History of Brazil (1983: Doomsday)

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Brazil leaders, 1983-present

1983-1985	João Figueiredo
1985-1990	Ulysses Guimarães
1990-1995	Leonel Brizola
1995-2000	Mário Covas
2000-2005	Fernando Henrique Cardoso
2005-2010	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
2010-2015	Dilma Rousseff
2015-2020	Aécio Neves
2020-present	Ciro Gomes

The history of Brazil (Brasil) begins with the arrival of the first indigenous peoples, over 8,000 years ago by crossing the Bering land bridge into Alaska and then entering the rest of North and Central America.

It is widely accepted that the European first to discover Brazil was Portuguese Pedro Álvares Cabral on April 22, 1500. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Brazil was a colony of Portugal. On September 7, 1822, the country declared its independence from Portugal and became a constitutional monarchy, the Empire of Brazil. A military coup in 1889 established a republican government. The country has been nominally a federal republic ever since, except for three periods of overt dictatorship.

Post-Doomsday

1983–85

No Brazilian cities were hit in the events of the Doomsday. At the time, Brazil was undergoing a process of re-democratization, which was previously consolidated with the Amnesty Law, and the repeal of the Institutional Acts under President Ernesto Geisel. Under João Figueiredo, the first free elections for governor happened in 1982 along with the legislative elections. Despite that, Brazil was also experiencing the aggravation of an economic crisis, and the Diretas Já movement (demanding direct elections for president) was growing. The movement was soon supported by political parties, trade unions, civil, student and journalistic leaderships.

The Doomsday event eventually left Brazil in a stable position in foreign affairs, despite its economic and political situation. With the uncertainty caused by the Doomsday situation, a Council was summoned by President Figueiredo, which included its cabinet, governors and leaders of the government and opposition of the Congress. Policies over migration and supply were taken, as well as correspondence with its neighbors in South America and nations of the Global South. However, the Diretas Já movement was still growing.

A compromise between the government and opposition was firmed with the approval of the Dante de Oliveira Amendment. For the government, there was a concern over the foreign perspectives of Brazil to be a leading nation in the West as a dictatorship, and how that could affect the investment of remaining foreign companies in national territory, while the opposition pressured under the terms of "popular sovereignty", to finish with the democratization process. The amendment was approved by 340-55 votes in the Chamber of Deputies, and 50-15 in the Senate. Presidential elections were scheduled to November and December of 1984.

The presidential elections of 1984 were the first direct elections for president since 1960. The major candidates for the election were Tancredo Neves (PMDB), Leonel Brizola (PDT), Mário Andreazza (PDS), Hélio Bicudo (PT) and Jânio Quadros (PTB), among others. The elections were concurrent to the mayoral elections. No candidate managed to win a majority of votes, prompting a runoff election between the two most voted candidates, in which Neves won by 64.27%, becoming President of Brazil.

1985–95

Tancredo Neves, however, would become ill on the eve of his inauguration, leaving Ulysses Guimarães to take his office on March 15, 1985, which was still celebrated across the country. Eventually, Neves would die due to the complications of a surgery on 21 April, with his funeral being one of the largest in Brazil's history. Guimarães resorted into a coalition with the Liberal Front Party and the Brazilian Labour Party. The remaining left-wing Workers' Party and Democratic Labour Party, and the right-wing Democratic Social Party formed the opposition, although agreeing in policies regarding post-Doomsday refugees. In domestic policies, the government created the Ministry of Interior and Immigration to deal with refugees, their status and eventual resettlement across the country. In foreign affairs, Guimarães kept developing better relations in South America, as well as looking forward to subsequent regional integration.

The Brazilian economy eventually changed and diversified with the number of foreign investors and companies moving their head offices to the country. The government also launched a series of economic measures under the Plano Cruzado, such as price-freezing, economic austerity, a fixed exchange rate of 13 cruzados and 80 centavos per US$ dollar, and the creation of a temporary currency, the Cruzado, which was in force between 1986 and 1989, returning to Cruzeiro later on. The plan was partially successful, along with foreign investment, in stabilizing the inflation rate (at 7.6% in 1987).

In 1986, legislative elections occurred, with an all-time victory of PMDB and its allies, ruling with a supermajority in the Congress. This was a significant event, since it would elect members to form the basis of the Brazilian Constituent Assembly, which would establish the country's new Constitution. In late 1988, more Progressive factions of the party split and formed the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), due to divergences over economic and some social issues. Aloysio Nunes served as president of the Assembly.

In 1989, with the new presidential election, candidates were Leonel Brizola (PDT), Paulo Maluf (PDS), Aloysio Nunes (PMDB), Mário Covas (PSDB), Lula da Silva (PT), Aureliano Chaves (PFL), among others. The disagreements over a successor for Guimarães led to the split of their voting base, leading to a resurgence of Maluf to the second round against Brizola, with the victory of the former.

Leonel Brizola then succeeded Ulysses Guimarães, forming the first left-leaning government since his brother-in-law João Goulart, with a coalition consisting of PMDB, PT, PSB, PCB and PCdoB. The first year of his presidency was marked by the tensions between the government and the Armed Forces in significant issues, as well as the rural caucus by advocating to radical land reform policies, benefiting the Brazilian and refugee population. The Ministry of Interior and Immigration was divided into the Ministry of Interior, and of Immigration and Settlement.

Most of his domestic policies were rooted in the developmentalism from Vargas, João Goulart and the former Brazilian Labour Party. Brizola would be the first president to introduce social welfare programs, policy that would be continued by his successors, and would help him to secure the majority in National Congress with the legislative elections of 1990. However, economy under his presidency would take a downturn, mostly due to high expenses by the government and the increase on demand, caused by mass foreign investment in the country, triggering a rise in the inflation rate by 11.7% by early 1994.

In foreign affairs, although a nationalist, Brizola was keen to the South American integration, seeing Brazil as first among equals, which would affect the development of the Confederation and his relations with other leaders. Supporters of the idea formed an unofficial nationalist caucus in Congress, with members from PDT, PSB, PMDB, and later PRONA, among others. There were several opponents of the idea, ranging from left-wing parties, who advocated for Internationalism and funding parties across South America, and liberal parties, who favored more foreign investors and the rapprochement to Australia and New Zealand.