Brazil: 20th Century Developments

At the start of the twentieth century, Brazil was still a predominantly rural society under the Old Republic, an arrangement in which power rotated among regional oligarchies while a small elite tied to coffee exports shaped national policy. Industrial growth was slow and dependence on foreign manufactured goods and credit persisted for decades, though the 1920s brought rising pressure for a more active, interventionist state as urban and military discontent with the old order grew.

Getúlio Vargas rose to power in 1930 and dominated national politics for much of the next quarter-century, including an authoritarian Estado Novo period, before the armed forces pushed him to resign in 1945 and ushered in a more democratic period commonly known as the Second Republic. That democratic interlude allowed for competitive elections and a freer press, even as economic and regional tensions continued to strain the political system.

That democratic period ended abruptly on April 1, 1964, when the armed forces ousted President João Goulart in a coup that installed a military government lasting twenty-one years. Rule grew especially repressive after the 1968 Institutional Act Number Five, which enabled widespread censorship and human rights abuses, before a gradual political opening finally culminated in the return of civilian government under José Sarney in March 1985.