Intro
Hello there! AveeBee here to introduce you all to the work we’ve been doing in South America, kicking things off with a deep dive into historical Brazil! Some of you are likely very familiar with the history of the nation during this time period (we see you Brazil players!), but there’s likely a lot more of you that aren’t quite as familiar with this area of history beyond smoking snakes and the Brazilian Expeditionary force. So, I’m going to try and give a brief overview of the nation prior to 1936 and how that is represented in game, before moving into the narrower chapters of historical events from the establishment of Estado Novo, the Vargas era and Brazil’s eventual participation in World War II alongside the allies.
Context Pre-1936
After the fall of the Brazilian Empire and its reconstruction as a republic, oligarchs from the agricultural industry dominated the nation's economic and political life. This came to an abrupt end in 1930 when Getúlio Vargas led a revolution to overthrow the old republic. Following this, the nation attempted to establish a new republican system that would avoid the issues of its predecessor. However, the various forces that backed Vargas ultimately created a constitution which satisfied none of them. In this power vacuum, Vargas dominated the politics of the nation in his role as president. Amidst this political turmoil, the communist party and their allies orchestrated an attempted revolution of their own in late 1935. Although this revolution was ultimately crushed by forces loyal to the government, the ramifications of it were still being felt in 1936 as the establishment prepared to sentence and punish the leaders of the movement. Furthermore, the fear of communist infiltration of society would give politicians and the military a justification for their more authoritarian policies in years to come. Another internal problem that had plagued Brazil for decades was the issue of separatism. Many of the constituent states of the republic had at one time or another attempted to secede or at the very least had sizable separatist movements. Many of these movements had grown from a sense of being neglected by the federal government. A related issue at the time was that of the Cangaço; bandits who operated in the North East of Brazil. Although violent in their activities, they often gained support among the poor for their resistance and attacks against the wealthy in the region. On the economic side, Brazil was devastated by the Great Depression. As a largely extractive economy based on agriculture and resource exports, the economy began to collapse when other nations stopped importing goods such as coffee. The government attempted various measures to stabilize the situation but by 1936, it remained stagnant. As was often the case during the time period, this led to many Brazilians turning to more radical ideologies to lift them out of poverty and insecurity. On the foreign policy front, prior to World War I, Brazil had been engaged in a naval arms race with its neighbors in Argentina and Chile.This had culminated in a number of famous dreadnoughts such as the Rio de Janeiro which would end up in the hands of the Ottoman Empire and ultimately the United Kingdom. Brazil had been aligned with the Allies during the first world war, following an attack on civilian shipping by Germany in 1917 which allowed the unpopular government of the time to focus the nation's anger at enemies overseas. In the inter-war years, Brazil would primarily be focused on its domestic issues, but anxiety remained that the old foe of Argentina could take advantage of Brazil’s internal strife. In game, we represent these issues with a number of national spirits that must be overcome if the nation is to prosper or expand. (Icons may change before release)
1936-1938
The period in which the game starts primarily revolves around Vargas attempting to maintain his grip on power under the constraints of the flawed 1934 constitution. As we will see throughout this diary, Vargas is an odd figure that often escapes the usual political categories we often place leaders in. He came to power on a wave of liberal reformism, but would eventually flirt with the tenants of contemporary fascism and would ultimately suspend democracy to keep himself in power. However he would also implement reforms that appealed to the rural poor and the urban workforce. To represent this in game, Vargas begins as the leader of the ruling democratic provisional government, but he won’t stay that way for long.
(Vargas will be getting a fresh portrait, but it wasn’t quite ready to be hooked into the game just yet)
Next, we’ll take a look at the historical portion of the focus tree.
As you can probably tell, the historical portion has some overlap with the alt-history branches too, but I’m keeping those relatively hidden for a later diary. The first portion of this branch requires building enough support among the military or fascist movement to be able to orchestrate a ‘self-coup’.
As you can see in the earlier screenshots of the ‘Weak Government’ and ‘State of Emergency’ national spirits, Brazil starts with a ticking time bomb of steadily increasing non-aligned and communist support. This requires the player to focus on curtailing the communist influence as quickly as possible. Historically, Vargas gained support from the military by taking a hardline anti-communist stance. Meanwhile, he also attempted to win over the Integralist movement to his cause in order to appeal to urban workers who might otherwise turn to communism. We will discuss the integralist movement in a later dev diary, but for now you can think of them as Brazil’s take on Italian fascism.
With enough anti-communist/democratic support, this culminates in ‘The Cohen Plan’ focus. Historically, a document that went by that name was forged by forces aligned with the government. The document supposedly outlined plans for a communist takeover of Brazil and was used by the government to justify a wave of authoritarian measures being used to protect the nation. Despite the document being a complete forgery, Vargas succeeded in suspending democracy. In game, taking this focus requires the player to complete the following focus: ‘Estado Novo.’
Vargas Era
Estado Novo, or New State, marks the end of democracy in Brazil for the time being. While Vargas remains in power, his ideology is switched to non-aligned along with the ruling government. To cement his grasp on power, Vargas not only used the emergency powers of the 1934 constitution, but drafted an entirely new authoritarian one inspired by the Polish constitution of the time.
To the left of this branch, we have a number of focuses that represent the utilization of the new constitution by curtailing the separatist movement (Decree Number 37 - this focus removes the separatist movement national spirit) and increasing stability by clamping down on political movements and increasing employment.
In the center of the tree, we have a number of focuses that are shared with the Integralist path which are concerned with kickstarting the economy, expanding the nation's intelligence services and its research capacity.
Industrial Branch
Before jumping into the more foreign policy orientated aspect of the historical focus tree, let's take a look at the industrial branch.
Due to the aforementioned impact of the Great Depression, Brazil’s primary objective is overcoming its reliance on exporting coffee and raw goods, instead building up a domestic industrial base and consumer economy. As occurred historically, the first step towards this was the establishment of the coffee department to better control the supply and price of coffee exports.
Around this time, a number of radio stations were also established in Brazil that would keep the public informed and entertained. Although many would ultimately become propaganda outlets for the Vargas regime.
A number of the focuses in this branch interact with a modifier in many of Brazil’s states that were historically neglected. The ‘Resource Extraction’ focus for example gives a research bonus and reduces the penalty of the neglected state modifier.
A number of these focuses will be familiar to you, expanding industry, infrastructure and efficiency through various means. So we’ll skip towards the end of this branch to take a look at some of the more unique focuses for Brazil. We have two focuses at the end here which allow the player to make a choice between establishing a domestic motor company (taking the form of a military industrial organization for those who will be playing with Arms Against Tyranny) or expanding ties with the Ford Motor Company through the expansion of ‘Fordlandia.’ Fordlandia is a fascinating piece of Brazilian history, whereby Ford established a colony to expand production of rubber for their car tyres. During World War II, access to rubber became crucial for the Allies and Brazil attempted to meet the demand.
We also have some light alt-history in this branch allowing Brazil to establish its current capital a few years earlier than it did historically.
You may have also noticed a focus in this branch called ‘Deal with the Cangaço.’ A number of states in North East Brazil begin the game with a negative modifier where the Cangaço are operating. Every so often, a mission may be carried out by them which will lower stability or allow them to spread their influence to a new state. The aforementioned focus therefore unlocks decisions to allow law enforcement operations to take place that will remove the negative modifier from the respective state.
We have some interesting alternative interactions with the Cangaço, but you’ll have to wait for the alt-history dev diary to see them!
World War II
Let’s get back to the historical political branch. Once the domestic and economic situation in Brazil has been steadied, attention can be shifted towards foreign affairs. Historically, Vargas and his regime dismantled much of the democratic apparatus of the Brazilian Republic. As such, the Axis powers were keen to promote trade with Brazil and the United States became increasingly worried about the nation aligning with fascism. Despite concerns over the erosion of democracy, the US therefore attempted to win over Vargas to ensure Brazil remained aligned with them.
Much of the US attempts to sway Brazil consisted of economic and military support, for example, aiding in the construction of a massive steel production facility near Rio de Janeiro in exchange for setting up air bases in North East Brazil for the US Air Force. This alignment with the US however also served to deter Brazil’s age-old foe, Argentina, from antagonizing them for fear of American retaliation.
When World War II erupted in Europe, demand for Brazilian rubber and other resources began to increase as access to British controlled rubber plantations and supply lines across the seas became vulnerable to Axis interception. As ties between Brazil and the Allies increased, German U-Boats began attacking Brazilian shipping in the Atlantic. This pushed Brazil to declare war on Germany in 1942.
In game, we represent this situation in a number of focuses and decisions whereby Brazil can choose to work with the United States and gain some bonuses, but the US will expect Brazil to join the war within two years. Failure to do so will result in the US ‘intervening’ militarily to ensure Brazil makes better decisions in future…
Joining the war of course leads to the creation of the iconic Brazilian Expeditionary Force, along with a number of new 3D models to match.
Historically, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, went on to fight in Italy and played a crucial role in defeating Axis forces there. But it is of course up to you how you intend to deploy your forces to win the war. In some of the screenshots you may have noticed some alt-history focuses. We will go into them more when we discuss alt-history Brazil in the coming weeks.
Military Branch
Now, some of you may have noticed I’ve been focused on the political and economic side of the focus tree so far. Don’t worry, we also have a separate military branch to finish off the tree.
As many of the nations we’re expanding on in this DLC start with fairly similar military capabilities and issues at the start of the game, we took the decision to create a core military branch that will be utilized by all the new nations. However, countries have their own unique focuses and effects built around this branch to better represent the more unique aspects of their history, as well as country specific icons etc.
As can be seen in the above screenshots, the branch contains distinct army, navy and air sub-branches. The intention with these sub-branches is to give as many options as possible for creating a truly bespoke military, without allowing the country to become out of proportionally strong. However, that isn’t to say that you can’t fully utilize the full tree and turn Brazil into a military superpower, it’s totally possible.
