Brazil History: Coffee Is King

In the 19th century, coffee became very important to the Brazilian economy. It replaced sugarcane as the country's primary product and at one point Brazil supplied the world with three-quarters of its coffee. The country began to build roads, railroads, and use mechanization, all of which greatly added to the profits of coffee production.

Coffee was so important in Brazil that in 1889 a coffee-backed military coup took on the government and overthrew the Emperor, whose grasp on power at that time was already weak. This ushered in a new Brazilian Republic, and a new constitution based on the constitution of the United States was created. However, the rights that were guaranteed in the constitutions were not necessarily granted, and for 40 years the Brazil government was basically run by the armed forces, although there were president figureheads.

Those who were invested in coffee held on to their power until about 1929 when the global economic crisis collapsed the coffee market. Sao Paulo was the primarily coffee growing area and was also from where the government was controlled. As a result, an opposition alliance of military officers took over the government by making Getulio Vargas president in 1930.

Vargas idolized the reigns of Mussolini in Italy and Salazar in Portugal, and ruled Brazil in a similar fashion: he banned political parties, censored the press, and threw his opponents into jail. He ruled for nearly 20 years. In 1954 the military-which as you'll remember is who originally put him in power-asked him to step down. Vargas did so without a fight, but in a dramatic fashion wrote a letter to the Brazilian people and then shot himself in the heart.

By now Brazil's economy had diversified beyond coffee, although a lot of the country's economic growth came from massive borrowings from international banks. For the next twenty years Brazil existed under repressive military regimes. During this time the Brazilian suffered from social neglect, and millions moved into shanty towns outside of major cities. These shanty towns are called favelas.

In the 1990s Brazil moved back to democracy, and although a new currency called the real spurred an economic boom, the wealth did not trick down. The people of Brazil suffered and in the 1990s the number of murders in and around Sao Paulo was high enough to rank it as one of the most violent cities in the entire world.

Moving into modern days, in 2002 Luiz da Silva Lula became president and focused on eliminating hunger and creating jobs. He has been largely successful and today Brazil is a safe and thriving country.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6296722

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