Brazil
The Fortunes of War
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- $26.99
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
In 1939, Brazil seemed a world away from the chaos overtaking Europe. Yet despite its bucolic reputation as a distant land of palm trees and pristine beaches, Brazil’s natural resources and proximity to the United States made it strategically invaluable to both the Allies and the Axis alike. As acclaimed historian Neill Lochery reveals in The Fortunes of War, Brazil’s wily dictator Getúlio Dornelles Vargas keenly understood his country’s importance, and played both sides of the escalating global conflict off against each other, gaining trade concessions, weapons shipments, and immense political power in the process. Vargas ultimately sided with the Allies and sent troops to the European theater, but not before his dexterous geopolitical machinations had transformed Rio de Janeiro into one of South America’s most powerful cities and solidified Brazil’s place as a major regional superpower.
A fast-paced tale of diplomatic intrigue, The Fortunes of War reveals how World War II transformed Brazil from a tropical backwater into a modern, global power.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
WWII jump-started Brazil's spectacular economic growth, writes Lochery (Lisbon: War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939 1945) of University College London, who makes his case in this revealing political history of that nation from 1938 to 1945. Brazil in 1938 was an impoverished banana republic ruled by dictator Get lio Vargas (1882 1954). He favored development with help from the U.S., which yearned for Brazilian bases and rubber but balked at diverting resources from its own frantic rearmament. Applying modest pressure, Vargas declared war on the Axis in August 1942 and sent a 25,000-man force to Italy in 1944, where it made a marginal contribution after being supplied, trained, and sent to battle by an unenthusiastic U.S. War's end left Brazil with more industry, improved infrastructure, a much stronger military, and an unhappy population that, except for the wealthy, had benefited little. Responding to unrest, the army deposed Vargas in October 1945, and Brazil remained mired in stagnation, hyperinflation, and repeated military coups until the 1990s. WWII was more a missed opportunity than a turning point, but Lochery delivers a vivid picture of the Byzantine mid-20th-century politics in this increasingly important yet chronically overlooked nation.
