Vargas era was the period when GetulioVargas held the position of president of Brazil. This period began with the 1930 revolution, that put an end to First Republic, and ended in 1945, when the Brazilian army forced Vargas' deposition. During this period, a series of transformations took place, highlighting the creation of labor laws that until then did not exist. Despite this, for most of his fifteen years in office, Vargas ruled Brazil in a good way. authoritarian and dictatorial.
The 1930 Revolution and Vargas' rise to power
Vargas' rise to power in Brazil took place after the victory of Liberal Alliance in the 1930 Revolution. This event was a consequence of the political crisis that began in 1928, when President Washington Luís supported Júlio Prestes (from São Paulo) to the detriment of a candidate from Minas Gerais, which broke the stipulated agreement. at latte policy. From then on, the oligarchies of three states (MG, RS and PB) united with the lieutenants, founded the Liberal Alliance and launched Getúlio Vargas as a candidate for the 1930 elections.
Julio Prestes was victorious in these elections, which strongly displeased the members of the Liberal Alliance. Some members of the Liberal Alliance began to conspire against the inauguration of Julio Prestes. When the vice-runner for Getúlio Vargas – João Pessoa – was assassinated by João Dantas, the members of the Liberal Alliance found their pretext and started a revolt against the government.
The 1930 Revolution, as it became known, was responsible for overthrowing Washington Luís from the post of president, in addition to preventing the inauguration of Julio Prestes. Once victorious, the members of the Liberal Alliance nominated Getúlio Vargas to be the head of the Provisional Government.
Provisional Government (1930-1934)
The Provisional Government lasted four years and, in that period, Getúlio Vargas took his first centralizing and authoritarian measures. During the first years of his government, Vargas decreed the closing of the National Congress, as well as the closing of all state and municipal assemblies.
Also, he deposed all the presidents of state (corresponding to the current position of governor) and replaced by interveners appointed according to their own interests. On the economic issue, the Vargas government had to continue the policy of artificially valuing the value of coffee as a way of circumventing the effects of the 1929 crisis on the Brazilian economy.
As the years of the Provisional Government passed and elections for a Constituent Assembly and elections were not scheduled, dissatisfaction in some parts of the country increased. The biggest dissatisfied, of course, belonged to the state of São Paulo – the big loser with the Revolution of 1930. Thus, a campaign emerged in São Paulo for a new Constitution to be written and thus for new presidential elections to be scheduled.
This dissatisfaction led the state of São Paulo to rebel on July 9, 1932. This was the 1932 revolution or, as the paulistas called it, Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932. There was a great mobilization in the state of São Paulo, with civilians volunteering and women from the state's upper class donating their jewelry to finance the armies of São Paulo.
However, as the state of São Paulo fought this war alone, defeat came within a few weeks. In October 1932, the Paulistas surrendered to the Federal Government, and Vargas quickly tried to punish many of those involved with imprisonment, exile, etc. Vargas, however, knew that it was necessary to keep the state of São Paulo satisfied and negotiated some terms with the Paulistas.
The negotiations led Vargas to nominate a São Paulo and civil interventor for the state of São Paulo, assumed the debts made by São Paulo during the conflict and called elections for the composition of a Constituent. This, in turn, would be responsible for draft a new constitution. The new constitution was completed in July 1934 and, after its enactment, Vargas was re-elected for a four-year term by indirect elections.
Constitutional Government (1934-1937)
Vargas' Constitutional Government began after indirect elections were held in 1934 and Vargas was elected for a term that would last until 1938. During this time, Brazilian politics lived a period of radicalization, influenced by the political radicalization that was taking place in Europe. This internal political radicalization provided the pretext for Vargas to implement a dictatorial government in Brazil.
During this period, two large political organizations were strengthened in Brazil and gathered a large number of members. In 1932, in the State of São Paulo the Brazilian Integralist Action (AIB). This group, led by Plinysalty, was inspired by italian fascism and in some elements of the Nazism, such as anti-Semitism. Regarding integralism in Brazil:
Integralists rallied support in sectors of the urban middle classes, especially among civil servants. publics, priests, liberal professionals, poets, merchants, industrialists, and in the areas of German colonization and Italian. They received advice and financial help from the Italian embassy, they had a group of intellectuals ready to produce fascist ideologies in a Brazilianness frame – Plínio Salgado, Miguel Reale, Gustavo Barroso and had militancy active.
[…] At the height of its growth, in 1937, the Brazilian Integralist Action gathered between 100,000 and 200,000 adherents across the country|1|.
The other group went to National Liberating Alliance (ANL), emerged from meetings of leftist intellectuals and military dissatisfied with the government. From this group, some names stand out, such as MiguelCoast - lieutenant who had been part of the Costa-Prestes Column. ANL's main cause was the fight against fascism in Brazil and the imposition of profound government reforms. The ANL, however, relied on the Stalinist totalitarian regime in force in the Soviet Union.
From 1935 onwards, this group, by orders from the Communist International from Moscow, proceeded to organize a communist revolution in Brazil. To make this possible, Moscow sent Luís Carlos Prestes followed by Olga Benário for Prestes to take the lead in the initiatives. The communist uprising became known as intentCommunist and it was a big failure.
There were uprisings by army troops in Natal, Recife and Rio de Janeiro in November 1935, but these uprisings were quickly brought under control by government troops. Vargas, then, decreed a State of Siege and started a “witch hunt” against those involved. In March 1936, the big names of the uprising were arrested|2|:
LuísCarlosAbout: was held for nine years in isolation;
OlgaBenary: Prestes' wife, was arrested and deported pregnant to Nazi Germany. As a Jew, she was killed in a gas chamber in 1942;
ArthurEwert: went mad after being subjected to torture by the Brazilian police;
Victorbaron: was murdered at the Central Police.
From the Communist Intentona, Getúlio Vargas explored the fear that there was in the Brazilian population to take authoritarian measures that reinforced their power. From 1936 onwards, the government's leading group alongside Vargas began to conspire the bases for Vargas to perpetuate himself in power in Brazil.
In 1937, the emergence of candidates for the 1938 presidential elections and the risk of the São Paulo oligarchy returning to power in Brazil made the government's coup take shape. The candidates running for the 1938 elections were Armando de Salles, José Américo and Plínio Salgado. Among these, arming withSalles, representative of the São Paulo oligarchy, had good chances of victory.
On September 30, 1937, the nation was presented with the Cohen Plan, a plan in which the communists intended to take power in Brazil from a revolution. The plan, however, was false and had been created by Olympio Mourão as part of a simulation carried out by the integralists.
The veracity of the document did not matter to the Vargas government, which exploited the population's fear of communism and used it as a pretext for imposing a dictatorship. On November 10, 1937, Congress was closed, and a new Constitution was presented to the population. This was the beginning of new state.
|1| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloisa Murgel. Brazil: a biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 367-368.
|2| Idem, p. 373.
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