a new form of political power--populism. Using such insights, he would gradually establish such mastery over the Brazilian political world that he would stay in power for fifteen years. During those years, the preeminence of the agricultural elites ended, new urban industrial leaders acquired more influence nationally, and the middle class began to show some strength.

Tenentismo , or the lieutenants' rebellion against the army and governmental hierarchies, faded as a distinctive movement after 1931, in part because its adherents promoted the preservation of state autonomy when the trend toward increased centralization was strong. Individual lieutenants continued to exercise important roles, but they made their peace with the traditional political forces. In 1932 S�o Paulo, whose interests and pride suffered under the new regime, rose in revolt. The three-month civil war saw many officers who had lost out in 1930 or were otherwise disgruntled join the Paulistas, but federal forces defeated them. A new constitution in 1934 reorganized the political system by creating a legislature with both state and social-sector representatives. It contained some electoral reforms, including women's suffrage, a secret ballot, and special courts to supervise elections. The Constituent Assembly elected Vargas president for a four-year term. However, the attempt to harness the revolution to the old system, somewhat remodeled, would soon fail completely and take Brazil into prolonged dictatorship. The left helped in that process by becoming a creditable threat.

On misguided instructions from Moscow based on misinformation from Brazil, the Brazilian communists, led by a former tenente, staged a revolt in 1935, but it was rapidly suppressed. In the 1930s, the civilian elites feared that Brazil would suffer a civil war similar to Spain's, and so for the first time in Brazilian history they supported a strong, unified military. The Estado Novo gave the army its long-held desire for control over the states' Military Police (Policia Militar) units. The elites of the old state p�trias gave up their independent military power in return for federal protection of their interests. This process was not always a willing one, as the Paulista revolt of 1932 showed, but federal monopoly of military force escalated the power of the central government to levels previously unknown. A significant turning point in the history of Brazil had been reached. Under the Estado Novo, state autonomy ended, appointed federal officials replaced governors, and patronage flowed from the president downward. All political parties were dissolved until 1944, thus limiting opportunities for an opposition to organize. In the process, Vargas eliminated threats from the left and the right.

At the local level, "colonels" survived by declaring their loyalty and accepting their share of patronage for distribution to their own underlings. The Vargas years had their greatest impact on national politics and economics and their least impact at the local level where the older forms of power continued well into the 1950s. Even in the 1990s, local political bosses were tagged "colonels." Vargas took care to absorb the rural and commercial elites into his power base. He had the ability to make former enemies supporters, or at least neutrals. The Vargas years saw the reorganization of the armed forces, the economy, international trade, and foreign relations. The government restored the old imperial palace in Petr�polis and encouraged the preservation of historic buildings and towns. The average annual rise in the gross domestic product (GDP--see Glossary) was nearly 4 percent. Brazil's first steel mill at Volta Redonda (1944) was the start of the great industrial output of the second half of the century. The 1930-45 era added corporatism (see Glossary) to the Brazilian political lexicon.

Even as it channeled investment into industry, the Estado Novo classified strikes as crimes and grouped the government-controlled unions into separate sector federations that were not allowed to form across-the-board national organizations. The idea was to keep the lines of control vertical (vertical integration--see Glossary). The government decreed regular wage and benefits increases and slowly expanded an incomplete social security system. Its minimum wage levels were never satisfactory. The regime's propaganda touted state paternalism and protection and depicted Vargas as the benefactor of the working classes. He also was the benefactor of the factory owners, who saw industry expand 11.2 percent a year throughout the 1930s, which meant that it more than doubled during the decade. Indeed, growth and repression were the twin orders of the day. Journalists and novelists were censored, jailed, and discouraged. The army restricted access to the military schools to those with acceptable racial, familial, religious, educational, and political characteristics. As a result of these repressive measures, the suspension of political activities, and the government's support of rearming and modernizing the military, the army gained a coherence and unity that it had not experienced since before 1922.

The popular status that the army won by participating in the Italian campaign (1944-45) of World War II also permitted the High Command, under General Pedro Aur�lio de G�es Monteiro, a long-time supporter of Vargas, to step into the successionist crisis of October 1945 to depose Vargas and to cut short the political mobilization of the masses that the generals believed would upset the social order. Not to have acted would have violated the implicit agreement made with the elites when the latter surrendered their independent state military forces to federal control. The elected government over which President Eurico Gaspar Dutra presided from 1946 to 1951 opened under the decree laws of the Estado Novo and continued under the new constitution of 1946. This charter reflected the strong conservative tendency in Brazilian politics by incorporating ideas from the constitution of 1934 and the social legislation of the Estado Novo. Over the next years, the various cabinet changes traced the government's steady movement toward the right. The Dutra administration was supported by the same conservative interventionist army that had backed the previous regime.

Indeed, Dutra, who though retired from active duty, was inaugurated in his dress uniform and was promoted to general of the army and then to marshal while in office, made the point that he still belonged to the military class (classe militar ), that he would not neglect its needs, and that he would guide the army politically. More dispassionate observers see the ending of Vargas's productive leadership--during which the average annual rise in the GDP was nearly 4 percent--as the reaction of the landowning and business elite allied with the urban middle class against the processes of change. Dutra's years in office displayed a minimal level of state participation and intervention in the economy. It was indeed ironic that the man who led Brazil through the first steps of its "experiment with democracy" was a general who, in the early years of World War II, was so antiliberal that he had opposed aligning Brazil with the democratic countries against Nazi Germany. He was a fervent anticommunist, who quickly broke the diplomatic ties Vargas had established with the Soviet Union, outlawed the Brazilian Communist Party, and supported the United States in the opening phases of the Cold War. He exchanged official visits with President Harry S.

Truman and sought American aid for continued economic development. Dutra's government improved the railways, completed construction of roads that connected Rio de Janeiro to Salvador and S�o Paulo, and expanded the electrical generating and transmission systems. It also cooperated with the states in building more than 4,000 new rural schools and supported construction of new university buildings in various states. In 1951 it also created the National Research Council (Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas--CNPq), which would be important in developing capabilities and university faculties in coming decades (see Science and Technology as Modernization, 1945-64, ch. 6). His mandate was marked by heated disputes over the nationalization of oil and plans for an international institute to study Amaz�nia. The latter were shelved amidst emotional charges that they would lead to the loss of half of the national territory; and the campaign for the former was suppressed violently.

Dutra's military program included domestic arms production, sending many officers for training in the United States, expanding air force and naval schools and modernizing their equipment, and establishing the War College (Escola Superior de Guerra--ESG), which played such an important role in the political crises of the 1960s. Although Dutra could be criticized for not containing inflation and for allowing an importing frenzy that soon exhausted the savings of the war years, he managed to govern without declaring a state of siege, and he was the first elected president since 1926 to pass the office to his elected successor. As a candidate for president in the 1950 elections, Vargas advocated accelerating industrialization and expanding social legislation, and he was rewarded with a sizeable 49 percent of the vote. Vargas's attempts to base his elected government (1951-54) firmly on populism induced military, elite, and United States fears of nationalism. Even so, it was a period of deepening political polarization. Anticommunist military officers saw red in every attempt to expand labor's influence and objected to wage increases for workers when the value of their own salaries was eroding steadily.

The United States refused economic assistance that Brazilian leaders believed they deserved for providing bases, natural resources, and troops during World War II. The lack of postwar benefits, especially for the service of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (For�a Expedicion�ria Brasileira--FEB), caused Vargas and part of the military to reject the idea of sending troops to fight in Korea. Although the United States government did not want to provide economic aid, it also did not want the Brazilian government to take an active role in developing the country's resources. Washington's desire to secure Brazil as a safe place for private United States investment clashed with Brazil's treatment of foreign-owned utilities. Foreign interests had been too slow in developing energy resources, so the Vargas government created the Brazilian Petroleum Corporation (Petr�leo Brasileiro S.A.--Petrobr�s) in 1953 and the Brazilian Electric Power Company (Centrais El�tricas Brasileiras S.A.--Eletrobr�s) in 1961. The "Petroleum is Ours!" campaign of the nationalists caused arguments within the military over what was best to do. Some officers embraced the antistatist attitude that Washington was sponsoring.

The bitterly fought, emotional debate over the creation of Petrobr�s poisoned political life and contributed to the subsequent military interventions. The Vargas administration dissolved in frustration and charges of corruption; faced with military demands for his resignation, Vargas shot himself on August 24, 1954. His death produced considerable public sympathy, which in turn strengthened his reputation as "father of the poor." His influence in Brazilian politics was felt for decades. Data as of April 1997 NOTE: The information regarding Brazil on this page is re-published from The Library of Congress Country Studies and the CIA World Factbook. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Brazil The Era of Get�lio Vargas, 1930-54 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Brazil The Era of Get�lio Vargas, 1930-54 should be addressed to the Library of Congress and the CIA. Please put this page in your BOOKMARKS - - - - - ~190.html Copyright © 2004 Photius Coutsoukis (all rights reserved) ctr040601 Chapter 6.

Government Instability (1930-present) CHAPTER 6. GOVERNMENTAL INSTABILITY (1930-present) MILITARY COUP (20 years) 1930 Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) The so-called "Republica Velha" (Old Republic) lasted until 1930 when, for the first time, the government was overthrown by force. The main aim of the victorious revolutionary movement headed by Getúlio Vargas was the reform of an electoral and political system which, in the absence of strong national parties, had led to the practice of electing presidents supported by the governors of the leading states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. Getulio Vargas, a former deputy, minister, and governor in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, overthrows government. The governors, in turn, secured the election of congressional representatives pledged to carry out the policies of the central government. Getúlio Vargas, who was to govern Brazil for the next 15 years, came to power at a troubled time. The country was feeling the effects of the world depression which drastically reduced the price of coffee.

The domestic political scene was affected not only by the resultant financial crisis, but also, as the decade advanced, by dashes between militant minorities inspired by ideas reaching the country from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the one hand, and by the Communist ideology imported from the Soviet Union on the other. Great Depression When the Great Depression hit, the government spent millions protecting coffee growers by buying crops at a guaranteed price. 1930s In 1930 the Brazilian writer Gilberto Freyre had to seek refuge in Portugal and the United States because of his political activity. Gilberto Freyre was born in Recife in 1900. He attended Baylor University in Texas. Earned a master's degree from Columbia. He taught sociology. Later lived on a hill overlooking Recife. 1931 The first initiative toward racial justice was the founding of the Brazilian Black Front in Sao Paulo in 1931. (Page 1995:74) It died in 1937 when Getuilo Vargas banned all political organizations.

1932 brief civil war; troops from Minas Gerais put down the Sao Paulo against Vargas 1933 The publication of Freyre's masterpiece Casa-Grande & Senzala (The Masters and the Slaves). A sociological study of the formation of Brazilian society in the sugar-growing regions of the country during the colonial period. Emphasized the importance of the distinct ethnic mix. Made Brazilian upper classes feel pride rather than shame. Freyre described the positive impact blacks had on the social fabric and national identity. 1934 In 1934, after the Vargas regime had been consolidated, a new constitution was introduced which greatly widened the franchise and gave the vote to women. 1937 In late 1937, shortly before the presidential elections were due, the heated political atmosphere and disruptive activities led President Vargas to declare a state of emergency. Vargas followed up his declaration by dissolving Congress and assuming extraordinary powers to govern by decree under an authoritarian charter.

However difficult the times, some important policies were adopted then which included the introduction of advanced social welfare legislation, a reform of the educational system, and substantial progress in industrialization, including the construction of Brazil's first big steel mill (1942-1946). Failed Communist uprising by military officers; Vargas becomes dictator. His new state was inspired by Italian Fascism. It lasted until the end of World War II. Vargas was very popular. The result was both political and economic success. 1942 When World War II started, the Vargas government could not ignore the spontaneous preference of the majority of Brazilians for the Allies. Popular sentiment, further inflamed by the hostile actions of German U-boats off the Brazilian coast, forced the President to abandon a neutral stance. In August, 1942, Vargas declared war on the Axis powers. Brazil equipped a 25,000-man strong Expeditionary Force which, attached to the U.S. Fifth Army, fought in Italy. Brazil was the only American country, besides the U.S. and Canada, to send armed forces to the European theater of war.

US forced Vargas to allow Allied air bases on the northeast coast, the nearest point to Africa; German submarines retaliate, killing over 600; Brazil declares war on Germany 1944 Abdias do Nascimento was a pioneer in the struggle against racial discrimination. In 1944 he cofounded the Black Experimental Theater. post-war period General Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1945-1951) As the war in Europe drew to its close, Vargas was forced to resign and elections were held to appoint a successor. Going to the polls for the first time in 15 years, the electorate gave the majority of their votes to General Eurico Gaspar Dutra who had been Vargas' Minister of the Army during the war. Vargas grudgingly endorsed the army general Eurico Dutra. 1946 A new democratic constitution was approved by a constituent assembly in 1946 which remained in force until 1967. 1947 Carmen Miranda appeared in Copacabana.

1950 Carmen Miranda starred in "A Date with Judy" and "Nancy Goes to Rio." NON-MILITARY RESPITE (14 Years) 1951 Vargas (1951-1954) Vargas returns as elected president; gets US mad on oil industry matters. But powerful enemies in the armed forces and on the right made his second term a turbulent one. 1951 Dutra's term came to an end in 1951. Meanwhile Vargas, who had sat out his exile at his ranch in Rio Grande do Sul, had prepared for the elections. Vargas had come to reap some of the rewards of his progressive measures in the fields of social welfare and trade union legislation. At the conclusion of Dutra's term, Vargas was constitutionally elected president of the republic. 1951 Enactment of the nation's first antidiscrimination legislation as a result of the refusal of a Sao Paulo hotel to admit Katherine Dunham, a black dancer from the United States. (Page 1995:75) 1954 Vargas proposed a lot of changes that in the charged climate of the Cold War brought charges of veering toward communism.

An especially vitriolic attack was led by the ambitious journalist Carlos Lacerda. Forces defending Lacerda tried to assassinate him. They missed. Vargas was not behind it, but the press campaign rose to a crescendo. On August 25, 1954, the military High Command demanded his resignation. Vargas received the news calmly, went into his bedroom in the Palacio de Catete in Rio and shot himself in the heart. A caretaker administration finished his term of office. Lacerda forced to flee the country during the following outcry. Eighteen months of tension followed, as an interim government marked time until the next election. 1955 Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-1961) From Minas Gerais, Juscelino Kubitschek elected to succeed Vargas. In 3 years he built Brasilia, 700 miles inland from Rio and Sao Paulo. 1956 Brazil experienced five years of accelerated economic expansion under President Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-1961), the founder of Brasília.

He imported the extravagantly talented Oscar Niemeyer, whose brief was to come up with a revolutionary city layout. Kubitschek spent almost every weekend on the huge building site that became the city. 1958 Brazil's triumph in the World Cup soccer championship in Sweden. 1959 Cuban revolution 1960 The voters elected a man who promised to sweep away corruption and reinvigorate democratic rule. The election of Janio Quadros provoked disastrous consequences. 1961 Janio Quadros (1961-1961) Kubitschek succeeded by Janio Quadros (supported Castro). President Jânio Quadros resigned after less than a year in office. He had won as an "antipolitician" reformist. He turned out to be quirky and erratic. (Page 1995:19) Quadros resigned in August, the anniversary of Vargas's suicide. He had wanted the masses to sweep him back into office. He shrunk from suicide and ended up shooting himself in the foot rather than the hear. The masses stayed home. Vice president João Goulart took office; US suspicious.

João Goulart (1961-1964) Quadros' vice president was João Goulart. Goulart was sworn in as president only after Congress hastily voted in a parliamentary system which drastically curtailed presidential powers. In a plebiscite held four months later, however, President Goulart was able to persuade the voters to restore the old presidential system. Rampant inflation and political polarization between left and right led to two and a half tumultuous years of political and social unrest and economic crisis. Goulart was a populist who deeply distrusted the armed forces and the economic elite. He inherited an economy wracked by inflation. His efforts to redistribute wealth led to a frightening of the middle and upper classes. Military overthrew him in 1964. President Kennedy launches the Alliance for Progress; 600 Peace Corps volunteers to Brazil 1962 Brazil wins the 1962 World Cup soccer championship in Chile BACK TO MILITARY RULE (21 Years, 1964-1985) The Northeast was being left behind the industrial south. The result was the Peasant Leagues movement.

Peasants under the charismatic leadership of Francisco Julia and the governor of The Pernambuco, Miguel Arraes, began forming co-operatives and occupying estates to press their claim for agrarian reform. The estate owners cried communism and agitated for a military coup. 1964 Fearing Goulart's Marxist leanings, the military overthrew him in a coup on March 31, 1964. The United States backed the military coup. The generals succeeded each other every 4 years for 21 years; troops from Minas Gerais moved against Rio to ensure success of the military coup. General Humberto Castello Branco (1964-1967) The period 1964 to 1985 was one of military rule, with some relaxation of control after 1979. This period saw five presidents, all of them military generals. The first, Humberto Castello Branco, came to power on a wave of anti-communism. His main task was to stabilize the country's political and economic situation. Extensive amendments were made to the Constitution to provide the government with the powers and mechanisms to achieve those goals.

1967 General Costa e Silva (1967-1974) 1968 By 1968, in the term of President Arthur da Costa e Silva, the economic strategies appeared to be working. Inflation was contained and foreign firms began to make new investments, assured of the regime's stability. Politically, however, in response to the continued unrest, the government became increasingly repressive. During the next 15 years, 1968-1983, the government issued several Institutional Acts which were, in effect, presidential decrees. Many individual and collective rights were suspended during this period. New austerity measures affected economic and political life. Collective bargaining was eliminated, strikes were virtually outlawed, and the working class movement was curtailed. In 1968 the black Abdias do Nascimento was forced into exile by the military regime because of his speaking out frequently on race-related issues. He spent the next 14 years at universities in the United States.

(Page 1995:80) 1968-1973 economy averaging over 10% growth rate every year Between 1967 and 1974 Brazil enjoyed one of the greatest rates of economic growth in the world with real growth as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reaching 14 percent in 1973. 1969 Urban guerrilla campaign took off in the cities. Its most spectacular success was the kidnapping of the American ambassador in 1969. President Costa e Silva resigned in 1969 because of illness. He was immediately succeeded by a military junta and two months later by Emílio Garrastazu Médici. The worst period of military rule began. Torture became routine. Lasted for 5 years. 1970's Resuscitation of a black movement in Brazil partly inspired by the civil-rights struggle in the United States. 1972 Maoist-inspired revolt lead to death of the 80 guerillas. Also, military decides on a Transamazon Highway. Today much of the road has been washed away by heavy rains.

In 1972 a report by the Ministry of Justice investigation team detailed the woeful inadequacies of Brazil's prisons: filthy, overcrowded and undermanned. 1973 The quadrupling of oil prices in the wake of the 1973 Middle East conflict caused the economic bubble to burst. By the late 1970s the country was mired in a deep recession. Brazil's foreign debt raced past the $100 billion dollar mark. (Page 1995:21) 1974 The five bad years of darkness gave way to Ernest Geisel. mid-1970s By the mid 1970's Ernesto Geisel, who was then president, proposed a period of political liberalization - gradual steps which would lead to restoration of democratic rule. 1977 Metalworkers strike in Sao Paulo. Led by union that were still illegal, and the charismatic young factory worker Lula (Luis Inacio da Silva). There was a tense stand-off between army and strikers, until the military realized that having Sao Paulo on strike would be worse for the economy than conceding the right to free trade unions.

1978 The death of a black worker at the hands of the police and the expulsion of four black boys from a volleyball team furnished the spark that led to the formation of the Unified Black Movement Against Racial Discrimination. 1979 General João Baptista Figueiredo (1979-1985) In 1979,João Baptista Figueiredo (hand-picked by Geisel) was inaugurated President. This was also the beginning of "opening" ("abertura"), the process of restoring the political rights which had been revoked. Many of the country's exiles were allowed to return. The year also marked an acceleration of the public's demand for re-democratization. Figueiredo maintained a steady hand on the opening process. By 1979 Rio had become the ninth most violent city in the world. (Page 1995:242) 1980s 3/4s of the people are urban 1980 A newspaper crime survey found that 772 women were murdered by their husbands or lovers in Sao Paulo and few perpetrators of these crimes were ever punished.

(Page 1995:256) 1982 In 1982, the country held direct elections for state governors, the first such elections since 1965. Luis Ignacio da Silva founded the Workers party and ran for governor of the state of Sao Paulo in 1982. A union organizer in a country where strikes were then illegal, he tested the limits of Brazil's democracy and was compared to Lech Walesa of Poland. Abdias returns to Brazil from the U.S. exile and was elected to the federal Chamber of Deputies. He was the only member who identified himself as a black. (Page 1995:80) 1983-84 The mass campaign for direction elections. CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT (1985 to the present) 1984 In 1984, there were nationwide demonstrations demanding direct "Elections Now" ("Diretas Já ") to choose a new president.

1985 Tancredo Neves (1985-1989) back to civilian government; from Minas Gerais,Tancredo Neves, midwife to the rebirth of Brazilian democracy in 1985; Brazil 10th largest economy. Tancredo was ex-minister of justice under Vargas, ex-prime ministers and a wise old mineiro fox. In January, 1985, Tancredo de Almeida Neves was chosen president by an Electoral College. His election was significant because he was not only the first civilian president to be elected in 21 years, but also because he was the candidate of an opposition coalition. On March 14, 1985, on the eve of his inauguration, Neves was rushed to a hospital overcome with a lingering illness he had endured for several months. He had a bleeding stomach tumor that proved benign. But while in the hospital he picked up an infection and six weeks later died of septicaemia. The lingering agony and untimely demise of Tancredo Neves in 1985 touched off an unfettered outpouring of collective anxiety and grief.

(Page 1995:16) His funeral was the largest mass event in Brazilian history; a crowd of two million carried his coffin from the hospital where he had died in Sao Paulo to Garulhos airport. José Sarney (1985-1990) The man who became acting president was Vice President José Sarney, a second-league politician from Maranhao. When Neves died five weeks later, José Sarney was sworn in as president promising to maintain the course set by Tancredo Neves. The first priority of President Sarney was to gather a National Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution. Never in the history of Brazil was one able to observe such a high degree of popular participation in the drafting of a law. Sarney was a disaster. Very indecisive; lots of corruption; no progress on the economic front: hyperinflation. He actually made the military look good. 1988 After 18 months of deliberations a new constitution was promulgated on October 5, 1988. Assassination of Chico Mendes, leader of the rubber tappers' union and eloquent defender of the forest.

1989 In the first direct presidential election held since 1960, Fernando Collor de Mello was elected President in November, 1989. The Brazilians had not cast their ballots for a president for almost 30 years. Fernando Collor de Mello, an arrogant young outsider with a playboy lifestyle, plunges economy into recession 1990 Fernando Collor de Mello (1990-1992) 1992 September 29, 1992, allegations of corruption within his government. His own brother accused him of corruption. Collor was suspended by the Chamber of Deputies as President for 180 days during which time he faced impeachment before the Senate who decided to remove him permanently from office. On December 29, 1992, minutes after they had brought corruption charges against him, Collor resigned, but the Senate decided nonetheless to impeach him by a large majority.

Itamar Franco (1992-1995) Three hours later,Itamar Franco, who served as Vice President under Collor, was sworn in as President to serve the remaining two years of Collor's five-year term. Collor's impeachment by the House of Deputies, his trial by the Senate, and his resignation mark a new chapter in the political history of Brazil. Itamar Franco was a mediocre politician. He was ill-equipped to deal with the problems facing Brazil. He was a populist. The country drifted aimlessly. Weak leader. His prime minister was former sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso. The real power in the government was with Cardoso. He claimed to succession was via his implementing the Plano Real in 1994. In June 1992 Brazil was host to more than 100 world leaders for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit. 1993 8 street children killed by police in Rio. 1994 Brazil won the World Cup Itamar Franco has some erratic personal behavior problems.

At the 1994 Rio Carnival, a female participant in the parade joined him in his box and when she stood next to him and raised her arms to salute the crowd, it was revealed she was wearing only a T-shirt that failed to cover her private parts. (Page 1995:28) 1994 The Plano Real helped tame inflation and stabilize the economy. A grateful public gave Cardoso an overwhelming first-round victory in the presidential election later that year. He trounced Lula in every state but Brasilia and the Distrito Federal. 1995 Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-present) In the first 3 and a half years, the Cardoso team succeeded in reducing annual inflation to less than 5 percent for 1995 and 1996. 1996 the trial of 150 military police officials accused of the 1996 murder of 19 landless peasants during a protest in the remote north, in what could become the largest trial of its kind in Brazil's history.

The April 1996 massacre in Eldorado de Carajas in the Amazonian state of Para drew the world's attention to the problems of vast inequalities in Brazil's rural areas. Television captured the image of police opening fire on the crowd of demonstrating peasants led by Brazil's Landless Movement. The group is the strongest voice for social change in a country where 40 million of 165 million people live in abject poverty. The group is struggling for land reform in the countryside, where more than 50 percent of arable land is owned by 2 percent of the population. The Landless Movement has accused the government of tacitly supporting landowners and says President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is not doing enough to settle the 4.8 million families it estimates are still waiting for land. 1997 Congress approves the amendment to the Constitution of a second successive term. 1999 Analysts say Latin America's largest economy has taken a sharp turn for the worse since the real currency was devalued in mid-January.

Since then there have been signs of recovery but unemployment remains near record highs and the real has been floundering this month on fears the government will fail to push more reforms to cut a gaping budget deficit. Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso saw his popularity hit record lows in August, highlighting his government's struggle to regain confidence amid an economic slump and discontent with spending cuts. 59 percent of Brazilians believe Cardoso's government is doing a bad job. (Reuters, Aug. 16,1999) Brazil - The Vargas era | history - geography | Britannica.com The Vargas era Neymar Getúlio Vargas , the losing candidate in the 1930 presidential election, led a revolt that placed him in power. Vargas, formerly the governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, remained central to Brazilian national life for the next 24 years, holding office as chief executive on two occasions, 1930–45 and 1951–54. The Great Depression of the 1930s, which occurred during Vargas’s first presidency, caused considerable economic difficulties for Brazil.

In addition, the states vied with the national government for political control, and the people of São Paulo staged a bloody, though unsuccessful, revolt. In 1934 a new constitution granted the central government greater authority and provided for universal suffrage. Three years later, following another uprising, President Vargas seized virtually absolute powers and set up still another constitution, under which he continued as president. The new administration, known as the Estado Nôvo (“New State”), so heightened Vargas’s control that he was able to suppress all manifestations of popular will and strip Brazil of most of the trappings through which it might eventually hope to become a democracy. Vargas increasingly shifted the states’ political, economic, and social functions to the aegis of the national government. However, he also diversified the agricultural sector, enacted social legislation that benefited the working class, and urged further industrialization through import-substitution (using protective tariffs and other policies to limit imports while encouraging domestic manufacturing). After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Vargas government supported the U.S. policy of inter-American solidarity, and on August 22, 1942, it declared war against Germany and Italy.

Brazil’s air force helped defend the South Atlantic by flying antisubmarine patrols, and the United States used some Brazilian naval and air bases, including a major air field at Natal that provided the closest link between the Americas and Africa. Brazil sent an expeditionary force to Italy in July 1944 that distinguished itself in several battles. The Brazilian armed forces significantly upgraded their equipment through the U.S. lend-lease program, and the two governments agreed to increase Brazil’s exports of raw materials. As the war drew to a close, some military officers believed that President Vargas might attempt to retain power, and on October 29, 1945, they staged a coup that forced him to resign. Brazil then experimented with democracy. The democratic interlude General Eurico Gaspar Dutra , Vargas’s own choice, won the presidential election in December 1945; Vargas himself was elected to the Senate. The following year Brazil promulgated a new constitution—the nation’s fifth and the fourth of the republican era—which included safeguards intended to prevent the rise of another overpowering president or dictator. It limited the presidential term to five years, separated the three branches of government, and restricted federal intervention in the affairs of the states.

Related Places Pernambuco The general elections of 1950 returned Vargas to power by a substantial margin. Although he failed to win a clear majority in the four-way race, he secured 1,500,000 more votes than the runner-up and nearly as many as the combined total for the three rival candidates. Accordingly, he was again installed in the presidency on January 31, 1951, in spite of the serious apprehensions of the military leaders who had deposed him in 1945. Vargas, however, was unable to dominate the political forces of the country or to exploit social and economic trends to his advantage, and, because he endeavoured to abide by the constitution of 1946, some Brazilians criticized him for weak leadership. Lacking a firm majority in the Congress, he could neither enact his own programs nor resist the contradictory pressures of his supporters and opponents. Brazil faced grave economic problems, including inflation and a growing national debt, as government expenditures consistently outran revenues. To counter these trends, Brazilians desired more rapid industrial development and measures to limit inflation and government spending.

Vargas maintained a precarious balance between those advocating greater state intervention in the economy (including government ownership of industries and natural resources) and those insisting instead on domestic and foreign private investment. In 1953 the government intervened directly by creating a national petroleum corporation, Petrobrás. Countries of the World For three years Vargas’s popularity largely protected him from attack by political adversaries, who directed their criticism against members of his administration. João Goulart , Vargas’s young protégé and vice president of the Brazilian Labour Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro; PTB), was accused of using his office to transform organized labour into a political machine loyal to Vargas. He was dismissed as labour minister in 1954 because of his role (with the president’s acquiescence) in radically doubling the minimum wage, an action that contributed greatly to the inflationary spiral. A series of crises followed, reaching a climax on August 5, 1954, when assassins murdered an air force officer and attempted to kill Carlos Lacerda, the editor of an opposition newspaper. Subsequent investigations revealed that the president’s personal guard had hired the assassins and that corruption was widespread within the administration.

The former dictator was engulfed in a wave of antipathy . In response, a group of army officers demanded Vargas’s resignation, and on August 24, 1954, he committed suicide in an apparent attempt to engender sympathy for his policies and his followers. Brazil - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Occupying half of South America and much of the Amazon River basin, Brazil is bordered by every country on the continent except for Ecuador and Chile. Framed by the Atlantic Ocean on the northeast and southeast, Brazil forms a rough triangle about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from east to west and 2,700 miles (4,350 kilometers) from north to south. It is the fifth largest country in area after only Russia, Canada, China, and the United States. Brazil is also the fifth most-populous country in the world and accounts for one-third of Latin America’s population. However, despite Brazil’s wealth of humanity and natural resources, it has a range of problems, including widespread poverty, unemployment, and crime.

Area 3,287,956 square miles (8,515,767 square kilometers). Population (2016 est.) 207,345,000. Article Contributors The Era of Get�lio Vargas, 1930-54 - Brazil History The Military Republic, 1964-85 The Era of Getï¿½lio Vargas, 1930-54 Just as the 1889 regime change led to a decade of unrest and painful adjustment, so too did the revolts of 1930. Getulio Dornelles Vargas was the most expressive character of the Brazilian Republic. He was born in the city of Sï¿½o Borja, Rio Grande do Sul, on April 19th 1883. He attended military schools as a youth, but majored in Laws in 1907.

His meteoric political career started in 1909, when he was elected State Deputy; in 1922, he was elected Federal Deputy; in 1926, he was Minister of Finances; in 1928, he was elected governor of Rio Grande do Sul. Provisional President Getï¿½lio Dornelles Vargas ruled as dictator (1930-34), congressionally elected president (1934-37), and again dictator (1937-45), with the backing of his revolutionary coalition. He also served as a senator (1946-51) and the popularly elected president (1951-54). Vargas was a member of the gaucho-landed oligarchy and had risen through the system of patronage and clientelism, but he had a fresh vision of how Brazilian politics could be shaped to support national development. He understood that with the breakdown of direct relations between workers and owners in the expanding factories of Brazil, workers could become the basis for a new form of political power--populism.

Using such insights, he would gradually establish such mastery over the Brazilian political world that he would stay in power for fifteen years. During those years, the preeminence of the agricultural elites ended, new urban industrial leaders acquired more influence nationally, and the middle class began to show some strength. Tenentismo , or the lieutenants' rebellion against the army and governmental hierarchies, faded as a distinctive movement after 1931, in part because its adherents promoted the preservation of state autonomy when the trend toward increased centralization was strong. Individual lieutenants continued to exercise important roles, but they made their peace with the traditional political forces. In 1932 Sï¿½o Paulo, whose interests and pride suffered under the new regime, rose in revolt. The three-month civil war saw many officers who had lost out in 1930 or were otherwise disgruntled join the Paulistas, but federal forces defeated them. A new constitution in 1934 reorganized the political system by creating a legislature with both state and social-sector representatives. It contained some electoral reforms, including women's suffrage, a secret ballot, and special courts to supervise elections.

The Constituent Assembly elected Vargas president for a four-year term. However, the attempt to harness the revolution to the old system, somewhat remodeled, would soon fail completely and take Brazil into prolonged dictatorship. The left helped in that process by becoming a creditable threat. On misguided instructions from Moscow based on misinformation from Brazil, the Brazilian communists, led by a former tenente, staged a revolt in 1935, but it was rapidly suppressed. In the 1930s, the civilian elites feared that Brazil would suffer a civil war similar to Spain's, and so for the first time in Brazilian history they supported a strong, unified military. The Estado Novo gave the army its long-held desire for control over the states' Military Police (Policia Militar) units. The elites of the old state pï¿½trias gave up their independent military power in return for federal protection of their interests. This process was not always a willing one, as the Paulista revolt of 1932 showed, but federal monopoly of military force escalated the power of the central government to levels previously unknown. A significant turning point in the history of Brazil had been reached.

Under the Estado Novo, state autonomy ended, appointed federal officials replaced governors, and patronage flowed from the president downward. All political parties were dissolved until 1944, thus limiting opportunities for an opposition to organize. In the process, Vargas eliminated threats from the left and the right. At the local level, "colonels" survived by declaring their loyalty and accepting their share of patronage for distribution to their own underlings. The Vargas years had their greatest impact on national politics and economics and their least impact at the local level where the older forms of power continued well into the 1950s. Even in the 1990s, local political bosses were tagged "colonels." Vargas took care to absorb the rural and commercial elites into his power base. He had the ability to make former enemies supporters, or at least neutrals. The Vargas years saw the reorganization of the armed forces, the economy, international trade, and foreign relations. The government restored the old imperial palace in Petrï¿½polis and encouraged the preservation of historic buildings and towns. The average annual rise in the gross domestic product (GDP) was nearly 4 percent.

Brazil's first steel mill at Volta Redonda (1944) was the start of the great industrial output of the second half of the century. The 1930-45 era added corporatism to the Brazilian political lexicon. Even as it channeled investment into industry, the Estado Novo classified strikes as crimes and grouped the government-controlled unions into separate sector federations that were not allowed to form across-the-board national organizations. The idea was to keep the lines of control vertical (vertical integration). The government decreed regular wage and benefits increases and slowly expanded an incomplete social security system. Its minimum wage levels were never satisfactory. The regime's propaganda touted state paternalism and protection and depicted Vargas as the benefactor of the working classes. He also was the benefactor of the factory owners, who saw industry expand 11.2 percent a year throughout the 1930s, which meant that it more than doubled during the decade. Indeed, growth and repression were the twin orders of the day. Journalists and novelists were censored, jailed, and discouraged. The army restricted access to the military schools to those with acceptable racial, familial, religious, educational, and political characteristics.

As a result of these repressive measures, the suspension of political activities, and the government's support of rearming and modernizing the military, the army gained a coherence and unity that it had not experienced since before 1922. The popular status that the army won by participating in the Italian campaign (1944-45) of World War II also permitted the High Command, under General Pedro Aurï¿½lio de Gï¿½es Monteiro, a long-time supporter of Vargas, to step into the successionist crisis of October 1945 to depose Vargas and to cut short the political mobilization of the masses that the generals believed would upset the social order. Not to have acted would have violated the implicit agreement made with the elites when the latter surrendered their independent state military forces to federal control. The elected government over which President Eurico Gaspar Dutra presided from 1946 to 1951 opened under the decree laws of the Estado Novo and continued under the new constitution of 1946. This charter reflected the strong conservative tendency in Brazilian politics by incorporating ideas from the constitution of 1934 and the social legislation of the Estado Novo.

Over the next years, the various cabinet changes traced the government's steady movement toward the right. The Dutra administration was supported by the same conservative interventionist army that had backed the previous regime. Indeed, Dutra, who though retired from active duty, was inaugurated in his dress uniform and was promoted to general of the army and then to marshal while in office, made the point that he still belonged to the military class (classe militar ), that he would not neglect its needs, and that he would guide the army politically. More dispassionate observers see the ending of Vargas's productive leadership--during which the average annual rise in the GDP was nearly 4 percent--as the reaction of the landowning and business elite allied with the urban middle class against the processes of change. Dutra's years in office displayed a minimal level of state participation and intervention in the economy. It was indeed ironic that the man who led Brazil through the first steps of its "experiment with democracy" was a general who, in the early years of World War II, was so anti-liberal that he had opposed aligning Brazil with the democratic countries against Nazi Germany.

He was a fervent anticommunist, who quickly broke the diplomatic ties Vargas had established with the Soviet Union, outlawed the Brazilian Communist Party, and supported the United States in the opening phases of the Cold War. He exchanged official visits with President Harry S. Truman and sought American aid for continued economic development. Dutra's government improved the railways, completed construction of roads that connected Rio de Janeiro to Salvador and Sï¿½o Paulo, and expanded the electrical generating and transmission systems. It also cooperated with the states in building more than 4,000 new rural schools and supported construction of new university buildings in various states. In 1951 it also created the National Research Council (Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas--CNPq), which would be important in developing capabilities and university faculties in coming decades. His mandate was marked by heated disputes over the nationalization of oil and plans for an international institute to study Amazï¿½nia. The latter were shelved amidst emotional charges that they would lead to the loss of half of the national territory; and the campaign for the former was suppressed violently.

Dutra's military program included domestic arms production, sending many officers for training in the United States, expanding air force and naval schools and modernizing their equipment, and establishing the War College (Escola Superior de Guerra--ESG), which played such an important role in the political crises of the 1960s. Although Dutra could be criticized for not containing inflation and for allowing an importing frenzy that soon exhausted the savings of the war years, he managed to govern without declaring a state of siege, and he was the first elected president since 1926 to pass the office to his elected successor. As a candidate for president in the 1950 elections, Vargas advocated accelerating industrialization and expanding social legislation, and he was rewarded with a sizeable 49 percent of the vote. Vargas's attempts to base his elected government (1951-54) firmly on populism induced military, elite, and United States fears of nationalism. Even so, it was a period of deepening political polarization. Anticommunist military officers saw red in every attempt to expand labor's influence and objected to wage increases for workers when the value of their own salaries was eroding steadily.

The United States refused economic assistance that Brazilian leaders believed they deserved for providing bases, natural resources, and troops during World War II. The lack of postwar benefits, especially for the service of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Forï¿½a Expedicionï¿½ria Brasileira--FEB), caused Vargas and part of the military to reject the idea of sending troops to fight in Korea. Although the United States government did not want to provide economic aid, it also did not want the Brazilian government to take an active role in developing the country's resources. Washington's desire to secure Brazil as a safe place for private United States investment clashed with Brazil's treatment of foreign-owned utilities. Foreign interests had been too slow in developing energy resources, so the Vargas government created the Brazilian Petroleum Corporation (Petrï¿½leo Brasileiro S.A.--Petrobrï¿½s) in 1953 and the Brazilian Electric Power Company (Centrais Elï¿½tricas Brasileiras S.A.--Eletrobrï¿½s) in 1961. The "Petroleum is Ours!" campaign of the nationalists caused arguments within the military over what was best to do.

Some officers embraced the anti-statist attitude that Washington was sponsoring. The bitterly fought, emotional debate over the creation of Petrobrï¿½s poisoned political life and contributed to the subsequent military interventions. The Vargas administration dissolved in frustration and charges of corruption. On 23 August 1954, in a meeting at the Palace of Catete (residence of the President), the Command of the Armed Forces demanded that Vargas resign; Vargas proposes to leave while investigations were in progress, but the military refused. Left alone, Vargas committed suicide on August 24th 1954, shooting himself in the heart. He left a letter which became historic; the letter finishes with "...I leave life to enter History" (which he indeed did). His death produced considerable public sympathy, which in turn strengthened his reputation as "father of the poor." His influence in Brazilian politics was felt for decades. NEWSLETTER

Question: Getulio Vargas served as President of which South American country for 15 years from 1930?
Answer: Brazil