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STUDENT NUMBER: 0235229468

MODULE TITLE & NUMBER: Latin America in Modern World POLM060

PROGRAMME: International Relations MA
NUMBER OF WORDS: 3060 DATE SUBMITTED: 25/04/2022

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Brazil, a unique history and heritage

Introduction

Brazil is at a critical stage in a long process of transformation that gives a society based

on the cultivation and export of sugar and coffee, it is moving to a society with an effective

democratic system and a modernized one with industrial and service economics. The fifth

nation in the world by territory and population, it is now also the sixth economy. Since the

end of World War II, Brazil has been a leader in governance and international negotiations

on trade - see the important role it played in the evolution of GATT and its birth and

development of the World Trade Organization (WTO), e in the environmental issue.

However, in the second half of the last century politics Brazil’s economy has been erratic

and the economy has stood out due to high inflation and heavy deficits in the balance of

payments. Only starting from social, political and the country can try to figure out if Brazil is

ready to take a prominent place among the great powers at the helm of the world.

This essay will analyse the ways why Brazil is distinctive as a nation, and the particulars that

enable Brazil to be in a way very distinctive from the other Latin American countries that

surround it. We will start by presenting the historical facts of the birth of the nations, the

consolidation of power in the region and the contemporality that makes today Brazil one

nation of its kind.

History and Politics of Brazil

 Brazil was "discovered" by Pedro Alvares Cabral in the year 1500, but its colonization

began in 1532 when the king of Portugal divided the whole territory which made up Brazil

into 15 capitanie (capitanias) - horizontal bands of territory deep from 180 to 600 km. Not

having the resources to develop this colony, but wishing to maintain control, the Portuguese

Crown assigned each captain to a Portuguese nobleman, capitão or donatário, with very

broad economic and judicial powers, to create the administration and promote investments.

The cultivation of the lands was an essential element of the economic policy of the Crown19,

but the system turned out to be very problematic because the captains were indeed

hereditary, but the property remained with the Crown, which reduced the interest of the

donatários to invest in it, as evidenced by the fact that only two "capitanias" turned out to be

profitable thanks to the production and export of sugar, the product that from the mid-16th

century, after the unbridled exports of "paubrasil" had caused its exhaustion, it became the

main export of colony. Thus, it was that “Brazil became the first of the European settlements

in America who attempted the cultivation of the soil "(Magalhaes, 1970: 533). It became

early though necessary to coordinate and limit the activity of the donátarios, so in 1549 the

king appointed a governor general who exercised from Baía, where he was based the royal

authority over the entire colony and gave very large estates (latifundia) to civilians e military

important and rich enough to develop them quickly (Magalhaes, 1970).

This system of large land holdings has dominated not only for centuries land use but also

in Brazilian history and politics, thus contributing to creating income inequality, limiting the

internal market and maintaining one deep and incurable division between rich and poor. “As

far as the establishment of the majorasco was rare, there were no subdivisions or divisions

of large estates; their small ownership remained an exceptional fact and this prevented the

formation of a middle class, between that of the slaves and the white proletariat and that of

the “fazendeiros "(Papagno, 1972: 232). The large estate has been preserved to this day - in

2003 it did estimate that large estates occupied 45% of the surface of Brazil (Losano,2007:

78) - and the numerous attempts at agrarian reform did not produce relevant results,
because for the cultivation of sugar cane they had to be large dimensions to amortize the

investments necessary to transform the raw cane in sugar for export21, sugar which in 1650

made up 95% of Brazilian exports( Losano, 2007).

According to Furtado (1970: 139), the fact that Brazilian export agriculture came from

great people's monocultural funds explains both the unequal distribution of income and

wealth both the small size of the internal market and, therefore, the difficulties for the

creation of an independent commercial and industrial sector. This is an argument that Baer

considers "not being completely relevant to the colonial period", because the enormous

comparative advantage that the country had in the production of sugar and cotton would

have made a different allocation of resources inefficient. This however does not eliminate the

perverse effects of monoculture and the plantation system (Furtado,1970).

To escape Napoleon, the Portuguese king moved to Rio in 1808 de Janeiro and in 1815

the colony gained independence because the Kingdom was created Kingdom of Portugal,

Brazil and the Algarve. Consequently, Brazil “was the first national American to participate in

an international conference, the Congress of Vienna "(Pitrobelli and Pugliese, 2007: 22). In

1821 the king returned to Portugal, where he was claimed from the liberal revolution, leaving

his son as regent in Brazil. These declared independence from Portugal and in 1822, with

the name of Pedro I, proclaimed himself emperor of Brazil thus passing peacefully from

colony to monarchy, to empire. Brazilian independence was completed by 1823: the civil war

had been averted, the separatist pressures subdued, and administrative continuity ensured.

In 1824 Don Pedro I promulgated the first Brazilian Constitution. Brazil presented itself as a

unitary state governed by a constitutional monarchy and a bicameral parliamentary system.

In 1828 the Cisplatina region broke away and, with British mediation, it was born Uruguay.

The monarchical choice was supported by the landed property to consolidate their power

and block the feeble demands that the nascent urban bourgeoisie was beginning to

advance. It should be noted that, contrary to what happened in the rest of the AL with the

bloody collapse of the Spanish empire, the various stages of its transformation colony into
an independent nation took place peacefully and maintaining territorial unity (Trento, 1992:

27). Formal independence and territorial integrity were made possible by British military and

commercial support and by the rapid recognition of countries such as the US but without the

new empire and its weak government confronting the many internal and external problems,

including the two treaties signed with England (Pitrobelli and Pugliese, 2007: 22) (Trento,

2002).

With the passage of the republic, the country was dominated by the two regional states

strongest, Sao Paulo (producer of coffee) and Mina Gerais (producer of milk and its

derivatives), while the other provinces were left to fend for themselves. Also, the debt

inherited from the empire, continued to absorb a significant part of federal expenses - 53% in

1898 - and of the foreign currency receipts coming mainly from exports of coffee, the price of

which depended on international market trends. The growing weight of foreign debt and

internal political instability in 1898 brought Brazil to file for bankruptcy. The main economic

policy pursued during the so-called First Republic (1889-1930) was the devaluation of the

local currency when the price fell world coffee, so while the value of imported products

increased, the prices in local currency did not contract or did so to a lesser extent external.

Consequently, the cost of living increased and socialization took place of the losses of the

fazenderos, the owners of large estates, at the beginning of the twentieth century,90% of the

peasants did not have their own land and two-thirds of the production agricultural products

were exported (Trento, 2002, 43 and 45).

In 1930, after the assassination of the newly elected vice president João Pessoa, the

military revolt spread and, with the help of the tenentes and the Liberal Alliance party and

supported by Minas Gerais and his Rio Grande state, Getùlio Vargas, released beaten in the

presidential elections, launched into a civil war, defeated the forces of São Paulo and kicked

out the President. Appointed head of the provisional government, he dissolved the

Parliament and the legislative assemblies of individual states, whose governors were

replaced by presidential nominated interventores, with executive and legislative powers.

Vargas created a form of "modified dictatorship" through two major changes constitutional

aimed at strengthening the powers of the President and reducing those of Congress and

state governments. In varying degrees, Vargas ruled the country for 18 years: provisional

president (1930-34), indirectly elected (1934-37), dictator “Soft” (1937-45) and directly

elected President (1951-54) (Kinzo and Dunkerley, 2003).

Considering the end of the power of the rural oligarchy to be inevitable, particularly that

of the great coffee plantations of São Paulo, and of the economy centred on export

agriculture, the Vargas government influenced intellectual thinking in Brazilian society, first

denouncing racial prejudice, valuing the element of colour, criticizing the patriarchal and

agrarian foundations, analyzing economic conditions and demystifying liberal rhetoric. With

an industrialization policy with import substitution (ISI) ante litteram28, Vargas aimed at

industrial modernization and diversification of Brazilian trade to overcome the monoculture of

coffee, whose exports generated three-quarters of the currency revenue. Territorial disputes

were resolved with neighbouring countries but Vargas failed to obtain a central role in the

League of Nations. He approached the European fascist regimes and remained neutral

when it broke out World War II, but after the Pan-American Conference in January 1942

sided with the USA, with which he had already concluded a treaty in 1934 commercial, and

also sent a contingent of 25,000 men to fight with the Allies on the Italian front

(Furtado,1970).

When, with the end of the war, protests increased for a return to the full democracy,

"Vargas shifted his political axis to the left," promised expropriations and nationalizations,

created Electrobrás, freed all political prisoners and pardoned the exiles, but the turmoil

continued and in Washington, it was feared that it might form an axis with Domingo Perón.

Clearly Vargas was opposed by very powerful groups stronger than those who supported it

and also popular support, that is, of the unionized working class and middle class had

weakened due to the worsening of the social imbalances produced by its industrialist policy
(Carmagnani, 1973: 36). Vargas failed to maintain his coalition of forces policies and in

October 1944 the armed forces forced him to resign (Kinzo and Dunkerley, 2003).

Between 1964 and 1985, authoritarian administration was strikingly similar to the Spanish

American experience. However, by the early twenty-first century, Brazil appeared to have

shed its image as 'the everlasting country of the future,' establishing with India and China

(BRICS) a sizable group of states with expanding economies, foreign policies independent of

the US and EU, and major regional authority. Luis Iacio Lula da Silva, a metalworker born in

the Northeast (Pernanbuco), was elected to the National Constituent Assembly in 1986 and

was a contender for the presidency four times. He became a trade unionist, founder of the

PT, and opponent of the military dictatorship that imprisoned him. The worries sowed by his

political promise and the developing consensus revealed by surveys were highly disruptive,

boosting both the spread between Brazilian dollar-denominated bonds and US Treasuries,

which serves as a barometer of country risk, reducing the exchange rate and increasing

inflation. Lula responded with the “Carta ao povo brasileiro” (letter to the Brazilian people), in

which he acknowledged the importance of responsible macroeconomic management and

pledged that his government would honour all of the country's debts, contracts, and other

financial obligations and that his commitment to social justice and poverty reduction would

be implemented through a moderate fiscal policy (Roett, 2010: 104). Prior to the election, he

requested and received a $ 30 billion loan from the IMF to enable a smooth transition to the

next administration.

During his second term, Lula also expanded the role of the state in the economy, it has

introduced a series of measures to accelerate economic growth and offset the effects of the

global financial crisis and sought to increase formal housing for low-income Brazilians

through the Minha program House, Minha Vida (my home, my life), started in 2009. Shortly

before leaving the Presidency, Lula managed to pass the law that establishes new rules that

increase the public role in the exploitation of significant subsea energy resources in order to

finance long-term economic and social development. During Lula's two terms, Brazilian per
capita income nearly tripled and some 25 million people have escaped poverty. The "real

secret" was the expansion of consumption, which has, however, caused a growing current

account deficit and a demand that has gradually become greater than production (Fishlow,

2011: 86).

What is making Brazil so distinctive?

One of the most characteristic aspects of the Brazilian population is undoubtedly

constituted by the fusion of the races, overcoming the separation that is so clear in the

United States. This fusion finds its starting point in the history of the Iberian Peninsula,

characterized by the competition of Christian, Arab and Jewish elements so that it has

historically been a point of conflict and fusion between different races and civilizations. The

Castilian tendency towards centralization and uniformity was always found in contrast, in the

history of the Iberian Peninsula, with the tendency to merge the various elements and

therefore to overcome differences. Arriving in Brazil, the Portuguese colonizers brought with

them Catholic religious fervour and the absence of racial feelings. Many of the slaves

imported into Brazil were Muslims with a high degree of culture, and travellers travelling to

the State of Bahia in the first half of the 19th century marvelled at how some bookstores

thrived on an almost exclusively coloured clientele. The Arab influence was and is very much

alive in the Portuguese language and customs and at times it is the word of Arab origin that

prevails in popular usage: the olive tree, for example, is called neo-Latin "oliveira", but the oil

of the olive is called, with a name of Arabic origin, "azeite" (Pereira, 2017).

In Brazil “the First World temptation of the elites persists to consider it a 'white,

Western and Christian' country ", while in fact, it is a mestizo country e not even a "racial

democracy" or a multicultural nation. Since “miscegenation does not mean bleaching, but

blending, something that pertains to a culture. For the Brazilian culture that is being created,

the African element, continues Visentini (2009: 11), "represents a decisive contribution, and
this must be recognized", but there are also “social inequalities that penalize the majority of

blacks, and these must be eliminated”. Visentini also points out that despite too many

injustices, the country has “a huge tolerance which should be a model for an intolerant world

" Visentini (2009: 11).

Addressing social issues left unresolved for too long, Cardoso and Lula contributed to

the consolidation of the national political system, in the sense that even if they have failed to

improve the quality of elected candidates, the state is now capable of organizing peaceful

elections. The problem is that in Brazil, as in all of Latin America, democracy is in direct

competition with the urgency to develop economically, so electoral democracy is certainly

good, but it is not sufficient. Undoubtedly, culture is the country's pride and glory, its greatest

achievement and its business card in the world, a result that is due to the phenomenon of

“cannibalism cultural ", or rather the ability to amalgamate European, African and other

elements of indigenous people and appropriate imported genres and transform everything

into something different, something that acquires a uniquely Brazilian character and comes

as such re-exported (Rohter, 2010: 107-108).

With a population and extension of the continental type, the Brazilian society is very

complex, the economy is developed and commercially diversified, the GDP is by no means

negligible and the democratic tradition while not very old it is not even very recent. If the

social and economic complexity explains the greater political stability in Brazil, compared to

other states in the region, are its dimensions, its economy, political, social, and cultural

presence that contribute to projecting it in a dominant way on the rest of the South American

continent, too if there are examples of how the latter in turn impacts or has impacted it. In

other words, Brazil must be inserted in the continental context.

Conclusion
 The world's interest in Brazil is due to its economic success and its abundant natural

resources. Macroeconomic stability, inflation targeting, exchange rate floating, low debt,

large foreign reserves, rapid growth, and stability politics - thanks also to the social

consensus ensured by the decision to invest revenue in the marginal population (the so-

called “globalization with conscience social "), thus helping to expand the middle class and

therefore consumption - are the characteristics that have made the country a respectable

economic power. Add to this oil reserves that well exceed 55 billion barrels, with 60% of the

world's arable land not yet used and 25% of freshwater, it may seem like a paradise of

opportunity in a global economy increasingly in crisis. Brazil has been very successful in its

efforts to reduce poverty and inequality but should now focus on modernizing the school

sector to improve the quality of teaching and reduce the level of drop-out in secondary

school.

Even at the regional level, many problems remain unsolved. Brazil not only “not it

exerts the charm of a just and opulent society”, but its population does not perceive the

advantages of integration and regional leadership (Bueno, 2010: 51). Given that Brazil has

an atypical history and a different identity compared to its neighbours he hesitates to

characterize himself as a Latin American and prefers to present himself as one South

American nation, while at the same time neighbours often have a hard time to accept this

Lusophone giant as one of them. Meanwhile, however, the growing interdependence

regional - fuelled by the expansion of investments and Brazil's trade exchanges with the rest

of the region, where it also grew the number of Brazilians living there - "further complicates

distinctions and asymmetries, as shown by relationships characterized at the same time by

ambivalence, indifference, tension and deference ”and the fear, particularly widespread

among smaller countries, of finding themselves increasingly dependent on a potential

hegemon. Note, however, that “Brazil's regional and global ambitions are not mutually

exclusive and MERCOSUR and UNASUR represent the elements of an attractive trading
bloc South American and a strategic global player, with Brazil as its own again "(Sweig, et

al., 2011: 53-54 and 58).

Bibliography

Baer Werner (2008), The Brazilian Economy. Growth and Development, Boulder (Co),

Lynne Rienner

Furtado, C., 1970. Obstacles to development in Latin America. New York: Doubleday.

KINGSTONE, P., 2012. Albert Fishlow, Starting Over: Brazil since 1985 (Washington, DC:

Brookings Institution, 2011). Journal of Latin American Studies, 44(3), pp.603-604.

Kinzo, M. and Dunkerley, J., 2003. Brazil since 1985. London: Institut of Latin America

Studies, University of London.

Losano, M., 2007. Il movimento Sem Terra del Brasile. Reggio Emilia: Diabasis.

Pereira, L., 2017. The political construction of Brazil.

Pietrobelli, C., De Vito, G. and Pugliese, E., 2007. Economia del Brazile. Milano: Apogeo.

Rohter, L., 2012. Brazil on the rise. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sweig, J., Hill, J., O'Neil, C. and Sweid, J., 2008. U.S.-Latin America Relations. New York,

NY: Council on Foreign Relations.

Trento, A., 2002. In Brasile. [S.l.]: [s.n.].

Visentini, P., 2009. (2009), “Prestige diplomacy, southern solidarity or “soft imperialism”?.