{"id":719,"date":"2020-06-16T16:33:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T16:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/?p=719"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:06:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:06:00","slug":"week-5-world-war-i-and-the-great-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/en\/week-5-world-war-i-and-the-great-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 5 – World War I and the Great Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Serra Viaduct, S\u00e3o Paulo’s Railway, <\/span> Brazil (<\/span>Harper’s <\/span>Weekly<\/span>, Vol. 12, n\u00ba 623, 1868).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get\u00falio Vargas e Junta Governativa (Arquivo Cordeiro de Farias, CPDOC, FGV)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

World War I signaled a change in international power balances worldwide, and this affected Brazil. Before the war, England was Brazil\u2019s most influential foreign power, with U.K. nationals holding most of the country\u2019s debt and shares in many of its companies. However, as the United Kingdom became cash-strapped because of the war, the United States emerged as the ally able to provide Brazil with the consumer and credit market it needed. This gradual change in power relations was not immediate, or passive, however. Both the U.S. Department of State and the U.K.\u2019s Foreign Office engaged in strategies to court and gain the favor of Brazilian authorities. Brazil at times embraced and at times resisted attempts seen as infringing on national sovereignty. Ultimately, however, technological changes and wealth rearrangements worldwide brought the inevitable rise of the United States as a rising world superpower and major ally of Brazil.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brazil\u2019s diplomatic corps, with a structure still reflected the attitudes of imperial times, engaged not only in commercial affairs, but also in so-called \u201canti-revolutionary\u201d diplomacy, attempting to control immigration of undesidered people from Europe who could bring communitst and anarchist ideas into the country. Fear of external threats proved unfounded, however, as the First Republic ultimately fell due to divisions within the country\u2019s elite, with the rise of Get\u00falio Vargas, and not because of foreign subversives. Vargas would govern the country through the repercussions of the 1929 Stock Market Crash, which saw the price of coffee, the country\u2019s main commodity, implode. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emilio S. Rosenberg, \u201cAnglo-American Economic Rivalry in Brazil During World War I\u201d | <\/span>English<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eugenio V. Garcia, \u201cAnti Revolutionary Diplomacy in Oligarchic Brazil, 1919-1930\u201d | <\/span>English<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Documents:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sele\u00e7\u00e3o, Get\u00falio Vargas Speech at Esplanada do Castelo, January 2nd, 1930. | <\/span>Portugu\u00eas<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further readings: <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texto Completo, Discursos de Get\u00falio Vargas, Biblioteca Digital da C\u00e2mara dos Deputados | <\/span>Portugu\u00eas<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Serra Viaduct, S\u00e3o Paulo’s Railway, Brazil (Harper’s Weekly, Vol. 12, n\u00ba 623, 1868). Get\u00falio Vargas e Junta Governativa (Arquivo Cordeiro de Farias, CPDOC, FGV) World War I signaled a change in international power balances worldwide, and this affected Brazil. Before the war, England was Brazil\u2019s most influential foreign power, with U.K. nationals holding most … Week 5 – World War I and the Great Depression<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1165,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/1165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/openingthearchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}