| This Mere Men article has not been expanded past 1966 yet. |
| Republic of the United States of Brazil República dos Estados Unidos do Brasil (Portuguese) Timeline: Mere Men
OTL equivalent: Brazil | ||||||
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| Motto: Ordem e Progresso |
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| Anthem: Hino Nacional Brasileiro |
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| Capital | Brasília | |||||
| Largest city | São Paulo | |||||
| Official languages | Portuguese | |||||
| Religion | Catholic, Protestant, other | |||||
| Demonym | Brazilians | |||||
| Government | Federal presidential republic | |||||
| - | President | |||||
| - | Vice President | |||||
| Legislature | National Congress | |||||
| Independence from Portugal | ||||||
| - | Empire of Brazil | 7 September 1822 | ||||
| - | Republic | 15 November 1889 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 8,515,767 km2 3,287,956 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | 0.7 | ||||
| Currency | Brazilian real | |||||
| Time zone | BRT-2 to BRT+1 | |||||
Brazil, officially the Republic of the United States of Brazil (Portuguese: República dos Estados Unidos do Brasil) is the largest country in South America, bordering Uruguay and Argentina to the south, Paraguay and Bolivia to the southwest, Peru and Colombia to the west and Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana to the north. Brazil is a federative state composed of twenty seven states with the capital Brasília as its own unit as the Federal District.
Brazil was a Portuguese colony from the 16th century until the Napoleonic Wars, after which it was elevated to the rank of a kingdom within the Portuguese realm. Brazil achieved independence as a constitutional monarchy in 1822 and became a republic after a coup d'état in 1889. From 1930 to 1956, the country was under the influence of Getúlio Vargas, which was followed by a decade of conservative and military rule.
History[]
Estado Novo[]
In 1930, a military coup d'état brought Getúlio Vargas to the presidency, starting a period of authoritarian rule in the country. When the Second World War broke out in Europe in 1939, Brazil remained neutral until 1942, when, faced with German and Italian submarine attacks, it entered the war on the side of the Allies. Brazil, however, did not provide any troops to the war in Europe until 1943, when the government finally send an expeditionary force to Egypt after pressure from the United States.
In 1946, German defeat seemed inevitable, which, alongside the sudden popularity of the Brazilian expeditionary force, contributed to an increase in demands for the democratisation of the country. At first, the Vargas regime made several concessions, including the promise of free parliamentary and presidential elections after the end of the war. Worried about the increased popularity of the military, however, Vargas decided to withdraw the expeditionary unit from Europe and completely demobilise. The military, led by Generals Eurico Gaspar Dutra and Góis Monteiro, immediately attempted to depose Vargas, but the coup attempt was successfully defeated and its leaders arrested, thanks to the help of Getúlio's brother Benjamin, who had been earlier appointed as the chief of police in the Federal District.
After the coup attempt, Vargas withdrew all his promises and instead returned to rule by decree, the exact course of action the plotters. His popularity suffered greatly because of this, and even many members of his own government, most notably those from the newly established Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrático), including the foreign relations minister Osvaldo Aranha. Due to this development, Vargas was increasingly forced to rely on the trade unions, but was at least able to regain some popular support through his economic policies. Nonetheless, the pressure from the military, most of which distrusted Vargas after his 1946 coup, eventually got through to him and he again announced parliamentary and presidential election, this time for the autumn of 1948. Some officers, however, feared that Vargas might attempt to seize power again and launched a second coup attempt led by General Henrique Teixeira Lott against the President. This time the plot succeeded, forcing Vargas to semi-retirement and replacing him with José Linhares, the President of the Supreme Federal Court.
Democratisation and conservative rule[]
The 1948 election resulted in the victory of the PSD over the conservative forces and Aranha was sworn in as the new President of Brazil. A new constitution was adopted in 1949, solidifying the democratic rule. On the international front, Aranha supported the United States while pursuing Brazilian own interests. After the communist victory in China, he outlawed the Brazilian Communist Party (Partido Comunista Brasileiro), but continued to maintain diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc states. On the homefront, Aranha supported the development of the country and continued many of Vargas' industrialisation policies. A main point of contention was the question of foreign investment and the extraction of the Brazilian oil reserves, where Aranha found himself at odds with the wealthy conservatives.
During the Aranha administration, most of the PSD reconciled with Vargas and in 1953 a joint ticket of the PSD and Vargas' own Brazilian Labour Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro) was ran, with Góis Monteiro for President and San Tiago Dantas for Vice President, both of whom won their respective races, although both with only a small lead and the latter with only a plurality of votes. Many conservatives, including a large portion of the military, viewed the new administration as a device of Vargas to remain in control of Brazil even after his deposition, and their dissatisfaction with the government only grew after it took further measures to increase state control over key sectors of the economy, including the oil mining. Brazil also continued its independent foreign policy to the dismay of the United States, and while notably the government broke off diplomatic relations with Israel, it continued to deal with the rest of the Eastern Bloc.
During his term, Góis Monteiro's health started declining rapidly, causing the military to fear that San Tiago Dantas, who was seen as a radical leftist by the conservatives, would take over the presidency. In October 1956, Góis Monteiro died, but the military launched a coup d'état shortly after to prevent San Tiago Dantas' inauguration and declared the Vice President incapacitated due to alleged health issues, passing the presidency to the President of the Chamber of Deputies Carlos Luz. However, the actual power was held by a triumvirate of military leaders, Jurandir Bizarria Mamede, Eduardo Gomes and Juarez Távora, who only used Luz as their puppet. A new, "anti-varguist" constitution was put in place and new parliamentary elections were called for late 1956, which were held under a close supervision by the military. The new parliament then elected Gomes as the next president in an indirect election.
Although Gomes presented himself as a constitutional civilian president, the military continued to hold considerable influence, which was most evident in the repressive actions against the opposition. State monopolies were dismantled under Gomes while foreign investments were protected. Several of Vargas' reforms were overturned, although some like the minimum wage were kept after their abolition caused unrest. In 1962, Gomes' term expired and the military intended to push through another of their candidates, solidifying their control over the country. However, after the falangist coup d'état in neighbouring Bolivia in 1958, the United States threatened the withdrawal of their investors if a military candidate should be elected, resulting in the election of Carlos Lacerda. The Lacerda administration followed in the direction of its predecessor, but worked to undermine the influence of the military. Despite the rising economy and strong support among the conservative upper and middle classes and the Catholic Church, the discontent with the Conservative Republic among the working class culminated in several demonstrations called in the aftermath of Vargas' death in 1965. After these demonstrations, Lacerda formed a constitutional convention in order to restore democratic rule.
New Republic[]
Lacerda's democratisation efforts upset the hard-line portion of the military, led by Artur Costa e Silva, but after he and other leaders of the leaked plot to depose Lacerda fled to the United States, the transition could progress uninterupted and the new constituion entered force in time for the 1966 general election. The election was won by Tancredo Neves with a developmentarianist platform of "building a new Brazil". As part of the platform, preparations for a construction of a new capital city in Brasília were made in 1967, but some efforts had to be delayed because of the outbreak of the Beagle War between Argentina and Chile.