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Republic of the United States of Brazil (1889—1937) United States of Brazil (1937—1967) República dos Estados Unidos do Brasil (1889—1937) Estados Unidos do Brasil (1937—1967)
Dictatorship
← 1930–1946 →
Flag Coat of arms
Motto Ordem e Progresso "Order and Progress"
Anthem Hino Nacional Brasileiro "Brazilian National Anthem"
Brazil at its territorial extent
Capital	Rio de Janeiro
Language(s)	Portuguese
Government	Republic, Dictatorship
President
- 1930–1945	Getúlio Vargas
- 1945–1946	José Linhares
Provisional Military Junta
- 1930	Augusto Tasso Fragoso, Isaías de Noronha, Mena Barreto
Historical era	Interwar period, World War II
- Established	October 24, 1930
- Disestablished	January 31, 1946

History of Brazil
This article is part of a series
Indigenous peoples
Colonial Brazil
United Kingdom with Portugal
Independence from Portugal
Empire of Brazil
Old Republic
Vargas Era
Second Republic
Military rule
New Republic
Brazil Portal v t e

Vargas Era (Era Vargas) is the period in the history of Brazil that lasted from 1930 to 1945, when the country was under the leadership of Getúlio Dornelles Vargas.

The Brazilian Revolution of 1930, that marked the end of the Old Republic (with the deposition of President Washington Luís; the abrogation of the country's 1891 Constitution with a view to the establishment of a new constitutional order; the dissolution of the National Congress; Federal intervention in State governments and the alteration of the political landscape, with the suppression of the hegemony until then enjoyed by the oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais), signals the beginning of the Vargas Era (given that, upon the triumph of the Revolution, a provisional military junta ceded power to Vargas, recognized as the leader of the revolutionary movement).

The Vargas Era comprises three successive phases: the period of the Provisional Government (1930–1934), when Vargas governed by decree as Head of the Provisional Government; the period of the Constitution of 1934 (when, in the wake of the adoption of a new Constitution by the Constituent Assembly of 1933–34, Vargas – elected by the Constituent Assembly under the transitional provisions of the Constitution – governed as President, alongside a democratically elected Legislature); and the Estado Novo period (1937–1945), that begins when, in order to perpetuate his rule, Vargas imposes a new, authoritarian Constitution in a coup d'etát, and shuts down Congress, assuming dictatorial powers.

The deposition of Getúlio Vargas and his Estado Novo regime in 1945 and the subsequent redemocratization of the country with the adoption of a new Constitution in 1946 mark the end of the Vargas Era and the beginning of the period known as the Republic of 46.

Great Depression[link]

The tenente rebellion did not mark the revolutionary breakthrough of Brazil's bourgeois social reformers. But the ruling paulista coffee oligarchy could not withstand the near-breakdown of world capitalism in 1929. Brazil's vulnerability to the Great Depression had its roots in the economy's heavy dependence on foreign markets and loans. Despite limited industrial development in São Paulo, the export of coffee and other primary products was still the mainstay of the economy.

Days after the U.S. stock market crash on October 29, 1929 (See Black Tuesday), coffee quotations immediately fell 30% to 60%.^{[citation needed]} The subsequent decline was even sharper. Between 1929 and 1931, coffee prices fell from 22.5 cents per pound to 8 cents per pound.^[1] As world trade contracted, the coffee exporters suffered a vast drop in foreign exchange earnings. The Great Depression possibly had a more dramatic effect on Brazil than on the United States.

The collapse of Brazil's valorization (price support) program, a safety net in times of economic crisis, was strongly intertwined with the collapse of the central government, whose base of support resided in the landed oligarchy. The coffee planters had grown dangerously dependent on government valorization. For example, in the aftermath of the recession following World War I, the government was not short of the cash needed to bail out the coffee industry. But between 1929–30, world demand for Brazil's primary products had fallen far too drastically to maintain government revenues. By the end of 1930, Brazil's gold reserves had been depleted, pushing the exchange rate down to a new low. The program for warehoused coffee collapsed altogether.

Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa's government faced a deepening balance-of-payments crisis and the coffee growers were struck with an unsellable harvest. Since power ultimately rested on patronage, wide-scale defections in the delicate balance of regional interests left the regime of the Washington Luís vulnerable. Government policies designed to favor foreign interests exasperated the crisis as well, leaving the regime alienated from just about every segment of society. Following the Wall Street panic, the government attempted to please foreign creditors by maintaining convertibility according to the money principles preached by the foreign bankers and economists who set the terms for Brazil's relations with the world economy, despite lacking any support from a single major sector in Brazilian society.

Despite capital flight, Washington Luís clung to a hard-money policy, guaranteeing the convertibility of the Brazilian currency into gold or British sterling. Once the gold and sterling reserves were exhausted amid the collapse of the valorization program, the government was finally forced to suspend convertibility of the currency. Foreign credit had now evaporated.

Revolution of 1930[link]

Aside from the depression and the emergence of the Brazilian bourgeoisie, Brazil's historic dynamic of interregional politics was a significant factor encouraging the alliance that Getúlio Vargas forged between the new urban sectors and the landowners hostile to the government in states other than São Paulo during the Revolution of 1930.

Along with the urban bourgeois groups, Northeastern sugar barons were left with a legacy of longstanding grievances against the paulista coffee oligarchs of the South. Northeastern landowners bitterly opposed Washington Luís' 1930 discontinuance of the drought projects of his predecessor. These tensions, however, can be traced back far earlier. The decay of established sugar oligarchies of the Northeast began dramatically with the severe drought of 1877. The rapid growth of coffee-producing São Paulo state was the flip side of the same coin. After the abolition of slavery in the 1880s, Brazil saw a mass exodus of emancipated slaves and other peasants from the Northeast to the Southeast, thus ensuring a steady supply of cheap labor for the coffee planters.

Under the Old Republic, the politics of café com leite rested on the domination of the republic's politics by the Southeastern states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, which were Brazil's largest states in terms of population and richest. The first presidents of the republic were from São Paulo and thereafter succeeded by an alternation between the outgoing governors of the two leading states in the presidency.

Given the grievances with ruling regime in the Northeast and Rio Grande do Sul, Liberal Alliance opposition leader Getúlio Vargas chose as his vice-presidential candidate in 1930 João Pessoa of the Northeast state of Paraíba. With the understanding that the dominance of the landowners in the rural areas was to be absolute under any Liberal Alliance government, the Northeastern oligarchies were thus integrated into the Vargas alliance in a subordinate status via a new political party, the Social Democratic Party (PSD).

However, behind the façade of Vargas' populism lies the intricate nature of his coalition—ever-changing from this point onward. Consequently, these locally dominant regional groups—effectively the gaúchos of Rio Grande do Sul and the sugar barons of the Northeast—themselves ushered the new urban groups into the forefront of Brazilian political life in a revolution from above, tilting the balance of the central government in favor of the Liberal Alliance.

Rise of Getúlio Vargas[link]

A populist governor of Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil's southernmost state – Vargas was a cattle rancher with a doctorate in law from the most politically influential of Brazil's peripheral states and the 1930 presidential candidate of the Liberal Alliance.

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 hailed from a region with a positivist and populist tradition, and was an economic nationalist who favored industrial development and liberal reforms.

Moreover, Vargas 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 gradually established such mastery over the Brazilian political world that he stayed in power for 15 years. As the stranglehold of the agricultural elites eased, new urban industrial leaders acquired more influence nationally, and the middle class began to show some strength.

Vargas built up well-established political networks, and was attuned to the interests of the rising urban classes. In his early years, Vargas even relied on the support of the tenentes of the 1922 rebellion.

Era of populism[link]

As a candidate in 1930, Vargas had utilized populist rhetoric to promote middle class concerns, thus opposing the primacy—but not the legitimacy—of the paulista coffee oligarchy and the landed elites, who had little interest in protecting and promoting industry.

The 1930 Revolution ushered in a coalition favoring protection of Brazilian manufacturers, backed by the bourgeoisie and landed interests. Between 1930–1934, Vargas followed a path of social reformism to attempt to reconcile these radically diverging interests. Reflecting the influence of the tenentes, he even advocated a program of social welfare and reform with striking parallel to New Deal in the United States, prompting U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to proudly refer to him as "one of two people who invented the New Deal."

Vargas sought to bring Brazil out of the Great Depression through statist-interventionist policies. He satisfied the demands of the rapidly growing urban bourgeois groups, voiced by the new (to Brazil) mass-ideologies of populism and nationalism. Like Roosevelt, his first steps focused on economic stimulus, a program on which all factions could agree.

Favoring a state interventionist policy utilizing tax breaks, lowered duties, and import quotas to expand the domestic industrial base, the populist gaúcho linked his pro-middle class policies to nationalism, advocating heavy tariffs to "perfect our manufacturers to the point where it will become unpatriotic to feed or clothe ourselves with imported goods!" In his early years, Vargas also relied on the support of the tenentes. His policies can best be described collectively as approximating those of fascist Italy under Mussolini, with an increased reliance on populism.

Vargas sought to mediate disputes between labor and capital. For instance, the provisional president quelled a paulista female worker's strike by co-opting much of its platform and requiring their "factory commissions" to use government mediation in the future.

Opposition arose among the powerful paulista coffee oligarchs to these unprecedented mass interventionist policies, as well as to the increased centralization of the government, its increasing populist and fascist stance, its protectionist/mercantilist policies (protecting politically favored producers at the expense of consumers) and the increasing dictatorial stance of Vargas himself . His tenuous collation also lacked a coherent program, being committed to a broad vision of "modernization", but little else more definitive. Having to balance such conflicting ideological constituencies, regionalism, and economic interests in such a vast, diverse, and socio-economically varied nation would, thus, not only explain the sole constancy that marked Vargas' long career—abrupt shifts in alliances and ideologies—but also his eventual dictatorship, modeled surprisingly along the lines of European fascism, considering the liberal roots of his regime. By 1934, however, many shifts were still awaiting Brazil.

Vargas's appeasement of the landed wing of his coalition soon revealed the reactionary nature of his government, especially after 1934. To placate friendly agrarian oligarchs, the modernizing state not only left the impoverished domains of the rural oligarchs untouched, the government even helped the sugar barons cement their control over rural Brazil.

Likely to the detriment of that region's long-term economic development, Vargas' static conservatism on matters of the countryside arguably exacerbated the disparities between the impoverished, semi-feudal Northeast and the dynamic, urbanized Southeast to this day. In return for the support of the sugar barons, the state crushed a wave of peasant revolts in the Northeast known as the cangaço, marking the reversal of the drastic but gradual decline of the Northeastern latifundios from the 1870s to the 1930 revolution. Northeastern latifundios had been collapsing from within amid inexorable decline and peasant revolts. In the more prosperous past during the reign of Dom Pedro II (1831–1889), the peasantry under this system remained quite subordinate to the fazendeiros. Each planter retained his own private militia responsible for the maintenance of law and order within his domain, and these private militias were often responsible for kin feuds that arose between various dynastic groups. Consequently, the Northeastern fazendeiros had grown accustomed to their iron grip on the rural countryside.

But the peasantry, to the surprise of many accustomed to overlooking Brazil's peripheral regions, was not that servile. Banditry was a common form of peasant protest. Other forms included messianism, anarchic uprisings, and tax evasion, each of which was common practice before 1930. With the Northeastern oligarchies now incorporated into the ruling coalition, the government focused on restructuring agriculture. The increasingly reactionary state intervened, suppressed the cangacieros, and restored order to the Northeast.

At the expense of the indigent peasantry—85 percent of the workforce—not only did Vargas renege on his promises of land reforms, he denied agricultural workers in general the working class' gains in labor regulations, a strategy reminiscent of contemporary leaders Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, and António de Oliveira Salazar.

Appeasement of landed interests, traditionally the country's dominant forces, thus required a realignment of his coalition, forcing him to turn against its left-wing. After mid-1932 the influence of the tenente group over Vargas rapidly waned, although individual tenentes of moderate tendency continued to hold important positions in the regime. With the ouster of the center-left tenentes from his coalition, his rightward shift would become increasingly pronounced by 1934.

Toward dictatorship[link]

By 1934, Vargas developed in response what Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith called "a legal hybrid" between the regimes of Mussolini's Italy and Salazar's Portuguese Estado Novo. Vargas copied repressive fascist tactics, and conveyed their same rejection of liberal capitalism, but attained power baring few indications of his future quasi-fascist policies.

Changing conditions forced Vargas to eventually abandon the arrangements of the "provisional government" (1930–34), that were characterized by a path of social reformism that appeared to favor the generally left wing of his revolutionary coalition, the tenentes.

Opposition from the right, however, marked Vargas' earliest moves away from the social reformism of his early years. A conservative insurgency in 1932 was the key turning point. After the July 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution—a veiled attempt by the paulista coffee oligarchs to retake the central government—Vargas tried to recover support of the landed elites, including the coffee growers, in order to establish a new alliance of power. The revolt reacted to Vargas' appointment of João Alberto, a center-left tenente as "interventor" (provisional governor) in place of the elected governor of São Paulo. Elite paulistas loathed Alberto, resenting his centralization efforts and alarmed by the his economic reforms, such as a mere 5 percent wage increase and some minor distribution of some land to participants in the revolution. Amid threats of revolt, Vargas replaced João Alberto with a civilian from São Paulo, appointed a conservative paulista banker as his minister of finance, and announced a date for the holding of a constituent assembly . The coffee oligarchs were only emboldened, launching the counterrevolutionary revolt in July 1932, which collapsed after 3 months of combat.

Regardless of the attempted counterrevolution, Vargas was determined to maintain his alliance with the original fazendeiro wing of his coalition and to strengthen his ties with the São Paulo establishment. The result was further concessions, again alienating the left wings of his coalition. The essential compromise was reneging on the promises of land reform made during the campaign of 1930. Vargas also pardoned half the bank debts of the coffee planters, who still had a significant grip on the state's electoral machinery, alleviating the crisis stemming from the collapse of the valorization program. To mollify his old paulista adversaries after their failed revolt, he even ordered the Bank of Brazil to take over the war bonds issued by the rebel government.

Yet Vargas was increasingly threatened by pro-Communist elements in labor critical of the rural latifundios by 1934, who sought an alliance with the countries peasant majority by backing land reform. Despite the populist rhetoric of the "father of the poor", the gaúcho Vargas was ushered into power by planter oligarchies of peripheral regions amid a revolution from above, and was thus in no position to truly meet substantive popular demands. By 1934, armed with a new constitution drafted with extensive influence from European fascist models, Vargas began reining in even moderate trade unions and turning against the tenentes. His further concessions to the latifundios pushed him toward an alliance with the Integralists, Brazil's mobilized fascist movement. Following the end of the provisional presidency, the reactionary nature Vargas' regime between 1934 and 1945—characterized by the co-optation of Brazilian unions through state-run, sham syndicates, suppression of opposition (particularly) leftist opposition thus was strongly becoming evident.

As a result of this appeasement of the rural fazendeiros, Vargas was increasingly threatened by pro-Communist elements in labor critical of the latifundios by 1934 who were actually serious in their demands for land reform. Though eventually crushed by fascist-style force, it was quite astute for labor at the time to attempt to forge an alliance between Brazil's relatively small urban proletariat with the peasantry, who accounted for the vast majority of the population.

Suppression of Communist movement[link]

Aside from these recent political disputes, long-term trends suggest an atmosphere in São Paulo conducive to ideological extremism. The rapidly changing and industrializing Southeast, and the seething class conflict underlying this change, had been brewing an atmosphere conducive to the growth of European-style mass-movements; Brazil's Communist Party was established in 1922 and the postwar period witnessed the rise of the country's first waves of general strikes waged by viable trade unions. The Great Depression intensified their strength.

The same Great Depression that had ushered Vargas into power in a wave of disillusionment with the laissez-faire orthodoxies of the time also rejuvenated the left and calls for social reforms. The Brazilian left has always been powerful, but rarely in power except for President João Goulart in the 1960s, Lula da Silva from 2002–10 and now Dilma Rousseff. The left has benefited from the nation's socio-economic contradictions. Brazil is infamous for perhaps the world's most appalling disparity in social class correlated in terms of both race and region. With the challenges of the reactionary Paulista Revolt out of the way, and the looming mass-mobilization of a potential new enemy— the urban proletariat, Vargas grew more concerned with imposing a paternalistic tutelage over the working class, functioning to both control them and co-opt them. Vargas' elite backers in both urban and rural Brazil would begin to view labor, larger and better organized than directly after the First World War, as an ominous threat to established interests.

Vargas could unite with all sectors of the landed elites, however, to control the urban proletariat and the peasantry. With the cangaço thoroughly repressed in the Northeast, all segments of the elite— the new bourgeoisie and the landed oligarchs— shifted their well-founded fears toward the trade unionism and socialist sentiments of the burgeoning urban proletariat. The urban proletariat, often composed of immigrants, was from the more European (in terms of population, culture, ideology, and level of industrial development) and more urbanized Southeast. In 1934, following the disintegration of Vargas' delicate alliance with labor, Brazil entered "one of the most agitated periods in its political history". According to Skidmore and Smith, Brazil's major cities began to resemble the Nazi-Communist battles in Berlin of 1932–33. By mid-1935 Brazilian politics had been drastically destabilized.

Vargas's attention focused on the rise of two nationally based and highly ideological European-style movements, both committed to European-style mass-mobilization: one pro-Communist and the other pro-fascist—one linked to Moscow and the other to Rome and Berlin. The mass-movement intimidating Vargas was the Aliança Nacional Libertadora (ANL), a leftwing popular front launched in 1935 of socialists, communists, and other progressives led by the Communist Party and Luís Carlos Prestes, known as "cavalier of hope" of the tenente rebellion (though not a Marxist at the time). A revolutionary forerunner of Che Guevara, Prestes led the legendary but futile "Long March" through the rural Brazilian interior following his participation in the failed 1922 tenente rebellion against the coffee oligarchs. This experience, however, left Prestes, who only died in the 1990s, and some of his comrades skeptical of armed conflict for the rest of his life. Prestes' well-cultivated skepticism later helped precipitate the 1960s schism between hard-line militant Maoists and orthodox Marxist-Leninists in the Brazilian Communist Party, which endures to this day.

With center-left tenentes out of the coalition and the left crushed, Vargas turned to the only mobilized base of support on the right, elated by the atrocious, fascist-style crackdown against the ANL. As his coalition moved to the right after 1934, Vargas' ideological character and association with a global ideological orbit remained ambiguous. Integralism, claiming a rapidly growing membership throughout Brazil by 1935, began filling this ideological void, especially among the approximately one million Brazilians of German descent.

Plínio Salgado, a writer and politician, founded Integralism in October 1933.^[2] He adapted Fascist and Nazi symbolism and the Roman salute. It had all the visible elements of European fascism: a green-shirt-uniformed paramilitary organization, street demonstrations, and aggressive rhetoric directly financed in part by the Italian embassy. The Integralists borrowed their propaganda campaigns directly from Nazi materials, including the usual traditionalist excoriations of Marxism and liberalism, and espousals of fanatical nationalism (out of context in the heterogeneous and tolerant nation) and "Christian virtues". Like the European fascists, they were essentially petit bourgeois. In particular, they drew support from military officers, especially in the navy.

Economic development[link]

The strong parallels between the political economy of Vargas and the European police states thus began to appear by 1934, when a new constitution was enacted with direct fascist influence. After 1934, fascist-style programs would serve two important aims: stimulating industrial growth (under the guise of nationalism) and suppressing the working class. Passed on July 16, the Vargas government claimed that the corporatist provisions of the constitution of 1934 would unite all classes in mutual interests—its stated purpose in Fascist Italy. Actually, this propaganda point had somewhat of a basis in reality. In practice, this meant decimating organized labor and co-opting the working class. Of course, the advance of industry and urbanization, enlarged and strengthened the ranks of urban laborers, presenting the need to draw them into some sort of alliance committed to the modernization of Brazil. Vargas, and later Juan Perón in neighboring Argentina emulated Mussolini's strategy of consolidating power by means of mediating class disputes and co-opting workers' demands under the banner of nationalism.

The constitution established a new Chamber of Deputies that placed government authority over the private economy, which established a system of state-guided capitalism aimed at industrialization and reducing foreign dependency. These provisions essentially designated corporate representatives according to class and profession, organizing industries into state syndicates, but generally maintained private ownership of Brazilian-owned businesses.

The 1934–37 constitution, and especially the Estado Novo afterwards, heightened efforts to centralize authority in Rio de Janeiro and drastically limit provincial autonomy in the traditionally devolved, sprawling nation. This was its more progressive role, seeking to consolidate the 1930 revolution, displacing the institutional power of the paulista coffee oligarchs with a centralist policy that respected local agro-exporting interests, but created the necessary urban economic base for the new urban sectors. The modernizing legacy is firmly evident: state government was to be rationalized and regularized, freed from the grips of coronelismo.

The constitution of 1934 thus established a more direct mechanism for the federal executive to control the economy, pursuing a policy of planning and direct investment for the creation of important industrial complexes. State and mixed public-private companies dominated heavy and infrastructure industries, and private Brazilian capital predominated in manufacturing. There was also a significant growth of direct foreign investment in the 1930s as foreign corporations sought to enlarge their share of the internal market and overcome tariff barriers and exchange problems by establishing branch plants in Brazil. The state thus emphasized the basic sectors of the economy, facing the difficult task of forging a viable capital base for future growth in the first place, including mining, oil, steel, electric power, and chemicals.

Estado Novo[link]

In 1937, while awaiting the presidential elections for January 1938, the existence of a communist plot to overthrow the government was denounced by Vargas: he announced the discovery of a plan, named Cohen Plan (Plano Cohen), to take over the government. In reality, however Plano Cohen was forged in the government with the objective of creating a climate favorable to the assumption of emergency powers by the President.

The Communists had indeed attempted to take over the Government in November 1935, in a botched coup attempt known as the Intentona Comunista (Communist Attempt). In the wake of the failed Communist uprising, Congress had already given greater powers to Vargas, and approved the creation of a National Security Tribunal (Tribunal de Segurança Nacional).

However, Vargas' four year term of office would expire in 1938, and so the invented Cohen Plan was conceived by his government as a means to secure his perpetuation in the presidential office, and the assuption of dictatorial powers. The invented 1937 communist threat served as a pretext for the suspension of the democratic freedoms and to the assumption of dictatorial powers by the President.

This took place on November 10, 1937, when President Getúlio Vargas, in a coup d'état, replaced the 1934 Constitution with a new Constitution imposed by him, decreed a state of emergency - that would last until his deposition in 1945 - and dissolved the National Congress. Although Vargas' 1937 Constitution established a new Legislature, as well as provided for a referendum to confirm the actions of the coup, neither the plebicite, nor the legislative elections, were held. Instead, under an article of the Constitution that was supposed to be transitional (its effectiveness was supposed to last only until the summoning of the elections, but was rather applied from 1937 to 1945), the President assumed the powers of the Legislature. The Estado Novo regime also greatly curtailed the autonomy of the judicial branch, and suppressed the autonomy of the Brazilian States, that were governed by federal interventors, who discharged (on a formally temporary basis), the legislative and executive powers.

In the following month, Vargas signed a Decree dispersing political parties, including the Ação Integralista Brasileira (AIB). On May 11, 1938, the integralists, unsatisfied with the closing of the AIB, invaded the Guanabara Palace, attempting to depose Vargas. This episode is known as "Integralist Attempt" and was far from successful.

Between 1937 and 1945, the duration of the Estado Novo, Getúlio Vargas gave continuity to the formation of structure and professionalism in the State. He oriented the state to intervene in the economy, promoting economic nationalism. The movement towards a "New State" was significant, in that along with the dismissal of Congress and its political parties, he wanted to recognize the indigenous population. He gained great favor in their eyes, calling him the "Father of the Poor". Outside of gaining popularity with them, he provided them with tools to assist them in the improvement of their agrarian lifestyles. He felt that if the country were to progress that the Indians, the very symbol of Brazilianness, should reap the benefits, ridden the label of oppression the country. This was important to establish a unified society. The intention was to form a strong impulse toward industrialization.

In this period, a number of industrial concerns were created:

• The "Conselho Nacional do Petróleo" (CNP) (National Oil Advisor)
• The "Departamento Administrativo do Serviço Público" (DASP) (The Administration Department of Public Service)
• The "Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional" (CSN) (National Iron Smelting Company)
• The "Companhia Vale do Rio Doce" (Rio Doce Valley Company)
• The "Companhia Hidro-Elétrica do São Francisco" (São Francisco Hydroelectric Company)
• The "Fábrica Nacional de Motores" (FNM) (National Motor Plant)

The Estado Novo had a powerful effect on Brazilian architecture, because it provided sufficient authority to implement Urban Planning on a large scale in Brazil. Although sufficient wealth was not available to complete the plans, they had a powerful, lasting effect on the cities and their organization. One of the best-planned cities in the world, Curitiba, received its first planning during the Estado Novo. One notable urban planner was Alfred Agache.

A series of measures were used to restrain opposition, such as the nomination of Intervenors for the States and censorship of the media, performed by the DIP ("Departamento de Imprensa e Propaganda", Department of Press and Propaganda). This agency also promoted the ideology of the Estado Novo, designed the official propaganda of the government and tried to direct public opinion.

In 1943, Getúlio edited the CLT ("Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho", Consolidation of the Labor Laws), guaranteeing that a job would be stable after ten years of service. It also provided weekly rest, regulated the work of minors and women, regulated night-time work and set a working day to eight hours.

World War II[link]

With the start of World War II, in 1939, Vargas maintained neutrality until 1941, when an agreement, proposed by Brazilian foreign relations minister Oswaldo Aranha was formed between American continental nations to align with any American country in the event of an attack by an external power. Due to the consequences of this agreement, from Pearl Harbor Brazil's entering the war became just a matter of time. North American policy also financed Brazilian iron and steel extraction and placed military bases along the Brazilian North-Northeast coast, headquartered in Natal. With the conquest of Southeast Asia by Japanese troops, Getúlio signed a treaty, the Washington Accords, in 1942, which provisioned the supply of natural rubber from the Amazon to the Allies, resulting in the second rubber boom and the forced migration of many people from the drought-stricken northeast to the heart of Amazônia. These people were known as Soldados da Borracha ("rubber soldiers").

After the sinking of Brazilian merchant ships by German and Italian submarines throughout 1942, popular mobilization forced the Brazilian government to abandon its passiveness and declare war on Germany and Italy in August, 1942. Popular mobilization to make the war declaration effective, with the despatching of Brazilian troops to Europe, continued, but a decision by the Brazilian Government to actually send troops to fight the enemy was only made in March 1943 when Vargas and the U.S President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met in the Conference of Natal, where the first official agreement was made to create an expeditionary force (BEF). In July 1944 the first BEF group, was sent to fight in Italy, and despite being poorly equipped and trained, it accomplished its main missions.

Soon after the war, however, fearing the BEF's popularity and possible political use of the allied victory by some BEF members, the then Brazilian government decided to make demobilization effective, with the BEF still in Italy. Returning to Brazil, its members were also subjected to some restrictions. Civilian veterans were forbidden from wearing military decorations or uniforms in public, while military vets were transferred to regions far from great cities or to border garrisons.

The events related to Brazilian participation in the war and the ending of the conflict in 1945 strengthened pressures in favor of redemocratization. Although there were some concessions by the regime, such as the setting of a date for presidential elections, amnesty for political prisoners, the freedom to organize political parties, and a commitment to choose a new Constitutional convention, Vargas was not able to retain support for the continuation of his presidency and was deposed by the military in a surprise coup launched from his own War Ministry on October 29, 1945.

See also[link]

• Estado Novo (Portugal)
• Brazilian Integralism

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Castro, Celso; Izecksohn, Victor; Kraay, Hendrik (2004). Nova História Militar Brasileira. Fundação Getúlio Vargas. ISBN 85-225-0496-2.  in Portuguese
• Ready, J. Lee (1985). Forgotten Allies: The European Theatre, Volume I. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-89950-129-1. 
• Brazil Now.Info Estado Novo.
• Garfield, Seth. "The Roots of a Plant That Today Is Brazil: Indians and the Nation-State under the Brazilian Estado Novo" Journal of Latin American Studies Vol. 29, No. 3 (Oct., 1997), pp. 747–768

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Federative Republic of Brazil República Federativa do Brasil (Portuguese)
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Ordem e Progresso" (Portuguese) (English: "Order and Progress")
Anthem:  Hino Nacional Brasileiro (Portuguese) (English: Brazilian National Anthem)
National seal Selo Nacional do Brasil (Portuguese) (English: "National Seal of Brazil")
Capital		Brasília 15°47′S 47°52′W / 15.783°S 47.867°W / -15.783; -47.867
Largest city		São Paulo
Official language(s)		Portuguese[1]
Ethnic groups (2010[2])		47.73% White 43.13% Brown (Multiracial) 7.61% Black 1.09% Asian 0.43% Amerindian
Demonym		Brazilian
Government		Federal presidential constitutional republic
-	President	Dilma Rousseff (PT)
-	Vice President	Michel Temer (PMDB)
-	President of the Chamber of Deputies	Marco Maia (PT)
-	President of the Senate	José Sarney (PMDB)
-	President of the Supreme Federal Court	Ayres Britto
Legislature		National Congress
-	Upper house	Federal Senate
-	Lower house	Chamber of Deputies
Independence		from United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
-	Declared	7 September 1822
-	Recognized	29 August 1825
-	Republic	15 November 1889
-	Current constitution	5 October 1988
Area
-	Total	8,514,877 km2 (5th) 3,287,597 sq mi
-	Water (%)	0.65
Population
-	2011[4] estimate	192,376,496
-	2010 census	190,732,694[3] (5th)
-	Density	22/km2 (182nd) 57/sq mi
GDP (PPP)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$2.294 trillion[5] (7th)
-	Per capita	$11,769[5] (75th)
GDP (nominal)		2011 estimate
-	Total	$2.493 trillion[5] (6th)
-	Per capita	$12,788[5] (53rd)
Gini (2012)		▼51.9[6]
HDI (2011)		0.718[7] (high) (84th)
Currency		Real (R$) (BRL)
Time zone		BRT (UTC−2 to −4)
-	Summer (DST)	BRST (UTC−2 to −4)
Date formats		dd/mm/yyyy (CE)
Drives on the		right
ISO 3166 code		BR
Internet TLD		.br
Calling code		+55

Brazil ⁱ/brəˈzɪl/ (Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]^[8]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil^[9][10] (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil,  listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people.^[11][12] It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.^[11]

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi).^[11] It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.^[11] It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.

Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.^[13] Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824.^[13] Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic.^[14] The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.^[14][15]

The Brazilian economy is the world's sixth largest by nominal GDP and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity (as of 2011).^[16][17] Brazil is one of the world's fastest growing major economies. Economic reforms have given the country new international recognition.^[18] Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, CPLP, Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Organization of American States, Mercosul and the Union of South American Nations, and is one of the BRIC countries. Brazil is also one of the 17 Megadiverse countries, home to diverse wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.^[11]

Etymology[link]

The word "Brazil" comes from brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from Latin brasa ("ember") and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium).^[19][20][21] As brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially-exploited product from Brazil. Through the 16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous peoples (mostly Tupi) along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to European traders (mostly Portuguese, but also French) in return for assorted European consumer goods.^[22]

The official name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy Cross" (Terra da Santa Cruz), but European sailors and merchants commonly called it simply the "Land of Brazil" (Terra do Brasil) on account of the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official name. Early sailors sometimes also called it the "Land of Parrots" (Terra di Papaga).

In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama". This was the name the natives gave to the region, meaning "land of the palm trees".

History[link]

Portuguese colonization[link]

The land now called Brazil was claimed by Portugal in April 1500, on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral.^[23] The Portuguese encountered stone age natives divided into several tribes, most of whom spoke languages of the Tupi–Guarani family, and fought among themselves.^[24]

Though the first settlement was founded in 1532, colonization was effectively begun in 1534, when Dom João III divided the territory into twelve hereditary captaincies,^[25][26] but this arrangement proved problematic and in 1549 the king assigned a Governor-General to administer the entire colony.^[26][27] The Portuguese assimilated some of the native tribes^[28] while others were enslaved or exterminated in long wars or by European diseases to which they had no immunity.^[29][30] By the mid-16th century, sugar had become Brazil's most important export^[24][31] and the Portuguese imported African slaves^[32][33] to cope with the increasing international demand.^[29][34]

The first Christian mass in Brazil, 1500.

Through wars against the French, the Portuguese slowly expanded their territory to the southeast, taking Rio de Janeiro in 1567, and to the northwest, taking São Luís in 1615.^[35] They sent military expeditions to the Amazon rainforest and conquered British and Dutch strongholds,^[36] founding villages and forts from 1669.^[37] In 1680 they reached the far south and founded Sacramento on the bank of the Rio de la Plata, in the Eastern Strip region (present-day Uruguay).^[38]

At the end of the 17th century, sugar exports started to decline^[39] but beginning in the 1690s, the discovery of gold by explorers in the region that would later be called Minas Gerais (General Mines) in current Mato Grosso and Goiás, saved the colony from imminent collapse.^[40] From all over Brazil, as well as from Portugal, thousands of immigrants came to the mines.^[41]

The Spanish tried to prevent Portuguese expansion into the territory that belonged to them according to the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, and succeeded in conquering the Eastern Strip in 1777. However, this was in vain as the Treaty of San Ildefonso, signed in the same year, confirmed Portuguese sovereignty over all lands proceeding from its territorial expansion, thus creating most of the current Brazilian borders.^[42]

In 1808, the Portuguese royal family and the majority of the Portuguese nobility, fleeing the troops of the French Emperor Napoleon I that were invading Portugal and most of Central Europe, established themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which thus became the seat of the entire Portuguese Empire.^[43] In 1815 Dom João VI, then regent on behalf of his incapacitated mother, elevated Brazil from colony to sovereign Kingdom united with Portugal.^[43] In 1809 the Portuguese invaded French Guiana (which was returned to France in 1817)^[44] and in 1816 the Eastern Strip, subsequently renamed Cisplatina.^[45]

Independence and empire[link]

Declaration of the Brazilian independence by Emperor Pedro I on 7 September 1822.

After the Portuguese military had successfully repelled Napoleon's invasion, the King João VI returned to Europe on 26 April 1821, leaving his elder son Prince Pedro de Alcântara as regent to rule Brazil.^[46] The Portuguese government, guided by the new political regime imposed by the Liberal Revolution of 1820, attempted to turn Brazil into a colony once again, thus depriving it of its achievements since 1808.^[47] The Brazilians refused to yield and Prince Pedro stood by them declaring the country's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822.^[48] On 12 October 1822, Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil and crowned Dom Pedro I on 1 December 1822.^[49]

The public flogging of a slave in Rio de Janeiro. From Jean-Baptiste Debret, Voyage Pittoresque et Historique au Bresil (1834–1839).

At that time most Brazilians were in favour of a monarchy and republicanism had little support.^[50][51] The subsequent Brazilian War of Independence spread through almost the entire territory, with battles in the northern, northeastern, and southern regions.^[52] The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824^[53] and independence was recognized by Portugal on 29 August 1825.^[54]

The first Brazilian constitution was promulgated on 25 March 1824, after its acceptance by the municipal councils across the country.^{[55][56][57][58]} Pedro I abdicated on 7 April 1831 and went to Europe to reclaim his daughter’s crown, leaving behind his five year old son and heir, who was to become Dom Pedro II.^[59] As the new emperor could not exert his constitutional prerogatives until he reached maturity, a regency was created.^[60]

Disputes between political factions led to rebellions and an unstable, almost anarchical, regency.^[61] It is estimated that from 30 to 40% of the population of the Province of Grão-Pará died during the Cabanagem revolt.^[62] The rebellious factions, however, were not in revolt against the monarchy,^[63][64] even though some declared the secession of the provinces as independent republics, but only so long as Pedro II was a minor.^[65] Because of this, Pedro II was prematurely declared of age and "Brazil was to enjoy nearly half a century of internal peace and rapid material progress."^[66]

Brazilian forces (in blue uniform) engage the Paraguayan army (some in red uniform and other shirtless) during the Paraguayan War.

Despite the loss of Cisplatina in 1828 when it became an independent nation known as Uruguay,^[67] Brazil won three international wars during the 58-year reign of Pedro II (the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the Paraguayan War, which left over 50,000 dead)^[68] and witnessed the consolidation of representative democracy, mainly due to successive elections and unrestricted freedom of the press.^[69] Most importantly, slavery was extinguished after a slow but steady process that began with the end of the international traffic in slaves in 1850^[70] and ended with the complete abolition of slavery in 1888.^[71] The slave population had been in decline since Brazil's independence: in 1823, 29% of the Brazilian population were slaves but by 1887 this had fallen to 5%.^[72]

When the monarchy was overthrown on 15 November 1889^[73] there was little desire in Brazil to change the form of government^[74] and Pedro II was at the height of his popularity among his subjects.^[75][76] However, he "bore prime, perhaps sole, responsibility for his own overthrow."^[77] After the death of his two sons, Pedro believed that "the imperial regime was destined to end with him."^[78] He cared little for the regime's fate^[79][80] and so neither did anything, nor allowed anyone else to do anything, to prevent the military coup, backed by former slave owners who resented the abolition of slavery.^[81][82][83]

Early republic[link]

The Brazilian coup d'état of 1930 raised Getúlio Vargas (center with military uniform but no hat) to power. He ruled the country for fifteen years.

At the beginning of the republican government it was little more than a military dictatorship,^[73] and the new constitution restricted political rights, such as the right to vote,^[84][85] yet provided for direct elections to be held in 1894.^[86] However, already in 1891, from the unfoldings of the encilhamento bubble^[87][88] and of the 1st naval revolt, the country entered in a prolonged cycle of financial, social and political instability, that would extend until the 1920s keeping the country plagued by several rebellions, both civilian^[89][90][91] as military,^[92][93][94] which little by little undermined the regime in a such extent, that by 1930 it was possible for the defeated presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas, supported by the majority of military,^[95] to lead a coup d'état and assume the presidency.^[96]

Vargas and the military, who were supposed to assume the government temporarily to implement democratic reforms related to 1891's Constitution, closed the Congress and ruled with emergency powers, replacing the states' governors with their supporters.^[97][98] Under the Claiming of the broken promises of changing, in 1932 the oligarchy of São Paulo tried to regain the power^[99] and in 1935 the Communists rebelled,^[100] having both been defeated. However, the communist threat served as an excuse for Vargas to preclude elections launching another coup d'état in 1937, creating a full dictatorship^{[101][102][103][104]} In May 1938, there was another failed attempt to take over the power by local fascists.^[105][106]

In foreign policy, the success in resolving border disputes with neighboring countries^[107] in the early years of this period, was followed by a failed attempt to permanently exert a prominent role in the League of Nations^[108] after military involvement in World War I.^{[109][110][111]} Notwithstanding, Brazil remained neutral at the beginning of World War II until the Pan-American Conference of January 1942 when Brazil stood alongside the U.S.A. severing diplomatic relations with the Axis powers.^[112] In retaliation, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy extended their submarine warfare against Brazil, which led the country to enter the war on the allied side in August of that year.^[113][114]

With the allied victory in 1945 and the end of the Nazi-fascist regimes in Europe, Vargas's position became unsustainable and he was swiftly overthrown in another military coup.^[115] Democracy was reinstated and General Eurico Gaspar Dutra was elected president taking office in 1946.^[116] Having returned to power democratically elected at the end of 1950, Vargas committed suicide in August 1954 amid a political crisis.^[117][118]

Contemporary era[link]

The transition from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva indicated that Brazil had finally succeeded in achieving its long-sought political stability.

Several brief interim governments succeeded after Vargas's suicide.^[119] Juscelino Kubitscheck became president in 1956 and assumed a conciliatory posture towards the political opposition that allowed him to govern without major crises.^[120] The economy and industrial sector grew remarkably,^[121] but his greatest achievement was the construction of the new capital city of Brasília, inaugurated in 1960.^[122] His successor was Jânio Quadros, who resigned in 1961 less than a year after taking office.^[123] His vice-president, João Goulart, assumed the presidency, but aroused strong political opposition^[124] and was deposed in April 1964 by a coup that resulted in a military regime.^[125]

The new regime was intended to be transitory^[126] but it gradually closed in on itself and became a full dictatorship with the promulgation of the Fifth Institutional Act in 1968.^[127] The repression of the dictatorship's opponents, including urban guerrillas,^[128] was harsh, but not as brutal as in other Latin American countries.^[129] Due to the extraordinary economic growth, known as an "economic miracle", the regime reached its highest level of popularity in the years of repression.^[130]

General Ernesto Geisel became president in 1974 and began his project of re-democratization through a process that he said would be "slow, gradual and safe."^[131][132] Geisel ended the military indiscipline that had plagued the country since 1889,^[133] as well as the torture of political prisoners, censorship of the press,^[134] and finally, the dictatorship itself, after he extinguished the Fifth Institutional Act.^[127] However, the military regime continued, under his chosen successor General João Figueiredo, to complete the transition to full democracy.^[135]

The civilians fully returned to power in 1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency^[136] but, by the end of his term, he had become extremely unpopular due to the uncontrollable economic crisis and unusually high inflation.^[137] Sarney's unsuccessful government allowed the election in 1989 of the almost unknown Fernando Collor, who was subsequently impeached by the National Congress in 1992.^[138] Collor was succeeded by his Vice-President Itamar Franco, who appointed Fernando Henrique Cardoso as Minister of Finance.

Cardoso produced a highly successful Plano Real (Royal or Real Plan)^[139] that granted stability to the Brazilian economy^[140] and he was elected as president in 1994 and again in 1998.^[141] The peaceful transition of power to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, who was elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, proved that Brazil had finally succeeded in achieving its long-sought political stability.^[142] Lula was succeeded in 2011 by the current president, Dilma Rousseff.^[143]

Geography[link]

Topography map of Brazil

Brazil occupies a large area along the eastern coast of South America and includes much of the continent's interior,^[144] sharing land borders with Uruguay to the south; Argentina and Paraguay to the southwest; Bolivia and Peru to the west; Colombia to the northwest; and Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the French overseas department of French Guiana to the north. It shares a border with every country in South America except for Ecuador and Chile. It also encompasses a number of oceanic archipelagos, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.^[11] Its size, relief, climate, and natural resources make Brazil geographically diverse.^[144] Including its Atlantic islands, Brazil lies between latitudes 6°N and 34°S, and longitudes 28° and 74°W.

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, after Russia, Canada, China and the United States, and third largest in the Americas; with a total area of 8,514,876.599 km² (3,287,612 sq mi),^[145] including 55,455 km² (21,411 sq mi) of water.^[11] It spans three time zones; from UTC-4 in the western states, to UTC-3 in the eastern states (and the official time of Brazil) and UTC-2 in the Atlantic islands.^[146] Brazil is the only country in the world that lies on the equator while having contiguous territory outside the tropics.

Brazilian topography is also diverse and includes hills, mountains, plains, highlands, and scrublands. Much of the terrain lies between 200 metres (660 ft) and 800 metres (2,600 ft) in elevation.^[147] The main upland area occupies most of the southern half of the country.^[147] The northwestern parts of the plateau consist of broad, rolling terrain broken by low, rounded hills.^[147]

The southeastern section is more rugged, with a complex mass of ridges and mountain ranges reaching elevations of up to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft).^[147] These ranges include the Mantiqueira and Espinhaço mountains and the Serra do Mar.^[147] In the north, the Guiana Highlands form a major drainage divide, separating rivers that flow south into the Amazon Basin from rivers that empty into the Orinoco River system, in Venezuela, to the north. The highest point in Brazil is the Pico da Neblina at 2,994 metres (9,823 ft), and the lowest is the Atlantic Ocean.^[11]

Brazil has a dense and complex system of rivers, one of the world's most extensive, with eight major drainage basins, all of which drain into the Atlantic.^[148] Major rivers include the Amazon (the world's second-longest river and the largest in terms of volume of water), the Paraná and its major tributary the Iguaçu (which includes the Iguazu Falls), the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu, Madeira and Tapajós rivers.^[148]

Climate[link]

Snow in São Joaquim, Santa Catarina in 2010 (South) and tropical climate in Cabedelo, Paraíba, (Northeast).

The climate of Brazil comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a large area and varied topography, but most of the country is tropical.^[11] According to the Köppen system, Brazil hosts five major climatic subtypes: equatorial, tropical, semiarid, highland tropical, temperate, and subtropical. The different climatic conditions produce environments ranging from equatorial rainforests in the north and semiarid deserts in the northeast, to temperate coniferous forests in the south and tropical savannas in central Brazil.^[149] Many regions have starkly different microclimates.^[150][151]

An equatorial climate characterizes much of northern Brazil. There is no real dry season, but there are some variations in the period of the year when most rain falls.^[149] Temperatures average 25 °C (77 °F),^[151] with more significant temperature variation between night and day than between seasons.^[150]

Over central Brazil rainfall is more seasonal, characteristic of a savanna climate.^[150] This region is as extensive as the Amazon basin but has a very different climate as it lies farther south at a higher altitude.^[149] In the interior northeast, seasonal rainfall is even more extreme. The semiarid climatic region generally receives less than 800 millimetres (31.5 in) of rain,^[152] most of which generally falls in a period of three to five months of the year^[153] and occasionally less than this, creating long periods of drought.^[150] Brazil's 1877–78 Grande Seca (Great Drought), the most severe ever recorded in Brazil,^[154] caused approximately half a million deaths.^[155] The one from 1915 was devastating too.^[156]

South of Bahia, near the coasts, and more southerly most of the state of São Paulo, the distribution of rainfall changes, with rain falling throughout the year.^[149] The south enjoys temperate conditions, with cool winters and average annual temperatures not exceeding 18 °C (64.4 °F);^[151] winter frosts are quite common, with occasional snowfall in the higher areas.^[149][150] Other kinds of solid precipitation happen in a wider area, including cities as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Fall of snow grains and ice pellets, deemed as not dissimilar from true hail, are popularly called granizo.

Biodiversity[link]

The Amazon Rainforest, the largest tropical forest in the world.

Brazil's large territory comprises different ecosystems, such as the Amazon Rainforest, recognized as having the greatest biological diversity in the world,^[157] with the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, sustaining the greatest biodiversity.^[158] In the south, the Araucaria pine forest grows under temperate conditions.^[158] The rich wildlife of Brazil reflects the variety of natural habitats. Scientists estimate that the total number of plant and animal species in Brazil could approach four million.^[158]

Larger mammals include pumas, jaguars, ocelots, rare bush dogs, and foxes; peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, sloths, opossums, and armadillos are abundant. Deer are plentiful in the south, and many species of New World monkeys are found in the northern rain forests.^[158][159] Concern for the environment has grown in response to global interest in environmental issues.^[160]

Environment[link]

The natural heritage of Brazil is severely threatened by cattle ranching and agriculture, logging, mining, resettlement, oil and gas extraction, over-fishing, wildlife trade, dams and infrastructure, water contamination, climate change, fire, and invasive species.^[157] In many areas of the country, the natural environment is threatened by development.^[161] Construction of highways has opened up previously remote areas for agriculture and settlement; dams have flooded valleys and inundated wildlife habitats; and mines have scarred and polluted the landscape.^[160][162] At least 70 dams are said to be planned for the Amazon region, including controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam.^[163]

Politics[link]

The National Congress in Brasília, the capital of Brazil.

The Brazilian Federation is the "indissoluble union" of three distinct political entities: the States, the Municipalities and the Federal District.^[14] The Union, the states and the Federal District, and the municipalities, are the "spheres of government." The Federation is set on five fundamental principles:^[14] sovereignty, citizenship, dignity of human beings, the social values of labour and freedom of enterprise, and political pluralism. The classic tripartite branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial under the checks and balances system), is formally established by the Constitution.^[14] The executive and legislative are organized independently in all three spheres of government, while the judiciary is organized only at the federal and state/Federal District spheres.

All members of the executive and legislative branches are directly elected.^{[164][165][166]} Judges and other judicial officials are appointed after passing entry exams.^[164] For most of its democratic history, Brazil has had a multi-party system, proportional representation. Voting is compulsory for the literate between 18 and 70 years old and optional for illiterates and those between 16 and 18 or beyond 70.^[14] Together with several smaller parties, four political parties stand out: Workers' Party (PT), Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), and Democrats (DEM). Almost all governmental and administrative functions are exercised by authorities and agencies affiliated to the Executive.

The form of government is that of a democratic republic, with a presidential system.^[14] The president is both head of state and head of government of the Union and is elected for a four-year term,^[14] with the possibility of re-election for a second successive term. The current president is Dilma Rousseff who was inaugurated on January 1, 2011.^[167] The President appoints the Ministers of State, who assist in government.^[14] Legislative houses in each political entity are the main source of law in Brazil. The National Congress is the Federation's bicameral legislature, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. Judiciary authorities exercise jurisdictional duties almost exclusively.

Fifteen political parties are represented in Congress. It is common for politicians to switch parties, and thus the proportion of congressional seats held by particular parties changes regularly. The largest political parties are the Workers' Party (PT), Democrats (DEM), Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB-center), Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), Progressive Party (PP), Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), Liberal Party (PL), Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB), Popular Socialist Party (PPS), Democratic Labor Party (PDT), and the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB).^[168]

Law[link]

Inside the Supreme Federal Court building at the Three Powers Plaza.

Brazilian law is based on Roman-Germanic traditions^[169] and civil law concepts prevail over common law practice. Most of Brazilian law is codified, although non-codified statutes also represent a substantial part, playing a complementary role. Court decisions set out interpretive guidelines; however, they are seldom binding on other specific cases. Doctrinal works and the works of academic jurists have strong influence in law creation and in law cases.

The legal system is based on the Federal Constitution, which was promulgated on 5 October 1988, and is the fundamental law of Brazil. All other legislation and court decisions must conform to its rules.^[170] As of April 2007^[update], there have been 53 amendments. States have their own constitutions, which must not contradict the Federal Constitution.^[171] Municipalities and the Federal District have "organic laws" (leis orgânicas), which act in a similar way to constitutions.^[14][172] Legislative entities are the main source of statutes, although in certain matters judiciary and executive bodies may enact legal norms.^[14] Jurisdiction is administered by the judiciary entities, although in rare situations the Federal Constitution allows the Federal Senate to pass on legal judgments.^[14] There are also specialized military, labor, and electoral courts.^[14] The highest court is the Supreme Federal Court.

This system has been criticised over the last few decades for the slow pace of decision making. Lawsuits on appeal may take several years to resolve, and in some cases more than a decade elapses before definitive rulings.^[173] Nevertheless, the Supreme Federal Tribunal was the first court in the world to transmit its sessions on television, and also via YouTube.^[174][175] More recently, in December 2009, the Supreme Court adopted Twitter to display items on the day planner of the ministers, to inform the daily actions of the Court and the most important decisions made by them.^[176]

Brazil continues to have high crime rates in a number of statistics, despite recent improvements. More than 500,000 people have been killed by firearms in Brazil between 1979 and 2003, according to a new report by the United Nations.^[177] In 2010, there were 473,600 people incarcerated in Brazilian prisons and jails.^[178]

Foreign relations and military[link]

Itamaraty Palace, headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Brazil is a political and economic leader in Latin America.^[179][180] However, social and economic problems have prevented it from becoming an effective global power.^[181] Between 1945 and 1990, both democratic and military governments sought to expand Brazil's influence in the world by pursuing a state-led industrial policy and an independent foreign policy. More recently, the country has aimed to strengthen ties with other South American countries, and engage in multilateral diplomacy through the United Nations and the Organization of American States.^[182]

Brazil's current foreign policy is based on the country's position as a regional power in Latin America, a leader among developing countries, and an emerging world power.^[183] In general, current Brazilian foreign policy reflects multilateralism, peaceful dispute settlement, and nonintervention in the affairs of other countries.^[184] The Brazilian Constitution also determines that the country shall seek the economic, political, social and cultural integration of the nations of Latin America.^{[14][185][179][180]}

An increasingly well-developed tool of Brazil's foreign policy is providing aid as a donor to other developing countries.^[186] Brazil does not just use its growing economic strength to provide financial aid, but it also provides high levels of expertise and most importantly of all, a quiet non-confrontational diplomacy to improve governance levels.^[186] Total aid is estimated to be around $1 billion per year that includes:^[186]

• technical cooperation of around $480 million ($30 million in 2010 provided directly by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC))
• an estimated $450 million for in-kind expertise provided by Brazilian institutions specialising in technical cooperation

Frigates in Brazil during training exercise.

In addition, Brazil manages a peacekeeping mission in Haiti ($350 million) and makes in-kind contributions to the World Food Programme ($300 million).^[186] This is in addition to humanitarian assistance and contributions to multilateral development agencies. The scale of this aid places it on par with China and India and ahead of many western donors.^[186] The Brazilian South-South aid has been described as a "global model in waiting."^[187]

The armed forces of Brazil consist of the Brazilian Army, the Brazilian Navy, and the Brazilian Air Force. With a total of 371,199 active personnel,^[188] they constitute the largest armed force in Latin America.^[189] The Army is responsible for land-based military operations and has 235,978 active personnel.^[190]

The Military Police (States' Military Police) is described as an ancillary force of the Army by the constitution, but is under the control of each state's governor.^[14] The Navy is responsible for naval operations and for guarding Brazilian territorial waters. It is the oldest of the Brazilian armed forces and the only navy in Latin America to operate an aircraft carrier, the NAe São Paulo (formerly FS Foch of the French Navy).^[191] The Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Brazilian armed forces, and the largest air force in Latin America, with about 700 manned aircraft in service.^[192]

Administrative divisions[link]

Atlantic
Ocean

Pacific
Ocean

North Region

Northeast Region

Central-West Region

Southeast Region

South Region

Acre

Amazonas

Pará

Roraima

Amapá

Rondônia

Tocantins

Maranhão

Bahia

Piauí

Ceará

Rio Grande
do Norte

Paraíba

Pernambuco

Alagoas

Sergipe

Mato Grosso

Mato Grosso
do Sul

Federal
District

Goiás

Minas Gerais

São Paulo

Rio de Janeiro

Espírito Santo

Paraná

Santa Catarina

Rio Grande
do Sul

Argentina

Bolivia

Chile

Colombia

French Guiana

Guyana

Paraguay

Peru

Suriname

Uruguay

Venezuela

Brazil is a federation composed of 26 States, one federal district (which contains the capital city, Brasília) and municipalities.^[14] States have autonomous administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected by the Federal government. They have a governor and a unicameral legislative body elected directly by their voters. They also have independent Courts of Law for common justice. Despite this, states have much less autonomy to create their own laws than in the United States. For example, criminal and civil laws can only be voted by the federal bicameral Congress and are uniform throughout the country.^[14]

The states and the federal district may be grouped into regions: Northern, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and Southern. The Brazilian regions are merely geographical, not political or administrative divisions, and they do not have any specific form of government. Although defined by law, Brazilian regions are useful mainly for statistical purposes, and also to define the application of federal funds in development projects.

Municipalities, as the states, have autonomous administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected by the Union and state government.^[14] Each has a mayor and an elected legislative body, but no separate Court of Law. Indeed, a Court of Law organized by the state can encompass many municipalities in a single justice administrative division called comarca (county).

Economy[link]

An Embraer ERJ-135 commercial jet. Brazil is the third-largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world,^[193] and the fourth-largest aircraft producer when including business jets into account.^[194]

Brazil is the largest national economy in Latin America, the world's sixth largest economy at market exchange rates and the seventh largest in purchasing power parity (PPP), according to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Brazil has a mixed economy with abundant natural resources. The Brazilian economy has been predicted to become one of the five largest in the world in the decades to come, the GDP per capita following and growing.^[195] Its current GDP (PPP) per capita is $10,200, putting Brazil in the 64th position according to World Bank data. It has large and developed agricultural, mining, manufacturing and service sectors, as well as a large labor pool.^[196]

Brazilian exports are booming, creating a new generation of tycoons.^[197] Major export products include aircraft, electrical equipment, automobiles, ethanol, textiles, footwear, iron ore, steel, coffee, orange juice, soybeans and corned beef.^[198] The country has been expanding its presence in international financial and commodities markets, and is one of a group of four emerging economies called the BRIC countries.^[199]

Brazil pegged its currency, the real, to the U.S. dollar in 1994. However, after the East Asian financial crisis, the Russian default in 1998^[200] and the series of adverse financial events that followed it, the Central Bank of Brazil temporarily changed its monetary policy to a managed-float scheme while undergoing a currency crisis, until definitively changing the exchange regime to free-float in January 1999.^[201]