Brazilian Revolution (Napoleon's World)

The Brazilian Revolution is the term given to the broad social and political revolution that occurred between 1940 and 1942 in Brazil, spurred by poor economic conditions in the country after decades of increasing inequality between the upper and lower classes of Brazilian society. Initially a socialist revolution inspired by similar measures in Spain in 1927 and Siberia in 1935, the revolution eventually only forced the ouster of the Brazilian Imperial House of Braganza and gave birth to a shaky political coalition of left-wing radicals constrained to the countryside and some parts of major cities, republican moderates who sat in the government, and right-wing, pro-military reactionaries seeking to establish a dictatorship. Two military coups - one in 1953 to prevent a socialist takeover and the other in 1974 due to threats of a new constitution - shook the foundations of the Brazilian state.