Great Depression — political and social impact in Latin America
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Flip to reveal answersWhat triggered the political crisis that ended Brazil's Old Republic in 1930?
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All 12 Flashcards — Great Depression — political and social impact in Latin America
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Question
What triggered the political crisis that ended Brazil's Old Republic in 1930?
Answer
The 1929 Wall Street Crash collapsed world coffee prices; coffee was ~70% of Brazil's exports, destroying the economic base of the ruling coffee-and-dairy elite.
Question
café com leite
Answer
'Coffee with milk' — the Old Republic system where power alternated between São Paulo (coffee) and Minas Gerais (dairy) elites.
Question
How did Getúlio Vargas come to power in 1930?
Answer
After a disputed election result favoring São Paulo's candidate, Vargas's Liberal Alliance launched a revolt; the army did not defend the old regime, and Vargas became provisional president in November 1930.
Question
What was the Estado Novo?
Answer
Vargas's authoritarian 'New State' dictatorship, begun in 1937 after he cancelled the scheduled 1938 election using a forged communist-plot pretext (the 'Cohen Plan').
Question
Name Vargas's opposition on the political right and left in the 1930s.
Answer
Right: the São Paulo elite (1932 Constitutionalist Revolution) and the Integralistas (failed 1938 uprising). Left: the Communist-backed ANL (crushed 1935 uprising).
Question
What labour rights did Vargas introduce, and what was the catch?
Answer
Minimum wage, labour courts, and pension institutes (IAPs) for urban workers — but unions were state-controlled and strikes were effectively banned ('state corporatism').
Question
Which Brazilians were largely excluded from Vargas's labour reforms?
Answer
Rural laborers and Afro-Brazilian workers, who made up most of the workforce but stayed outside the formal-sector protections.
Question
What major political right did Brazilian women gain in 1932?
Answer
The vote — the new Electoral Code granted women's suffrage, and women voted for the first time in the 1933 Constituent Assembly election.
Question
How did the Estado Novo use culture and media?
Answer
It promoted a state-approved national identity ('brasilidade') built around samba and Carnival, and used the propaganda ministry DIP (1939) to control radio and press, e.g. the 'Hora do Brasil' broadcast.
Question
What happened to Indigenous policy in Brazil during this period?
Answer
It stayed largely unchanged — the paternalist, assimilationist Indian Protection Service (SPI, est. 1910) continued its approach with no new reforms.
Question
Debate: was Vargas's rise a power-grab or nation-building?
Answer
One view: an ambitious politician exploiting a crisis to seize power. Other view: a necessary modernizing response to a broken oligarchic system exposed by the Depression. A strong essay weighs both.
Question
Structure of a Paper 3 'To what extent do you agree' essay
Answer
Thesis engaging the claim → argument for → argument against → a clear, substantiated judgement that directly answers 'to what extent'.
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Topic 11.7 hub
The Great Depression in the Americas (c.1920–1939)
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