A New World with New Ideas - A Brazilian Timeline
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Chapter CXII - Problems on the streets
Chapter CXII - Problems on the streets
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It would however be in 1986 when things finally came to a boil. For on the night of the 20th of April on the streets of Tieté, a young man by the name of Gustavo Zito was approached by two policemen, André Svizzi and Leonardo Gutiérrez. The policemen suspected the man of having illegal drugs with him, after all he WAS walking alone at night in a know hangout place for drug addicts. Thus, they decided to detain him for an inspection, but then they started exerting a lot of force on the guy, who proceeded to panic in the face of this and made a run for it, all the while the police officers chaced after him, once Zito realized he had no escape he proceeded to turn around in order to surrender himself. However, to the police officers in the dark, the boy turned around and was about to attack them, which is why both men drew their weapons and fired on the guy who fell on the ground dead. Worst of all, the entire commotion attracted the attention of sleeping people who witnessed the whole ordeal, with later that day publications appeared all across the country showing the gruesome act. As a result, Zito’s family sued the cops who killed him and went all the way to court. But in the end, the policemen managed to win the case after the judge, an ex-military men himself, released the shooters on the basis that they were defending themselves.
This decision however was not popular at all with more progressive members of society, who began protesting against this new police brutality. Truth be told tough, this was not a new problem and in fact happened a lot back in the 70’s. The main difference being, that no one really cared once they heard that “members of a violent gang, shot dead after a police raid”, to them they were criminals and deserved such fate. However in this case, the brazilian society of the 80’s was different from that of the 70’s as the more progressive baby boomers finally came to political age, as well as the fact that the victim this time was a young man with a face and who didn’t appear to do nothing really wrong. As a result huge protests rocked major Brazilian cities from 1986 until 1987. For instance in São Sebastião, a 60,000 strong crowd from all across the country, met in the capital to protests directly across the seat of the Federal Police. What ensued was a tense stand-off between the authorities and protests, with the police bringing on riot-control units and summoning two armored platoons to within 1 kilometer from the place. Fortunately in the end, no further blood was spilled tough a new polarizing issue emerged on the Brazilian political landscape.
Student protest in São Sebastião (1986)
As a result, the fragile coalition between the SLP and the Conservative began to crack, as a result of diverging opinions on the issue. For example, the SLP favored police reforms in order to adapt to the new Brazilian reality, meanwhile the conservatives wished for the retention of the status-quo. The culmination of this split, was that the progressives successfully lobbied for the formation of a new coalition. One which would count with conservative support, but which would also isolate them in a sea of progressiveness. Resulting in a stable government with support from 3 major parties, but was in practice dominated by just two of them. Henriques liked this proposal as he too agreed, that overwhelming Conservative support could undermine the progressive elements of the coalition. Thus, the following accord, today known as the Pacto Otávio-Antônio (Octavian-Anthony Pact, in reference to both Octavian and Mark Anthony sidelining Lepidus during the 2nd Triuvirate) was ratified, now with a unified policy on how to do parliamentary business and with much of their disputes solved, the three parties of the coalition lunched themselves. With Henriques formulating a new cabinet which now had more members from the Progressive Party than before. This however deeply angered the conservatives, who could see clear as crystal the SLP/Progressive intentions. Luckily for them, they had their own plans set in motion.
Anyhow, now that the government had much greater progressive presence. A comprehensive police reform bill was proposed to the lower and upper houses. This bill would include things like: The raising of standards for police training, which now went from 3 months to 8. The bill also reaffirmed that policeman where not the law, nor above it and that if caught acting against the law, they could and should be legally prosecuted. Then came the part dedicated to armaments and weapons, which stated that much of the police military-grade weapons, like armored cars, needed to be handed over to the state, as well as removing the discount they received on buying such weapons. Lastly, police command became less unified around the central command in São Sebastião, in order to act less like and army and more like law enforcers. Safe to say, this arrangement angered the more conservative elements in parliament (PTB, Conservatives and AIB) as well as the army, which saw a valuable partner lose their power and money to buy their stuff. But in the end, there really was nothing they could do. For now that is.
But now speaking about foreign policy. With the end of the cold-war and the German retreat from much of the globe, Brazil saw itself poised to occupy som of the vacuum. Firstly, with Germany trying to fix their economical problems, their limited aid to Colombia ceased and Brazil came right in as the country’s sole protector. Colombia’s politicians meanwhile saw the righting on the wall, assuming that they had no choice but to follow the Brazilians in their endeavors. Similarly, Brazil continued to pursue greater cooperation with their African allies, as they created new avenues for trade by way of the TCAS (Tratado Comercial do Atlântico Sul/South Atlantic Comercial Treaty), which allowed for greater Brazilian investment in the old-Portuguese colonies. In Asia, Brazil finalized their defense treaty with Macau, as the small country even built an artificial island in its territorial waters in order to accommodate a Brazilian military base. Thus, permanently protecting them from a Chinese invasion. Lastly, Brazil started extending their tentacles all the way to Europe, where they proposed the formation of a Latin Cultural Institution with the other Latin Europe nations, however this one was rejected as the Europeans had more pressing issues to attend.
It was also during this time, that the government first began “green polices” in their agenda. This, was accomplished by the fact that much of the Progressive boomers who were by now swarming the ranks of the progressives, had a deep interest in things such as green energy, natural preservation and more. To appease them, the government passed a law in 1987 called the Lei Fernando de Noronha, which designated the island as a sanctuary where new projects about oil drilling or construction in general could not take place there. As a result, the island flourished as haven for tourists who wished to see the nature of Brazilian waters. The government then took the opportunity and began taxing people to go to the islands, which happened to generate a butload of revenue for the government. This experience with tourism, would have a huge influence in Henriques’s policy making, leading to what would be called the Tourist Boom in Brazil. In general, Brazil continued to do well, even tough the rest of the world lived in uncertain times, but keep in mind Henriques won’t govern forever and new crisis may come.
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Chapter CXIII - Pls Come to Brazil
Chapter CXIII - Pls Come to Brazil
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By 1987, it became clear to Alfonso Henriques that he was aging and no longer the leader he used to be in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Thus he sought to select a sucessor to replace him once he was gone, something which he hoped would happen no later than 1980. The problem however was, that few men ever came close to what Henriques had amounted in the past decade. To the country, he was the man that saved the economy, created a new and strong currency, took the economy into the heavens with a new age of prosperity, secured progressive rights for women, minorities and nature, as well as ending the Brazilian crime age of 70’s and early 80’s. Thereby, choosing an heir would be one of Alfonso’s most difficult tasks. However, by 1988 he found what he fought was an ideal sucessor, a man named Arnaldo O’Sullivan, who represented the province of Paraná in the Federal Senate. The choice however seemed odd, as O’Sullivan was not that well known outside of Paraná and his feats were largely unremarkable, however that was supplemented by an extremely gifted intellect and an incorruptible moral character. Nevertheless, Henriques hoped that he would be able to mold the senator into a highly capable leader for the SLP, just as how Branco had with him. Not only that, but by having a new and relatively unfamiliar face in charge of the party, it would help as a compromise candidate between the increasingly diverging factions of the SLP. Which mainly revolved round questions about how much social-progress Brazil needed at the moment and how much commitment the party should give to free policies.
Nonetheless, as the year of 1987 passed by, Henriques issued a report on the state of the Brazilian economy. What he received would thereby be known as the “1987 Field Report”. Which indicated that the Brazilian GDP had grown from 1,2 Trillion Dollars in 1985, to some 1,512 Trillion Dollars by 1987. Furthermore, the report showed that the Brazilian economy could be divided into 3 main economical sectors, with industry (like steel, automobiles, chemicals and manufacturing) comprising 65% of all Brazilian output, it was then followed by services (banking, retail, land-speculation and shopping comes to mind) with a share of 24% and finally, agriculture and mining made 11%. What these numbers meant was that while Brazil had a highly advanced manufacturing economy, things like finance had been largely left behind and were largely antiquated if compared to the service sectors of Europe and North America. Thereby, Henriques sought to fix this and incentivize the Brazilian service sector. Something which he did largely by replicating the success of Fernando de Noronha as a tourism hotspot.
Firstly, the SLP passed a law through parliament called the Lei Patrimonial da Cultura Brasileira, which stated that buildings considered, historical monuments, where to be preserved in accordance with the CON’s world heritage organization. Some primary targets for this preservation where Brazilian cities which maintained much of their old colonial and early Victorian architecture. Cities such as Salvador, Olinda, Vila Rica, Nova Braganza as well as the historical districts of Tieté and São Sebastião having many buildings preserved, something which they assumed correctly, would attract people from the country to see their country’s rich history. Not only that, but the Henriques administration also began incentivizing the construction of hotels and resorts in Brazilian scenery locations for the advancement of the tourism industry, something done via the Lei Caio Dutra, which decreased taxes on properties proven to be used as tourist hotspots. However, this decision came under the attack from progressive elements of the coalition, scared that the decision would heavily impact the country’s biodiversity and ecosystems. Which is why in order to appease them, the Henriques government also passed a complementary Lei da Conservação e Preservação Costeira, which stated that any construction for the pup orders of tourism must accommodate for green spaces which would allow native vegetation to prosper, the establishments would also be subject to random inspections in order to see if the businessmen are complying with the law.
Asa results, the years of 1987 all the way to 2006 would be dominated by the rise of tourism in Brazil. Something accomplished by the sprawling of tourist facilities across the nation, be they for historical tourism or beach tourism. At the beginning however, most of the tourists in Brazil would be native born Brazilians, who began touring their nation for heavenly beaches in order to spend their holidays there. However, by the mid 90’s the tourist base spread along the Mercosul nations, which resulted in tourists from Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Haiti and [redacted] flocking to their neighbor for a nice relaxing vacation. Then, throughout the early 2000’s, Brazilian tourism would become a global phenomenon as people from all across the world, tough mainly from souther Europe, Japan and Lusophone Africa, intended on visiting the South American behemoth. So much so, that foreign companies began to heavily invest in tourism in Brazil. As a result, the number of foreign tourists visiting Brazil increased from 3.000.000 in 1990, to 14.000.000 in 2000 and up to 21.000.000 in 2006, all the while profits from tourism skyrocketed and government revenue increased thusly. Things became so lucrative in Brazil, that the idea of opening theme parks, much like those in Europe and North America, spurred throughout the minds of Brazilian and foreign investors alike. So much so that in 1989, Brazilian investor Mauro Correias opened his own theme park in the Brazilian state of Araucária, to which he vainly put the name “Mauro Correias World”. Similarly, Maurício de Souza also opened his own theme park in 1991, which centered on his comic stories of Turma da Monica as well as many other references to Brazilian cinema and culture. However, perhaps the most distinctive park, which also served as a reminder of Brazil’s new liberalized oath, was the Guanabara-Disneyland, created between 1990 and 1995, it proved to be the world’s largest Disney park by land area as well as one of the most profitable, due to the immense numbers of Brazilians, Latinos and other Lusophones across the globe.
Photo showing the main entrance to “Mauro Correias World”
During these last years of the 1980’s, another political party would join the scene of Brazilian politics. This party was the Green Party, formed out of disgruntled progressives who thought that the government was not doing enough about the climate situation. The party mostly appealed to progressives, naturalists and college educated folk. Their platform mostly consisted of diminishing the nation’s CO2 output as well as the fixing of the Ozone layer gases. Not only that, but they also proposed for stricter protection of Brazilian wildlife and the protection of Brazilian Native cultures and peoples. Their leader, Diogo Braun, was a young and charismatic man who easily swayed people to his cause. Thusly, when they published their manifesto, which rejected notions of “growth for the sake of growth” and “nationalism”, it swayed PM Henriques to add them up again to the governing coalition. This idea however was heavily protested by the Progressives who did not wish for further splinters within their party. However, Henriques managed to convince the Progressives that they could definitely use those extra seats, which proved to do the trick and convince the Progressives to add them. The Conservatives meanwhile, having lost much of their influence within the coalition decided to just accept and bid their time, however ironically the conservatives did find the Greens’ argument about preservation to be highly enticing. In the end, the Greens joined the coalition and the Henriques government resumed being stable.
Lastly, there is also a major breakthrough happening in Brazilian science right now. Brazil being the huge nation that it was needed energy. However most common sources of fuel, i.e. hydrocarbons were either scarce in quantity or lackluster in quality, thereby Brazil always had to find other means to secure their energy supply. Luckily for them, by the late 80’s and early 90’s a new energetic Revolution was about to swept the nation, thanks in part to the growing green retórica of many progressive politicians and even some in the conservative wing. As a result, many incentives were given for Brazilians to employ green sources of energy, 4 main sources thereby emerged as dominant. Firstly, Brazilian scientists managed to reverse engineer wind-turbines from the United States and Germany, which they found that it was a particularly efficient source of energy in the Northeastern Sertão. Then, there was the matter of solar power, something Brazilian universities had actually innovated a lot, which Brazilians once again discovered that worked very well in the dry and sunny landscape of the Brazilian northeast. Afterwards, there was the matter of Lithium, an energy source which proved highly capable of doing inverted chemical reactions and thus, had an instance potential for the new battery manufacturing plants in Brazil. Lastly, there was the matter of nuclear power, but this time it would not be any nuclear-power, for you see, all nuclear energy up to that point was gained via fission reactions, but now a Brazilian scientist by the name of Leonardo Dias was also on his way to discover Fusion Energy, allowing the power of the sun to soon be on his hands.
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Chapter CXIV - It’s time to say goodbye II
Chapter CXIV - It’s time to say goodbye II
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Photo of Prime Minister Alfonso Henriques (right) and future Prime Minister Arnaldo O’Sullivan (left), (1988)
On the 30th of April of 1988, Henriques formally stepped down as PM and retired from political life, in the end living up to 98 years of age after beating cancer. Then, a parliamentary voted on the next Prime-Minister unsurprisingly, ended up choosing Henriques favored sucessor Arnaldo O’Sullivan. However, if there was one fault on Henriques government was that his choice for sucessor, as we shall see throughout this post, was not that great of a choice. For during his premiership, O’Sullivan, being from a more progressive wing of the SLP, tried to push way further on social-issues in contrast to the wishes of a still largely tradicional and conservative society. Worse yet, while Branco and Henriques managed to counter their social liberalism with good economic growth and diplomatic victories abroad, O’Sullivan would preside over a small paralization of the Brazilian economy from 1988-1989. The reason for this crisis, was yet again instability in the Middle-East, as Yemen, entered into a state of civil-war. Now the reason this was important, was that Yemen controlled part of the Straits of Eden, through were most European oil imports came from, and if the Europeans economy went sower, so did the American one and by consequence the Brazilian one. However, this did not mean that things became terrible, from 1987-1988, the Brazilian economic growth of 9,1%, went to 3,5% from 88-89 and then 6,3% from 88-89, only fully recovering in the following year of 1990 when it hit 9,9%. However as a result, Arnaldo’s popularity as Prime Minister already took an early hit.
As for his more Progressive Policies, Arnaldo sought to loosen Brazil’s immigration laws in order to attract more foreigners into the country, most of these foreigners however would not come from the Mercosul, nor Europe, nor Japan. But rather, immigration from Colombia, Bolivia and Lusophone Africa. Which to the average Brazilian, which was still quiet xenophobic of their poorer and non-white neighbors, was a big no-no. As a response, the Conservative Party and the PTB formally complained about the new bill and wished to see it abolished in favor of the old system.
This was however the final nail in the coffin for the Conservatives in the coalition. For you see, Arnaldo absolutely DESPISED the conservatives, whom he saw as dragging the country down, and refusing to understands the modern world they lived in. As a result, O’Sullivan formally dissolved the coalition and formed a new one, this time however without Conservative support, which for the last years, did nothing but water down Henriques’ bills and proposals. There was however a wee bit problem, if you looked back at the results of the 1986 election, the resulting coalition of the SLP, Conservatives and Progressives amounted to a whopping 289 seats, which gave them a majority in the 445 strong Brazilian parliament. However, without the conservatives and their 81 seats, the coalition of the PSL would have only 208 seats, aka a minority government. Which meant that unless they won the upcoming 1990 parliamentary election, there would be a good chance that SLP dominance over Brazilian politics would be broken. Luckily for Arnaldo however, he had backing him up, the names of Gualtério and Henriques branded on the SLP, as such he could constantly recall of what the SLP had done for this country and how if parliament was to remove him, it could end up causing yet another consitutional crisis and depression in the country.
As such, while many in parliament would like to have his guts torn open, time was not yet right. Nobody however understood this better than Conservative leader Catarina Hitler, who ove the last years, slowly but surely cemented populist domination over the Conservative Party[1]. As such, the Conservative Party throughout the 1980’s shifted their allegiances, becoming less and less aligned with the SLP coalition and instead reaching out for the battered but still powerful PTB. Thought at the time, no one except of the PTB and the Conservatives knew about this. Now, for people on the outside this was a weird political decision, for why would a left-wing party ally themselves with a right-wing party? Well the answer mostly lies in the fact that for the PTB, a cultural and societal stance was not as necessary as the well-being and economic welfare of workers, in fact, they themselves were highly socially-conservative. The conservatives meanwhile, adopted a highly nationalistic and populist policy on regard to the economy, stating that the SLP were selling out Brazilian workers in favor of cheap foreign labor and the money of multinational corporations. It was this convergence of ideology, which led to a secreta pact between the once hated enemies, the pact stated for a coalition between themselves in order to oust “degenerate” and “capitalistic” influences from the government. In the meanwhile, O’Sullivan was not exactly doing himself a favor.
Tough often exaggerated by future governments, the times during the O’Sullivan administration were not bad, in fact they were well above average even for developed nations. But if compared to what Brazil was experiencing in the past decade or so, the situation had indeed deteriorated. One of the cause’s for this, was the government’s obsession with obtaining a positive balance on the budget, which meant that some liquidity that could be added to the economy in order to keep up with the previous economic growth. The government however, appeared to have no qualms about increasing inflation, which meant that the bad number, which had for the past decade stayed permanently below 2% not stood at 3%. However, the government understood correctly that this crisis, was just speed-bump on Brazil’s economic development and that in 1 or 2 years, things would come back to normal. What they did underestimate tough, was how much they could milk Henriques’ and Gualtério’s legacies for their own benefit. Even some members of the SLP, most of whom veterans from Henriques’s and in some cases even Gualtério’s cabinets, warned Arnaldo that even Alfonso had to once in a while intervene in the economic, just enough to get the wheels to run. But O’Sullivan paid no attention to this. In his mind, Henriques’s interventions were something he had no choice but do, due to the complicated scenery of the Brazilian economy in the early to mid 70’s. Thereby, in his more privileged position, nothing had to be done and the market would eventually fix itself.
In the meanwhile, as 1989 came along, Arnaldo also started another set of reforms aimed at, combating deforestation and pollution[2], elevating women and minorities both economically and socially in he country and continue the liberalization to the Brazilian economy. Dubbed the “Novo Acordo Social Brasileiro” or NASB of you will, it was meant to turn Brazilian society, which he considered to fixated on the age of industry, into a new society for the modern computer age. The first set of reforms, concerning the environment actually were extremely popular at the time. Within the spam of 2 weeks, Arnaldo expanded the agencies for environmental protection and later fused them into the ‘Bureau for the Enviroment’. Which was then tasked with creating more green reserves, cooperating with the police force for the enforcement of the law in regards to the protection of endangered species and ecosystems. As well as a visionary program for the reforestation of the basically defunct “Mata Atlântica”. All of this however did not come cheap, but thanks to the lack of spending during the year of 1988, the government had more than enough funds to cover the whole endeavor. Not only that, but the government also created a new institute of research in the Amazonian capital of São João. Dubbed the “Instituto Ambiental de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento”, this institute was meant to become the Brazilian capital for the development and research on matter of the Brazilian flora and fauna. Later on, new wings for the development of medicine and other pharmaceuticals was also created. Soon turning the institute into a de-facto College, which in turn became the best college for medicine in the entire country.
As for the other reforms tough, things were more controversial. In the official manifesto published by the SLP, which explained their plans and goals the “elevating women and minorities both economically and socially in he country” became a tad unpopular with the general public. Mostly because many things there, would only really become popularly accepted even in the Western World by the 2010’s. In it, you had items such as the: legalization of marriage between homosexuals, the enforcement of affirmative action to elevate social minorities further the social ladder, the complete secularization of marriage, etc. Now, some of that stuff might sound pretty reasonable to someone in the 2020’s, but thirty years ago that was a no no. As a result, Arnaldo’s popularity tanked even further. Back in parliament, this bill was also the first moment the secret pact between the PTB and the Conservatives came into effect, with both objecting the 2nd program. Some newspaper, found it pretty ironic, but none really went to deep into it, to their eyes both parties were acting independently and had no reason for further cooperation, they were certainly wrong.
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[1] The Conservative Party is a party divided into many factions. However of these, three are most prominent. You have the orthodox, which aims to urn the Conservative Party into the party of the upper classes and rural interests. The Christian-Conservatives, are more broad and hope for the unison of Brazilians not through class, but through culture and tradition. Lastly, the Populists aim for the transformation of the Conservative Party into a party of the masses, headed by an educated “down to earth” party elite, wishing thus to oppose economic liberalism and multiculturalism
[2] Arnaldo is buddy buddy with the greens. In fact, he almost became part of the Green Party but decides not to at the last moment
Chapter CXV - Et Tu Hitler?
Chapter CXV - Et Tu Hitler?
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Thus in-came 1990. In that year, the government halted their more unpopular projects and instead focused on the liberalization of the Brazilian economy. This came in the form of trying to privatize many nationalized or partially-nationalized companies yet owned by the state. But this time, instead of conservative outrage, the ones who started rifting with the government were the workers themselves. As a result in May of 1990, the workers of the “United Petroleum Union” and the “Confederation of Steelworkers Union”, launched a strike across the Brazilian industrial areas. Even, workers who were not employed in state-owned business, began striking in solidarity with the other workers. The strike was then organized into a series of demands, the most important of which was that the government must cease any privatization of the Petroleum and Steel industries. Furthermore, in the National Trade-Union Council, many other unions notified the government, that any attempts at privatizing their industries would result in further strikes. This, without mentioning the fact that the economy grew sluggishly throughout the first half of 1990, meant that Arnaldo’s approval rate, which at 1988 stood at 66%, now laid at a measly 30%.
Thereby, in order to increase their chances of winning the 1990 elections, the government largely retracted from their more controversial policies. Rather, focusing on their environmentalist agenda, which meant more and bigger reserves, as well as a tighter control on sanitation, the use of renewable energy and recycling. This, was largely successful and by the second half of 1990, O’Sullivan’s popularity rose to some 40%, tough still drastically low.
Seeking to strike whilst the iron was hot, Conservatives and PTBs started their campaigns with a focus on badmouthing the current SLP government, essentially stating that the party of Branco and Henriques was now a shadow of its former self. Similarly, other parties also started pointing out the failures and miss guidance of the current administration and how the SLP’s time was already over. The SLP for their part, began pointing out previous erros of previous administrations of previous parties, going as far as saying that a vote for the conservatives was a vote for the end of women’s rights. This level of polarization, was not seen in Brazil for quite a while and in turn scared many Brazilians, who feared that the country was devolving back into the madness that was the early 1970’s. Thereby, the 1990 election had one of the lowest turnouts in Brazilian history. Which in turn, worked for the Conservative-PTB alliance’s favor as the demography that seemed least likely to vote, where the youngsters no progressive adults. Thereby, when the results came nobody was really surprised.
Future-PM Catarina Hitler’s official campaign photo (1990j
From Brazil’s 181.5 million inhabitants (1990 census), some 54 million votes were registered. Or about 50% of Brazil’s total electoral base. The results were however interesting. From the now 450 seats in the Brazilian parliament, the Conservatives ended up as the single largest party with a total of 133 seats, they were followed by the SLP with now 95 seats, then the PTB went about with 93, 62 to the Progressives, 38 to the NFP, 17 to the Green Party and then 12 to other minor parties, like the PCB and AIB.
Now locked out of a majority government, the SLP leadership became quite desperate. So much so, that they even proposed to a Catarina Hitler, that they revive the old SLP-Conservative-Progressive Coalition. But this never materialized, both because Arnaldo would never accept the Conservatives in his government and also, because now the Conservatives had all the cards in their hands.
As a result, Arnaldo’s government would only last a further 6 months, as his uncompromising nature rendered any attempts at working with either the PTB and the Conservatives as futile. Their only saving grace, was that in their eyes, the conservatives had no major party to work with and thus were relegated into isolation. This of course still meant that Arnaldo had to deal with a minority government, but as long as he could convince parliament his government was the most stable alternative, he would stay in power. Then it happened. On the 3rd of April 1991, Catarina Hitler and Gilberto Fossati, leader of the PTB, announced their plans at forming a coalition government between both parties. To say this caught the nation of guard would be an understatement, not parties used to be mortal enemies with completely opposite ideologies, yet they were allied with one another. Most impressive of all however, was that the person to run for Prime Minister of the coalition was none other than Catarina Hitler herself, which would make her the first woman to ever hold the position of Prime Minister in the history of the nation. Ironically, she was also opposed to affirmative for women and instead pushed for the “traditional Brazilian family”.
Then came the day, on the 10th of April of 1991, Catarina Hitler formally assumed her position as leader of the country, with a very famous picture between her and Queen Cristina. In the following days, Cristina also published her government’s manifesto. In it, she detailed a decrease in the country’s foreign ventures and instead focused on bringing South America closer together, calls for a halt on the liberalization of the country’s economy, calls for a decrease in immigration both from South America and from other sources, calls a return to tradicional family structure as well as the return of worker’s managed business. This manifesto, was highly popular with the working class, which soon also won over the full loyalty of the Trade-Union Counil. The end result, was a highly stable government from the beginning, despite the fact that it was the polar opposite of the previous government. More importantly however, was the fact that this was the first time the Conservatives were in charge of the country since the 1920’s. Thereby, the occasion became a sorta holiday for the Conservative Party. Thus, also bringing a new Brazil with a new mentality to the world stage.
This however, was not at all popular with the more progressive elements of society. Which by now, we’re not merely a fringe group, but rather a large and well-organized political movement. As soon as Catarina rose to the podium, student organizations across the country were already planning large scale protests. These protests, mainly occurred throughout the provinces of Amazônia and Guanabara and ranged between 100-150k people in total. The protesters for their part, made use of Catarina’s grandfather, Adolfo Hitler and his anti-Semitic and racist commentaries as a way to discredit her. As well, as claiming she was homophobic (which she probably was by the way). However, Catarina really paid no attention to any of this and instead simply went on, to form a new Brazil.
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Chapter XCVI - A Woman in Charge
Chapter CXVI - A Woman in Charge
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Simultaneously, one of the concerns for the Conservative-PTB coalition, was that the Brazilian military should not act like the world police. Not because they cared about imperialism, but rather because they simply could not be bothered about the world’s problem, after all their government was built on the slogan of “by Brazil and for Brazil”. However, in an act of compromise, they did reassure their already existing allies that they were not about to abandon them to their own fate. This reassurance, specifically targeted China, as Brazil became worried that the growth of Chinese ambitions could become a threat to their ally of Macau.
Moreover, the Brazilian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, also reaffirmed Brazil’s commitment to Mercosul, as well as the wishes of the Brazilian government for its expansion throughout South America. Part of this expansionist desire, stemmed not only in the form of adding new members but also in connecting these members further together. The first of these projects, would be known as the “Lithium Corridor” and involved all Mercosul members. In essence the project called for the creation of transport facilities, that would allow for Lithium mined in northern Chile and northwestern Argentina to be distributed to industrial vacileis throughout Brazil, Argentina, a Chile, Venezuela and Haiti. In Brazil specifically, their development of new graphite based Lithium batteries, allowed for greater and more efficient use of batteries, which could in turn fuel Brazil’s electronic revolution. Not only that, but port facilities in Antofagasta were also expanded in order to ship either Lithium or Lithium-based products to the Pacific nations. The revenues of such venture. would steadily rise throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, reaching their peak in 2006 at 5 billion dollars.
This, also came at a time of the Brazilian economy making a rapid turn-back from the Yemen Crisis. In response to this, the Brazilian government launched yet another survey to inspect the Brazilian economy. The results showed that the GDP rose from 1.512 Trillion USD in 1987, to 1.876 Trillion in 1990. Also in the report, was the discovery that agriculture and mining fell as a percentage of the economy, from 11% to 9%. At the same time, industry also fell from 65% to 63%. All the while, services rose from 24% to 28%, meaning that Henriques and O’Sullivan’s reforms were taking effect and the Brazilian economy was becoming less dependent on industry and agriculture. This report however did not seat very well with the ruling coalition. Remember, the coalition won the election on the promises of restoring the traditional Brazilian industrial works, with traditional industries (cars, steel, etc.) being the undisputed hegemony of the Brazilian economical machine. Here however, the PTB-Conservative coalition took a gamble. Their reasoning, was that the rise of electronics and high-tech industries would be more profitable than the traditional low-research based industries. Thereby, while Brazilian industry did receive special attention from the government once again, the traditional industries had to face competition not only in the market, but also in the Trade-Union world, as Electronics Unions started to pop throughout the Brazilian tech-belt in the southeast.
One area of the Brazilian economy that did not receive much attention in the past decades however, was agriculture. Ever since the conclusion of PM Dietrich’s rural reforms, the Brazilian rural sector became quite stagnant, which added on the trend of the rural exodus. With the conservatives now in charge this was about to change. Because as to be expected, conservative rural workers tended to vote overwhelmingly for the Conservative Party, even if they were part of Farmer-Unions. Thus in order to please their electorate, Hitler, alongside her Minister for Agriculture, Sérgio de León, decided a plan to bring about a new “Agricultural Revolution” to the Brazilian countryside. This Revolution, would be spearheaded by the introduction of genetics to the rural areas. This mostly concerned about the rise of Genetically Modified Foodstuffs or “Agro-produtos Geneticamente Modificados”. Spearheaded by the IAPD back in São João, which did not seem to mind working for the new conservative government, Brazilian scientists began the process of commercially developing genetically modified seeds, more suited for Brazilian climate and soil, as well as more resistant to pestilence like larvae and grasshoppers. As a result, national wheat production throughout 1990’s, went from 7.5 million metric tons of produced wheat, to 14 million by 2000. Simultaneously, soybean production also rose from 18 million tons to 30 million in the same timespan. The production of sugar-cane, rice and fruits also rose dramatically throughout the time period. As a result, Brazilian agricultural exports rose from 30 Billion USD in 1990 to some 55 Billion by 2000. This incredible rise in profits, also translated in a huge pay rise for rural workers, who went from receiving on average 50% of the salary of an urban worker, to some 85%.
With the Brazilian economy booming throughout the 1990’s, tourism in Brazil rose accordingly
Not only that, but this economic success also translated in Brazilian inflation going down, to a stable 1.8% in 1990 and moderately fluctuating between 1% and 2.5% throughout the 1990’s. This rise in wages, accompanied by a stable and strong currency, meant that Brazilian internal tourism rose dramatically. as more and more families could continuously afford to travel across the country. This brought further revenue to the government, whose fiscal year of 1990-1991 showed a total revenue of 540 billion dollars, of which 500 billion were spent by the government, which allowed for a budgetary surplus of 40 billion. This, accompanied by a trade surplus of 5 billion dollars, meant that the government was stacked up on cash. This allowed for them to begin a process of slightly lowering the tax rates for everyone in the country.
As the year of 1990 passed and 1991 came by, the Brazilian government announced tax cuts throughout the hole country, which meant that the government went from getting 30% of the Brazilian economy as revenue, to only 25% per year. This 5%, translated into some 900 million dollars now in the hands of Brazilian consumers and families. All the while, necessary services like healthcare and transportation were maintained without rotting away. This incredible prosperity in Brazilian society, meant that the culture of the 1990’s and early 2000’s was one highly optimistic about the future. Even more so as despite being a conservative government, the Brazilian state alongside other nations of the world, were begging to seriously combat the issues of global warming. For instance, the Washington conference of 1991, stipulated pollution goals for each country, in order to decrease the emission of CO2 gasses into the atmosphere. Not only that, but the convention also banned the global use of certain gases which were opening a hole into the Ozone Layer. Brazil for its part, tried to follow the rules and regulations imposed by the treaty. But with the economy growing as fast and industrial production continuing, it became quite hard for it follow, thus by the year 2000 Brazil would be found just short of their climate goals. Thus putting them behind many developed nations. However, thanks to the Amazon rainforest, Brazil could theoretically punch above its weight when it came to dealing with CO2 emissions.
In short the year of 1991, would prove to also be highly successful for the Brazilian nation. In face of this, much of parliament would also be dominated by a posture of “ensuring good times”. A phenomenon dominated by trans-partisan cooperation, as well as the de escalation of political polarization in the country. Ensuring that the Brazilian nation became prepared to face what was to come. For if the 20th century was the American Century, Brazil was turning their sites to make the 21st Century the Brazilian century. Tough wether this can be achieved is another matter entirely.
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Chapter XCVII - Same world, different geopolitics
Chapter CXVII - Same world, different geopolitics
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However, beyond the pacific and in the heart of Asia, China started making their moves. Throughout the Cold-War, China allied with Germany against the United States, which resulted in a reduction of trade between both nations and their allies (Japan, Korea and Vietnam all reduced their trade with China throughout the Cold-War). Even with German aid, the Chinese economy grew sluggishly, as attempts at modernization and industrialization proved unsuccessful. This, combined with a highly authoritarian, one-party state, rendered Chinese prospects for growth rather limit. Change however came by the end of the 80’s, as with the end of the Cold-War, China began a process of economic reform in order to open itself for foreign investors. With it, China also opened the potential of the largest market on the globe, as well as a very cheap workforce. Thereby, companies throughout Europe and Asia began to set up shop in China, in order to avoid having to pay their employees high wages. This strategy however, failed in both Brazil and the United States, which were keen on keeping their industrial production within their countries. Leading to the three countries (tough in practice, Brazil and the US often acted as a block against Chinese commercial interests), competing with one another for the title of largest industrial power of the world. This last statement however, would take a while to materialize. For throughout the 1990’s, China was still an underdeveloped and poor agrarian nation, which was just now entering the world of industrialization.
Simultaneously, with the collapse of the German sphere, a realignment started taking place in the Indian subcontinent. In India, the country had successfully went through its democratization plan and was now focused on diminishing the country’s inequalities, as well as abolish what remained of the old cast system. Dravidia, meanwhile spiraled further and further into authoritarianism, as demonstrated by two coups that occurred in 1987 and 2001. This shift, also applied to geopolitics as the Dravidians became further militarized and aggressive in their foreign policy, all the while the Indians became more and more “peaceful”. As such, relations between the US and Dravidia started to worsen, while relations with India improved. In response, the Dravidians began looking for allies elsewhere. Something, they found in the form of disgruntled ex-German partners, like China, Saudi-Arabia and Ukraine. Not only that, but the government of Dravidia also began to spiral further into ethnic-nationalism, as they painted the Dravidian peoples as the indigenous peoples of the subcontinent, all the while painting the Indo-Aryans as invaders and colonizers from the north. Something which, did not seat well with India, Ceylon (majority Indo-Aryan ethnically, tough heavily Portuguese speaking), nor Dravidia’s Indo-Aryan population further north.
Meanwhile back in Europe, tensions started rising immediately afterwards in the east of the continent. More specifically, Ukraine and Hungary, both started making trouble with their neighbors over the spoils in a Germanless Eastern Europe. The Germans for their part didn’t really care. Instead, they reformed their block into a more equal and symbiotic relationship than the previous one. Which is why, Willy Brandt, alongside other European leaders reforged the New Hansa. This time, the block would consist of: Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Ludderia, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Poland, Denmark, Lithuania and Sweden - and in general, be a much more like their Western European counterpart. Speaking of which, after the end of the Cold-War and expansion was carried out by the now ‘Western European Economic Zone’, in which, the nations of Padania, Belgium, Ireland and Norway all joined. But while Central, Western and Southern Europe were going through good times, the isolation and chaos of Eastern Europe would lead to new crisis in the future.
As for Africa, the end of the Cold-War unfortunately did not meant all that good for the continent, as without the superpowers to prop up authoritarian regimes, many of the succumbed to popular revolutions. Thus, bringing instability and chaos to the continent, as well as generating new wars and conflicts. The exception to this were the countries of Southern Africa (South Africa, Ludderia (old Lüderitzland), Botswana, Angola and Mozambique), as well as Tunisia and Somalia. However in other places, as mentioned, conflicts began to erupt. In Ethiopia, ethnic and religious tensions in the country led to the Tigray and Eritrea regions of the country declaring independence from the central government, starting a war that would last from 1991-1998 and result in thousands of lives. All the while Somalia, was more than happy to aid in wearing their neighbor and rival. In the Congo basin, Katanga entered into a state of war against the Congo for control of valuable Uranium mines in their border. This conflict however, would be rather unremarkable and only last 2 years, tough it still resulted in thousands and thousands of deaths. Ludderia in particular also entered into a tight spot, as their highly racist and conservative government did not dance well with their neighbors. Once South Africa also transitioned into majority rule in 1968, the country became truly isolated as the blacks in the country distrusted them. Thus, rendering only their mother nation in Germany for trade and good relations.
Unposted throughout all this time however was Russia, which throughout the Cold-War became mostly neutral and preferred to just trade with the super-powers. Now with Gorbachev at the helm, the once peaceful nation began expanding their influence across Eurasia. Firstly, by establishing close relationships with the Baltic nations of Latvia and Estonia (both of who highly distrustful of the Germans), as well as the highly democratic Belarus. Simultaneously, relations with Kazakhstan and Donbas were also strengthened as the nation hoped to surround itself with closely aligned nations, mostly to act as a buffer for itself. Two nations who was deeply worried about this resurgence in Russian geopolitics, were Ukraine and China, both of whom were drawn closer together throughout the 90’s as a result of this. Simultaneously, now that Germany had been neutered as a global power, russia began to grow even further closer with the United States, with Vladivostok hosting a combined Russia-US-Japan training exercise. Which once again, scared the shit out of the Chinese, which now worried would be completely surrounded by American allies.
As afar as the Americas were concerned meanwhile, the mood was also changing. Firstly in South America, the end of the Cold-War also saw the end of US support for military juntas in Peru and Bolivia. Both of whom, fell shortly afterwards. In Colombia meanwhile, the country’s transition to democracy was also marked by the escalation of the conflict with rebels in the interior of the country. But thanks to Brazilian support, they were mostly dealt with by 1990. Simultaneously, the push for Colombia to enter the Mercosul also swelled through the nations of the Mercosul, south Colombia being admitted in 1994 and fully becoming a member 10 years later in 2004.
North America meanwhile, got tenser. In Nicaragua, their dictatorship simply refused to fall, even firing on protestors in the streets. Thus, in 1991, the country entered into a state of civil-war as pro-democracy and loyalist armies fought each other. Thankfully for the rebels, now that the Cold-War was gone and the US had a change in leadership (Perot was elected president in 1992), the government decided to end their support for the dictatorship and instead aid the rebels, ultimately winning them the civil-war by 1994. Mexico, meanwhile had to strengthen their border in order to stop the incoming of refugees from Nicaragua, specially now that their left-wing government won their election on the promise of keeping Central-Americans out. Central Americans nations which, were also quite poor. The two exceptions of which, were Cuba and Haiti, both of whom developed quite rapidly throughout the 80’s and 90’s, becoming fully emerging nations by the turn of the Millenium. Canada meanwhile, had to keep dealing Quebecois separatism as the QRLP kept winning elections in Quebec itself and demanding a referendum on independence. Something which the Canadian government agreed on, but it had to be held in 1998. The results of which, I still don’t know.
Thus, bringing a new status-quo for a new world.
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Chapter XCVIII - Dance, Dance, Revolution
Chapter CXVIII - Dance, Dance, Revolution
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The first step in the process of building the “Neo-Trabalhism” model, was through a law passed in Parliament called the Lei Raúl Félix. This law, incentivized the creation of co-operative business, by cutting red-tape in mounting a co-operative, as well as reforming the taxes on co-operative business to make them more attractive to workers. The end result, was that throughout the 1990’s up until 2006, worker owned business went from 15% to 50%, making Brazil unique in their way of handling business.
Not only that, but the government also sought to encourage what they called “traditional worker’s spirt”. To do this, the Conservative and PTB parties, massively expanded their youth wings via funds from donors. These youth-organizations, became analogous to boy/girl-scouts, as they ran campaign sites, extra-curricular life lessons and in general were mean to (indoctrinate) allow the children to grow healthy. This program however, was heavily criticized by parties like the Greens and PSL for its reactionary tendencies and traditionalist views. Basically teaching girls to be mothers, by discouraging them from seeking independent careers, while also teaching boys about “traditional male role models”. The end result, was a generation of boys and girls raised during the 1990’s and who believed themselves to be the carriers of the worker’s struggle, as well as the protectors of Brazil’s Christian and traditional culture (some places were even borderline white supremacist). All of this combined, also drew conspiracy theorists to proclaim that the PTB and Conservative were trying to entrench themselves into power by brainwashing future voters, but these remained mostly in the dark.
Brazilian boy-scouts in their new training camps (1994)
Another major aspect of Neo-Trabalhism, would be to achieved by what was called the “Declaration of Worker’s Independence”, by then Minister of Labor, Balduíno Lobos, a member of the PTB. In this declaration, Lobos supered the need for reforms in order to accommodate the Brazilian worker for the 21st century. Some of the measures included were: the right to a 7-hour work day, protection against foreign competition, protection of the worker’s lifestyle, integrating the new emerging sectors of the economy into the unionized sectors, securing the planet for the future children and grandchildren of the workers. This proclamation, was also widely supported both by the conservatives and PTB voter base. Hitler, again being the populist she was, fully supported the speech and hoped to implement much of these reforms before the 1994 election. To do this, she successfully had a law passed through parliament, which limited normal working hours for the Brazilian worker to 7 hours a week, with a maximum amount of 2 extra hours with double payment. Again, this allowed for the coalition’s popularity so soar, specially now that the economic made a recovery from the small oil crisis.
All of this legislation, was only possible because of a close working relationship between the PTB and the Conservative Party. Hitler and Fossati in particular were very close. So much so, that rumors actually began to circulate about both of them having an affair. This could spell disaster for the administration. Thankfully however, the propaganda machine of the PTB-Conservative coalition proved to be much stronger than expected. Allowing for a wave of pro-government articles to silence any rumors.
Another reform embarked by the Hitler administration, was the restriction of immigration into the country. Simply put, Hitler’s interpretation of the whole “protection against foreign competition” thingy was much looser than what other thought. To her, protecting the workers meant restricting the influx of foreign products into the country, as well as limiting the influx of foreigners arriving in Brazil. For instance, between the liberalization of Brazilian immigration policies in the 1970’s and up until now, millions of people entered the country, something the coalition did not like on bit. For instance, Hitler warned that letting to many people in could, “upset the country’s demographical and cultural structure”. A reference to the fact the country was now 92% white rather than the peak of 98%. Of course, this reaction was extremely criticized both internally and abroad as racist and fascist in nature. To the average Brazilian worker however, her speech resigned with them and what they saw as “job stealing foreigners”. Which is why, despite doing something controversial yet again, her popularity and that of her party only continued to rise as she rode the populist wave.
One exception of the immigration restrictions however would be from the Mercosul countries. As since Hitler wanted a more South American focused Brazil, rather than the more internationalist outlook the late Henriques administration, she needed to extended an olive branch to those countries and at least try to pretend she did not want to extended the restrictions to them. In fact, despite only begrudgingly working with the other Mercosul countries, her administrations would mark a new era of expansion and integration between the various economies of the region. For instance, the Mercosul’s constitution was changed, in which a country now only needed to way 5 years of observer status before being accepted. She also started promoting more Brazilian dependency on Mercosul products. Copper, Oil, Bauxite? Now Brazil was only buying those from their neighbors, with the government agreeing to some deals that were pretty disadvantageous to Brazil, but highly lucrative for the Mercosul as a whole. This, coupled with the huge economical growth of Mercosul economies throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s, meant that most non-Brazilian Mercosul citizens supported the block, not seeing it as a tool for Brazilian control.
In the end, the year of 1992 would be yet another successful year for the new Hitler administration, as the ideology of “Neo-Trabalhism” was officially adopted as the PTB’s party ideology. Not only that, but throughout the 1990’s Hitler would be able to sell Brazil once again as a “worker’s paradise”, that was not “corrupted by the evil influences of capitalism and social-liberalism”. Much to the annoyance of the more socially progressive and economically liberal sectors of society, which enjoyed their 20 year long rule over the country, but they will be back don’t worry. In general, the last big thing that happened at the end of 1992 and early 1993, was the Hitler administration’s breakthrough in renewable sources of energy and new environmental laws. This of course, was all in accordance to the “Declaration of Worker’s Independence”, something which again was populist in nature. The laws in particular, were the Lei Bernardo Ehrhardt, which stipulated more natural protection areas, as well as helping define officially what we’re Brazil’s biomes and how to better protect them. Simultaneously the Lei Eólica passed, which gave the Ministry of Energy a bunch of funds in order to install perhaps the largest wind-powered energy park in the world, right in the Brazilian northeast.
Times truly seem to be good, because they are. But all good things must one day coming to an end, as 2006 got closer and closer.
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Chapter CXVIX - The Long Golden 90’s
Chapter CXVIX - The Long Golden 90’s
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Simultaneously, the government also began the process of admitting Colombia into the Mercosul. However, due to protests from Venezuela, which feared an influx of Colombians into the country. The old rules of a 10 year wait would be put into effect in regards to Colombia. Meaning that the country would only become a full member in the year of 2004. And in order to make them apt to joining, Brazil and other Mercosul economies began investing huge sums of money into the country, so as to elevate them to satisfactory levels. This, coupled with the end of the Colombian civil-war, meant that the country was now experiencing peace and prosperity the likes of which never before seen by the average Colombian. Bogota in particular, started its transformation into the thriving modern metropolis it’s today. This however, was also accompanied by a growth in dependency towards Brazil, as the South American giant slowly but surely began stirring Colombian politics into a satisfactory level. This policy, was in large part a continuation of Brazil’s war on drugs, as the country hoped to go for the roots of the evil and end the drug problema once and for all. Thereby, having a lot of influence on the Colombian nation could do well, as Brazil could always make Bogota go for the right decision.
Another trick to increase Brazilian influence, as far as economic expansion went, was the construction of high-speed railways. Because, Brazil is really big, resulting in the need for good transport infrastructure. Thus, the Hitler administration approved the “Plano Bandeirantes” an infrastructure initiative which would, over the course of 5 years, allow Brazil to construct up to 9,000 km of high-speed rail throughout the country. Not only that, but the project would also aim to electrify existing Brazilian traditional railways, with aims of electrifying up to 66% of all Brazilian railways by 2005 (considering Brazil has 250,000 km of railways built, good luck with that). The project was quickly approved by both houses, quickly becoming another poster child for the Hitler administration, as well as Neo-Trabalhism in general. However, one worry about this big infrastructure project would be the amount of corruption generate. To counter this, the Brazilian police was ordered to every 6 months of project, to thoroughly investigate the accounts and transactions of suppliers and builder alike. As a result, the rail project would be constructed with incredible speed, tough both goals would not be entirely met by the project’s end.
Brazilian high-speed railway passing through the center of Olinda (Pernambuco) (2023)
The big infrastructure projects, as well as the expansion of trade throughout Latin America, resulted in yet more growth for the Brazilian economy. By 1994, the Brazilian GDP now reached 2.796 Trillion USD, meaning that the Brazilian economy was now closing the gap with the German one, which by 1995 stood at 3.8 trillion USD. Itself, not far away from the Japanese at 5.5 trillion and the Americans at 8 trillion USD. This huge expansion in the Brazilian economy, was also accompanied by a shift in economical makeup as the tertiary sector once again grew, whilst the secondary and primary both few as a percentage of the economy. Tourism in particular, once again proved to be a highly profitable venture. Which is why, the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, in order to capitalize with the popularity of Brazilian tourism, introduced the “Guia para o Brasil”. Basically, a huge propaganda effort to appeal to international tourists to come to Brazil. These efforts included, showing of Brazilian movies, exposition of Brazilian gastronomy, introduction to brazilian tourist areas, etc.
In the political scene Ary however, the year of 1994 would also be election year. The results of which did not impress much of the Brazilian populous. As despite the National-Federalists, Progressives and Social Liberals all running somewhat effective campaigns, they were unable to beat the PTB-Conservative success, as well as Hitler’s sheer populism. The results however, seemed to be a shock to the international community, as on the outside, Hitler was really portrayed as a racist and despicable individual (not that far from the truth). So when the results came, they were kinda shocked. Anyhow, the election ended with the Conservatives as yet the largest party with 143 seats, then came the PTB with 99 seats, 89 to the Social Liberals, 54 to the Progressives, 34 to the National Federalists, 21 to the Greens and finally 10 to other parties or independent candidates. With the results now clear, it became apparent that the Conservative-PTB coalition would, at least for now, be entrenched in power. Simultaneously, the rise of the greens in the National scenery was also a big shock, with many predicting they would be the ones to carry the new mantle of progressivism.
Anyhow, with the PTB-Conservatives firmly established in Brazil, Hitler decided to tackle one thing she thought Brazil desperately lacked. The Internet. Tough still in its infancy[1], the Internet started showing great potential already in the 1990’s. Brazil for its part however, lacked the technical expertise to properly bring the computer Revolution to the nation. Hitler however, saw that computers had a great potential to help in centrally planing the economy, which although seemed to be a fantasy in the modern world, was actually what Hitler wanted to do. In the end, Hitler established the “Comissão para o Desenvolvimento Eletrônico Nacional”. Which was tasked with elaborating on how to best bring about the Internet and computers to Brazil, as quickly as possible, as well as aiding national computer firms. For she wanted Brazil to be more self sufficient in regards to high-end electronic devices, which to her meant more and better: chips, batteries, graphics and speed. This commission was also quickly followed up the founding of some famous Brazilian companies such as Plasma, Computadores Borgo and Oge, appearing as a result of Hitler’s policies.
Not all however was sunshine and rainbow in Brazil. Throughout the year of 1995, students from throughout the North and Northeast, began protesting against Hitler’s conservative policies. Many branded her as an enemy of western civilization, more akin to the fascist of Western Europe during the Second World War. Protests would continue throughout 1996, tough the biggest one occurred by the end of 1995, when 250,000 people in the city of Salvador protested the Hitler government’s action. They also protest her anti-globalist and anti-multiculturalist outlook, again branding her as a retrograde and a relic of the past. In response, supporters of the Hitler regime made pro-governmental rallies throughout the south and southeast. Industrial and rural areas in particular, were where support for the regime was strongest. Hitler even joined some of the pro-government rallies, cali I got herself to be a friend of the working class, against the “bourgeois college elites”. But in the end, nothing of major happened, and all the protests accomplished was ruffling the feather across the country.
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[1] In TTL, the development of the Internet is some 5 years behind OTL. Though due to events that will transpire in the future, it should be by about 7-8 by 2023
Chapter CXX - Crisis in the East.
Chapter CXX - Crisis in the East.
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But now in the mid 1990’s, the Chinese fortune began to turn as new market reforms aiming at bringing investment to the country began working. This was possible because the Chinese workforce was dirty cheap, as well as the fact that the Nationalist government (which held unto power from WW2 to today) essentially guttered Chinese worker’s protections. As a result, throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, China became the world’s fastest growing economy[1], though the Chinese product always faced competition in the form of the safe markets of South America, USA and Europe. Thus, China’s influence only really began spreading towards Africa and Asian. To them however, this was enough as they could now build up China into a proper world power.
One nation however stood in their way throughout Africa and Asia, and surprisingly it was not the United States. I’m talking abou none other than Brazil, the giant of South America. For you see, Brazil held diplomatic and military ties directly into areas China wished to expand their influence. Brazil, for instance, had military bases in Macau, Ceylon, as well as close diplomatic relations with India and Malaysia. In Nanjing’s mind, Brazil had to leave if China was to take its rightful place as the queen of Asia. To accomplish this, China began a massive military buildup in order to begin launching their influence overseas. This buildup alarmed the president of Macau, Carlos Sun[2], which requested for the Brazilians to increase their military presence in the area. Now, the Brazilian labor government had campaigned on an explicitly isolationist policy of “South American Brazil”. However, an opportunity as good as this could not be ignored, specially with the Minister of War, Armando Rutkowski, bitching about the issue to the Federal Government all the damn time. Thereby, the Hitler administration authorized for the Pacific Squadron, previously docked in Timor, to go forth and dock in Macau instead.
Brazilian Pacific Fleet on their routinely Timor-Macau trip
To say this move was controversial would be an understatement. China heavily criticized Brazil as an imperialist nation, which anchored its fleet right at China’s doorstep as a way to demand concessions from Nanjing. Also given the fact that China explicitly states that Macau should be a part of the country, much like Hong Kong, tensions rose. Similarly, the Brazilian public also found the move to be unpopular, as they did not want Brazil to be involved in a major war on the other side of the world. The only guys really agitating for more action by Brazil’s part, were the Macanese government, as well as the Brazilian opposition, which spoke about Brazil’s needs to defend their allies and secure world democracy against the authoritarian and corrupt Chinese Government. Hoping to court some favor with the opposition, Hitler saw fit to just sit their fleet there and ingnore Chinese demands. So much so, that she even flew there alongside the Portuguese Prime Minister, Fernando Nogueira, to meet with Carlos Sun in person. All the while, Chinese military presence in the region increased exponentially.
Shit really hit the fan however, on the 7th of July of 1995. In that day, a Chinese fighter jet came face-to-face with a Brazilian pilot carrying a training exercise in Macanese waters, both planes eventually crashed onto each other, with both pilots surviving and falling in the South China Sea. Eventually, a Brazilian boat came by and rescued the two, with the Chinese, which took somes wounds during the crash, staying for a bit in a Brazilian medical facility. To his commander on the ground however, all they knew is that his plane came into contact with a Brazilian and then was gone. To them, the Brazilians had downed one of their pilots, which meant an act of war. Thus, ground forces and aerial forces went on high alert and just one signal was needed to bomb the Brazilians into oblivion. Said orders however were not carried out, because a shortly afterwards, the downed pilot came back to his base and was like “Wow, let’s calm ourselves down, I did not get shot down, please don’t make me die in a pointless war.” With that, the worst of the crisis had ended and a more ample room for negotiation was created out of this good willed gesture.
So, now you must be thinking, “Did they reach an accord in the end?”. Well, the answer is no, Brazil refused to take out their fleet completely from Macau, tough they did return some ships to Timor. China for their part, also refused to decrease their number of troops in southern China, as well as refused to drop their claims on Macau. The whole ordeal however, was a big PR win for the Hitler administration, which by now gained a reputation of dependable, despite their previously mentioned isolationist stance. Not only that, but the SLP, NFP, Greens opposition also began extending an olive branch to the Hitler administration, not that she needed it, but it was nice anyways.
As for China, the whole country was emerged into a deep anti-Brazilian rage throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, with Brazilian media and culture being highly big no-no in the Middle Kingdom. It also didn’t help that Brazil had the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, which also played into China’s hatred for Japan due to the 2nd World War. Anyhow, the only reason China did not invade Macau, was because they were trying to develop the country rapidly, and a way against the 4th largest economy in the world (almost becoming the third), as well as a nuclear power, was bad for business. Said business relationships, would eventually also lead to both countries getting on better terms, specially as trade with Brazil (and the Mercosul in general) increased rapidly, as well as the vast numbers of Chinese students that went to Brazilian universities to learn, coupled with the huge increase in the Sino-Brazilian population (going to 1.5 million as of 2023).
Another result of this crisis, was Brazil’s change in foreign policy. Previously, due to the general optimism that crisis and tensions were a thing of the past, the Conservative-PTB coalition kinda neglected foreign policy and defense spending. Now however, they developed a new policy called “Pan-Isolationism”. Which basically dictated that Brazil would be more than willing to intervene with matters regarding their immediate sphere[3], though Brazil would also not seek to enlarge their sphere, not get into matters outside their zone of influence. As for China, the country now became locked in an influence struggle, as Brazilian allies in Ceylon, Malaysia and India proved roadblocks to further Chinese ambitions. However, China would not stop, they might have lost the battle, but they swore to win the war. Wether they will win or lose, is outside of its post’s scope however.
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[1] This growth however is smaller than OTL, as more protectionist policies by the US, Brazil and Europe, stops much of their industries from going overseas
[2] Due to lasting Portuguese influence in Macau, Macanese typically use Portuguese first names, as well as the European method of naming [Given Name + Surname], as opposed to the East Asian model [Surname + Given Name]
[3] Basically, Portugal, Lusophone Africa, Lusophone Asia and South America
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Chapter CXXI - Brava gente Brasileira
Chapter CXXI - Brava gente Brasileira
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As such, when the Bolivian elections of 1995 rolled up, Bolivians needed to chose between Gonzales Sánchez de Lozada and Hugo Banzer. Now, Lozada campaigned on a nationalist platform of using Bolivian gas for Bolivia only, while Banzer was more than happy with selling out his nation to foreign interests. Which is why, once the polls rolled up, Lozada got ahead of Banzer as Bolivians wanted a change. Brazil however had other plans. Secretly, the IBIS stated meddling in the Bolivian election, by bribing officials, fabricating votes and threatening pro-Lozada supporters. Thereby once the results rolled along, Banzer “won” the election with 50,1% of the popular vote. This result however enraged the Bolivian people, who hoped to take actions into their own hands to secure their country’s future.
Right afterwards, the Bolivian people took to the streets to protest the election results. Specially after it was discovered that there were more votes in the election than registered voters. Thankfully for Brazil however, their meddling was done in such a way that it couldn’t be grace back to them. It also didn’t help that all files regarding the latest Bolivian election were accessible only to the head of IBIS, Geraldo Haddad, with no additional copies. Not only that, but Brazil also basically had a gun pointed at the heads of all the guys they supported, so that if they decided to go against them, removing them from the face of the earth wouldn’t be so hard. Which is also why, up to this day the public does not know of Brazilian involvement in the 1995 Bolivian election. But anyways, once the people went to the streets, Banzer basically shat himself and ran away from the capital, allowing for protests to take both La Paz and Sucre. Resulting in Lozada taking over the country. A civil-war was later averted when loyalists to Banzer defected to Lozada, recognizing him as president.
Photo Geraldo Haddad, ex-Director of IBIS from 1989-2000
Brazil however, was nothing if not frugal and adaptable. Thereby, the Brazilian Foreign Minister Rafael Ambrogio, called the Lozada government to congratulate them in their well earned victory. Banzer became enraged by this, however he didn’t do much else, as he was found dead in his hideout hanging from the felling, with his death being declared a suicide (though we all know what happened). Anyhow, Brazil also stated that Bolivian would be able to join the Mercosul in no time. With negotiations being held between the new Bolivian government and Mercosul going on throughout the 1990’s.
Photo of ex-foreign-minister Rafael Ambrogio, who held the office from 1990-1999
Simultaneously, Brazil made some major breakthroughs in regards to environmentalism. This time however, efforts to preserve Brazilian nature shifted away from the Amazon and the Mangues, and instead turned to the Mata Atlântica and the Cerrado. Both of whom, became severely devastated after decades of industrialization and intensive farming. To fix this issue, the Hitler administration introduced the Lei Maria Castro and the Lei Wagner both of whom dealt with the Cerrado and Mata Atlântica respectively. In regards to the Lei Maria Castro, the law created a sub-ministry to the Ministry of the Environment, responsible solely for the preservation and general welfare of the Cerrado biome. It looked for the creation of 4 new national parks, as well as declaring some 100,000 sq/km of land as preservation area. The Lei Wagner however, was much more ample in regards to its goals to environmentalism, but in the end it ended up affecting the Mata Atlântica more than other biomes. In essence, the law made it mandatory for single-family housing to have at least 20% of their property in green coverage, not only that but in case of farms over 90 hectares, to have up to 25% of their property as a natural reserve for Brazilian wildlife. Now, this might not seem like it helps the Mata Atlântica in specific, but considering most Brazilians live in what is the Mata Atlântica and much of their food was grown there, it made sense.
To accompany this immediate legislation, parliament also pushed for the Lei da Consolidação da Amazônia Azul, which placed the entire Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone, under the protection of the Ministry of the Environment, and basically expanding the statute of Fernando de Noronha to the whole Brazilian coast. Which also came with an increase in the patrolling of Brazilian waters for the preservation of wildlife. However, what they found instead was something none could have predicted. OIL.
Deep in the Brazilian coastline, some 10 kilometers from the surface, Brazilian research’s found out huge oil deposits of very high quality. These deposits became known as “Pré-Sal”, with many in the worldseeing dollar signs as they wondered how they could exploit this. One problem though, all oil extraction and refining in Brazil, came from the state-owned Petrobras, so foreign-investors could be told to fuck off. Most importantly, Brazilian environmental regulations meant that if Petrobras was to extract petroleum from the depths of the ocean, they’d need to be extra careful about oil-leakages and CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the technology to exploit the oil was pretty expensive, though feasible with he right investments. Lastly, there was also the issue of the Venezuelan government, as Brazil did not wish to anger their neighbor in a nationalist dream of oil digging. However, Hitler was nothing if not stubborn, and when she dais Brazil would be exploring the oil, by god she meant it. In order to appease Caracas, the Brazilians proposed doubling their industrial aid to Venezuela, as well as the fixing of oil prices to the international market. In exchange, the Venezuelans would shut the fuck up and let Brazil dig for the sweet black-gold.
This however drew the ire of Brazilian environmentalists, who relentlessly protested Hitler’s decision. Green peace in particular, rented boats to go out in the ocean and stand there, so as to block the construction of the oil rigs. However, once again Hitler proved indomitable. Thus, she managed to get a law through Congress named Lei Petróleo Nosso, basically ripping off Vargas’ iconic phrase “O Petróleo é Nosso” when he created Petrobras. This law, gave extra funds to Petrobras in order to get them the means to extract Brazilian petroleum. Prime buyers included Japan, in need of diversifying their oil imports, as well as Portugal which sought to distance themselves from Russian and American oil dependency.
In order to achieve their goals however, Petrobras would need modernization and good leadership. Thankfully for the, they had the latter, who was also determined to achieve the former. Thus, Petrobras president Joaquim Enright, began a massive recruitment campaign in order to lure in mechanics, technicians, as well as good old manual labor. His bid proved successful, with Petrobras constructing their installations at breakneck speed. Simultaneously the Federação Brasileira do Operariado and the Sindicato Nacional do Petróleo, successfully negotiated for very good working conditions with the government and Petrobras. Thus, allowing for Brazil to quickly start pumping oil by the end of the 1990’s. Production would only continue to rise, until reaching its peak in 2005, when Brazilian was producing 5 million barrels of oil a day. Not only that, but Brazil also innovated on oil-production and refining as they created new and more efficient methods of separating hydrocarbon byproducts from unrefined petroleum. Leading to much higher output of things like gasoline, querosene, asphalt, etc.
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Can i ask did lobster war happen between French and Brazil still happen? Brazil is superpower in this timeline but the lobster war look entertaining for me.
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Short answer, Not really. France is by the 1960's a broken and divided nation, while Brazil is a formidable global power, albeit an isolationist one. Though it would be kinda funny if the reverse happened
Chapter CXXII - The New Party System
Chapter CXXII - The New Party System
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This development, is due to the fact that, while Western Social-Democratic parties have been watered down, specially with the development of the “new left”, the Brazilian PTB has remained ideologically consistent throughout this period, and despite reinventing their ideology of Trabalhismo to Neo-Trabalhismo, all it did was adapt the original to the new Brazil of the 1990’s. Besides that, the PTB remains very socially-conservative, as the Old Left purged the party’s hierarchies from the new members in the new left. Not only that, but the party’s own origins as a Christian Socialist movement moves it to a very favorable position with religion. Their roots, are also tied to industrial worker’s protests against immigration from Europe due to competition in the job market, and making the PTB’s opposition to immigration a historical phenomenon. The party’s main voting base would be the blue-color workers of the big industrial cities of Brazil, though they also tend to perform well with farmers throughout the South and Center-West. Paraná, Aurélia, Tieté and Araucária are the party’s foremost voting bases. By the 1990’s, this idea solidified itself and the PTB is now definitive in its ideology.
Allied with the PTB are the conservatives, which throughout the western world are deemed to be mortal enemies of the left. Here however due to Catarina Hitler’s influence, the party’s populist wing, akin to US populists like George Wallace, took over the party ideologically. Preaching Welfare Chauvinism, as well as Right-Wing Populism, the party has a strong base with the conservative lower classes and farmers, with the economical elites moving away from the Conservatives as they solidified themselves as the party of the common man. But you guys already now this, so what is new?
Well, after losing two elections in a row, the Brazilian opposition had to change. Mostly because, they came to the realization that milking the legacies of Branco and Henriques could only get them so far. Thusly, a new generation of politicians from the Social Liberals, National Federalists and Greens came to the scene. Amongst them, was the Senate Minority Leader, Gustavo Ashur, from the province of Grão-Pará. Ashur, was born into a wealthy family that managed to climb out of extreme conditions, as his grandfather, Yousif Ashur, an ethnic Assyrian, escaped from the horrors and brutality of the OttomanEmpire during WW1. Ashur’s main line of thinking, was that Liberalism would never be able to establish a foothold in Brazil, if they kept acting like a bunch of elitist douches that looked down on the common laborer. Rather, the party should promote the idea of liberty, by enshrining the rights of social-minorities, as well as expose the Trabalhistas as corrupt kleptocrats that block social development. Similarly, free-market advocates like Adriana Kirchner and Otávio Gusmão, began gaining traction within the younger demographics. Especially due to their unconditional support for Gay Marriage and hate for traditional gender roles. Kirchner above all, was able to capitalize on her beauty, as well as the fact she was in a lesbian relationship. Which does paint an interesting picture. As in most of the Western World, the charge for equal rights for homosexuals was spearhead by gays, with Lesbians, Bisexuals, etc. having to fight for space in the gay movement. In Brazil meanwhile, it was female Lesbian leaders that fought the most for equal treatment.
Photo of Adriana Kirchner in the mid 2000’s
This new revitalized leadership, would be able to better coordinate the opposition to the Hitler government in the following years. For example, in 1998 the Senate was able to block bill that would allow for police to monitor the homes of recently arrived immigrants. Simultaneously, the SLP, the NFP and Greens were able to successfully pass a bill in parliament that would prohibit discrimination of any sort in a private residency, however this last one was voted down in the senate, with Hitler stating that even if it had passed she would have vetoed it. Anyhow, this better coordinate opposition would make their play in the 1998 Brazilian legislative elections.
The goal there was not to win, as it was impossible to do so due to the Hitler’s government successful economical record, as well as low inflation and low crime. However, they could nab voters in regions dissatisfied with Hitler’s excessive social-conservatism. To do so, the opposition did a massive mobilization to fight the PTB-Conservative coalition. Kirchner for her part, launched the largest Pride Parade in the country’s history, which did alienated conservative voters, but they wouldn’t have voted for them anyway, so who cared. Gusmão and Ashur meanwhile, campaigned heavily in progressive areas of Monterreal, São Sebastião and São José[1]. They also campaigned heavily for market deregulations and an increase in foreign interventionism. The former gaining more support than the latter. But still, they did an impressive campaign, as they were also able to heavily attack Hitler as basically a closeted Fascist, once again bringing up her Grandfather’s less than stellar opinion on Jews, as well as his book “Why Brazil is like this.[2].
The end result was a slight shift in the balance of power. The coalition, was able to retain a workable majority of 228, with the Conservatives having 138 and the PTB wielding 90. But the other parties grew nicely, the Social Liberals were once again the 2nd largest party with 94, the Progressives now had 61 seats, the NFP had 38, the greens 25. With a measly 4 seats being allocated to the rest, 2 of which went to the PCB, one was independent and one went to the AIB. All in all, nothing had really changed, but the country’s leadership did few a slight chill in the spine.
As a result, the 2nd Hitler government would need to capitalize on the country’s economic success more than anything else. Also, the Conservatives-PTB coalition would also need to work closer than ever in order to achieve their goal. Hitler and Fossati for their part, also began to better coordinate with their two parties, which once again, allowed for the opposition to spread rumors that they were having an affair[3]. But once again, they had the exact tool to rid themselves of these allegations. Football. The Cup of 1998, would be a spectacle for Brazilians as it was held in India. There, the Brazilians dominated the field and after years without winning a World Cup, they managed to bring the trophy back home after scoring a 3-2 on the French team, which many held as the favorite to win the tournament. Such wave of patriotism absolutely engulfed the country, silencing critics, as nobody gave a damn about politics now that Brazil brought football back home. In celebration of this victory, Hitler also announced the “Plano Dias”, after the Minister of the Economy Bartolomeu Dias, an economic plan to massively expand Brazilian electronic and scientific production, in order to share the greatness of the Brazilian nation to the rest of the world.
Speaking of the Plano Dias, it involved major deals with Brazilians technological titans. Not only that, but as a result more companies began sprinting up to milk that sweet sweet government cash. Amongst these was Dalca, headed by Antônio Dalca, a company which innovated greatly on the cellphone market. This plan, allowed for Brazil to start rapidly catching up to the most advanced companies when it came to cellphones, as Brazil became an ever bigger producing on cellphone chips and other components. However, there were other things happening around.
Photo of the Dalca I, one of the best cellphones of the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
See, with all this money being thrown around some people began taking advantage of this. Namely a guy named Sérgio Montenegro, not to be confused with Marcos Montenegro, head of Brazil’s new Ministry for Anti-Corruption. Sérgio for his part, was governor of Pernambuco and he had an idea. Namely, he would create ghost companies in order to receive money and pocket the difference. He also brought to his side some other insignificant figures on the national level. Their plan would be known as the Chip Scheme, because most of the companies set up were focused around chip manufacturing. This setup would however only last one year. During this time meanwhile, they managed to receive up to 895 million Cruzeiros from the government. Marcos however began to suspect stuff when some minor market irregularities were being detected, and Dias began complaining about a possible market downturn. Upon looking closer however, he began noticing that there was trail of money that went to basically nowhere. Thus, he secretly launched Operation Icebreaker, with the aim of getting to the root of the problem. Some 5 months later, they managed to locate the source up to governor Sérgio Montenegro and busted his hole operation. The political fallout of such action however are yet to be seen.
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[1] for those who don’t remember, it’s the OTL equivalents of Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and Manaus
[2] Looks like even in an ATL, Adolf is still a douche. But essentially, this book describes how Brazil was able to become the dominant power of Latin-America. Basically, by not mixing with natives and blacks (untrue, many white-Brazilians have native and black admixture) and being descendent from the “purer” parts of Latin Europe (Northwest Iberia, settled by the Suebi and Visigoths. Northern Italy, settled by the Lombards. Ireland, Celts. Good old Germany, “pure Aryans”)
[3] In TTL this will always remain as a conspiracy theory. But as basically god, I can assure you guys they were 100% having an affair
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Chapter CXXIII - Last bits of a time
Chapter CXXIII - Last bits of a time
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The government for their part, tried to milk their economic achievements as their main strength. As by 1998, the Brazilian GDP stood at 3.870 Trillion USD, right behind Germany’s 3.902 Trillion USD. Not only that, but inflation was also under controlled, if raised to 4% per year. Unemployment was also at an alll time low since the 1960’s and in general, the Brazilian proletariat was more than content with the current status-quo. What this meant, was that if Brazil had the same composition as that of the 1950’s and 60’s, the Conservative-PTB coalition could entrench itself onto power for an indefinite amount of time. Unfortunate for them, the Brazil of 1998 was not the same as that of previous decades, as now there was a big white-color workforce, larger minorities and a new and more progressive urban elite. So, despite the unwavering loyalty of white-manual workers. It wasn’t enough to fully secure their dominance over Brazilian politics anymore.
Then, by the end of 1998, more things happened. More specifically, in that year Brazil would be shaken to their very core. For on the 20th of October of 1998, two ex-students from a Public High-School[1] in São Sebastião, by the names of Fábio Leite and Alberto Carpinteiro, pulled weapons out of their car, entered the school and started a massacre. They started their massacre by hitting the school cafeteria, where they shot people on sight, or threw handmade grenades. They would continue firing, as well as torturing some students, for another 25 minutes. After that, a unit of the city’s Armadoria entered the school and shot one of them dead, with the other one committing suicide as he laid bleeding from gunshot wounds by the police. In the end, some 17 students and 3 teachers were killed in the incident and a further 20 were wounded, with their names being transmitted for all of Brazil to see. Thus, the names of the students: José Vásques, Gilberto Randolfe, Leonardo Cavaleiro, Orlando Heiniger, Tancredo Guimarães, Rafael Matamoros, Martim Baldomar, Lívia Chio, Mariana Zorzi, Mariana França, Eloísa Hermida, Ana Maria Bazar, Regina Albano, Luana Dirksen, Maria Joana da Costa, Giovana Zorzi, Patrícia de Oliveira. Not only them, but their teachers: Geraldo Magalhães, Matilda Aragón and Clara Amanda Rodrigues. All of them entered the Brazilian subconscious, as their horrible deaths became public knowledge.
Now, Hitler looked at this situation and thought to herself, “how can I make this look in the worst way possible for me”. Firstly, instead of making consolations and such, she used the event as a way to attack the progressive elements of Brazilian society. As she referred to the attackers as “meantally deranged teenagers, that fell into disparity thanks to the hyper-progressive world we live in”. This message however displeased everyone, even her own allies. Not only that, but once Carpinteiro’s suicide note was found in his bedroom, people learned that the main motivation for this attack, was the fact his girlfriend broke up with him. Worse yet, the letter also went on to explain Leite’s extremely racist views against Asians and Africans, which makes it kinda ironic considering his ex-girlfriend was Asian. Thereby, Brazilian minorities took Hitler’s attempts at diminishing the role of race in the attack to great offense. But worst of all, was the fact that the guy was also incredibly misogynistic and as a result, Brazilian women felt threatened at how a psycho just casually killed a bunch of people (most of whom were female and 3 were targeted[2]). So, women’s-rights movements began popping in strength across the nation.
January 5th would then prove to be the greatest of all demonstrations. As up to 600,000 people marched throughout São Sebastião as a protest against Hitler’s government, and her social-conservatism. Amongst the leaders of the protests, were opposition leaders such as Adriana Kirchner, leading the LGBT wing of the parade. Not only that, but the relatives of the October 20th victims were also present, demanding accountability in regards to PM Hitler’s statements, as well as the silence of Guanabara’s Governor Alfonso Pinha. As a result of these protests, the coalition began diving themselves. With one wing, mainly focused around the PTB, wishing to make to answer the protesters calls for accountability and justice. This wing was lead by PTB member of parliament Teófilo McGauley. The other wing, loyal to Catarina Hitler and Fossati, stated that the government was in the right direction and that the protesters should shut the fuck up.
Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, they actually got worse. One the 3rd of March, a Brazilian policeman by the name of João Hypolite, a Brazilian of Haitian parents. Brutally assault a man on the streets for suspecting that he had illegal substances, which he did by the way. The man in question was a guy called Domingo Morales, an immigrant from Bolivia. In the end, he was rushed to the hospital but did not resist, dying on the 4th of March. Oh, did I forgot to mention Hypolite was hardcore Conservative voter? Yeah, the end result was as one could expect, an explosion of anti-government actives throughout the country. Seeing that the iron was hot, the opposition officialized the opposition to the Hitler government as the “Partido Popular Para o Progresso”, or P-4 as it would be popularly known. But, Hitler decided to shoot herself in the foot once more, and openly defended Hypolite, calling him a true Brazilian and defender of the nation. Something which, even if a lot of them agreed, was not the most popular position to have in the nation. Then of March 10th shit hit the fan yet again, when Guifredo Metaxas, the boyfriend of Lívia Chio, committed suicide after he couldn’t tolerate his survivors guilt, as he too was a target for the massacre, but since he was sick that day he didn’t go to class.
Basically, it demanded 3 things. 1) the Brazilian minorities, such as women and racial-minorities, were to be entitled to the same effective treatment as their white and male counterparts. 2) Police ought to serve the people, by serving the corrupt and archaic establishment, it is going against the people and must be reformed. 3) An end to Brazil’s isolationist outlook, which actively interfered in Brazil’s progress towards equality and progress.
Having the advantage need with the public, the P-4 (now the official name of the coalition, as it also served to show the 4 involved parties) pushed for a vote of no confidence in Parliament, in order to oust Catarina Hitler as PM of Brazil. Now, given that the Conservative-PTB coalition held a majority of seats in both Parliament and the Senate, it would have been impossible for the vote to go through. Unfortunately for Hitler, her policies in the last year basically alienated a lot of people, even amongst her own coalition. Thereby, a secret meeting between McGauleyist faction was held in Nova Bragança. There, they basically agreed that if Hitler were to remain in power, the next election would probably result in a catastrophic loss for them, possibly rendering them moribund for a few decades. Thereby, it would be better if they cut their loses, did some purges and waited for one or two elections to get back on track. So, once the vote was held, the McGauleyists voted for the motion and helped the P-4 throw Hitler off the reigns of government. Resulting in Gustavo Ashur to rise as the new Brazilian PM, under the Social-Liberal Party.
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[1] In Brazil, public schooling is divided into primary and secondary educations. With kids below 9th grade belonging to primary and above belonging to secondary. Both sections for their part, have separate teaching families
[2] Basically as the story goes, Leite was an abusive boyfriend, so Chio broke up with him, by en large encouraged by her two friends, Mariana França and Regina Albano. After that started dating Guifredo Metaxas, a guy who Leite hated. And this is they main why of the massacre
Chapter CXXIV - Millennium Dawn -
Chapter CXXIV - Millennium Dawn -
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For starters, the government began their mandate by announcing a new NASB, with the aim of developing Brazil, whilst also serving as a homage to ex-PM Arnaldo O’Sullivan. This new NASB, would enshrine the P-4 agenda, as well as continuing O’Sullivan’s unfinished polices. The first of which, would be the Lei Conrado Rousseau, which would lower tariffs in the importation of industrialized products by over 50%. This would allow for foreign products to come to the Brazilian market, allowing for greater competition between Brazilian and international businesses. The proposed however was heavily opposed by the PTB and Conservatives, which still held a majority in Parliament. Thus, in order for the bill to pass the P-4 had to negotiate with the opposition. In the end, the bill was passed by a razor-thin margin, and accounted for a reduction of 25%, rather than 50%, as well as a deal for certain businesses not to be privatized (as was their goal). This compromise, would also set what would be the P-4’s style of governing until the next election. That is, having to constantly negotiate with the PTB and Conservatives in order to pass their progressive legislation.
But as 1999 came to a close, Brazil became more and more euphoric. For in that year the nation’s economy sat at 3.767 Trillion USD, quickly catching up to Germany’s 3.982 Trillion dollars and Japan’s 4.887 Trillion. Thus, when the year of 2000 came, the whole country celebrated the dawn of a new millennium. One in which, the Brazilian government would focus itself on the international order and the progress of society at large. Proof of this was the so called, “Promessas do Milênio”. In which, the government promised to get Brazil as the 2nd largest economy of the globe by the year 2010, as well as turn the country into a bastion of Social-Liberalism, by abandoning the country’s archaic and conservative mentality. The speech however, turned out more divisive than previously thought. As even PM Gustavo Ashur, he was not the one to do the speech btw, thought that it made the government coalition look way too elitist, something he himself hated.
Brazilians celebrating the 2000 New Years Eve, in the Bay of Guanabara, Province of Guanabara (2000)
Simultaneously as the census was being carried out, the Brazilian government also passed the Lei Martim Cunha, which aimed at reforming the police force in order to stop police brutality. Basically, they would restart Gualtério Branco’s old anti-corruption policies at the police department, but this time at a much bigger and more precise scale. Not only that, but the penal code was also reformed in order to give harsher sentences for officers that were caught “violating their duties as policemen”. Naturally, the Police Unions across the nation started protesting against such “extreme hostility” against some of the most important public servants. The government however paid little attention to this, instead, carrying out further work to de-bureaucratize Brazil. This was possible due to lingering backlash against the 20th of October massacre, which lead to the McGauleyist wing of the PTB so ting in favor of the law.
This task of de-bureaucratization continued as the government passed the Lei da Reforma de Mercado, which diminished the necessary requirements for starting a business in Brazilian soil, as well as easing the regulation on international capital’s ability to invest in Brazil. The end result was a 5 year long boom in the Brazilian economy, as foreign investors once again started funneling their money into new projects by the South American giant. This act however was disliked by both the Conservatives and PTB, as they saw this influx of unregulated international investments, as a loss of sovereignty and ran increased susceptibility to international crashes. But besides that, they also didn’t like how cheaply manufactured products of Asia began arriving at Brazilian shelves and driving out small and medium sized producers out business, specially as the Ashur government refused to give aid to those industries. Another criticism of the policy was how the Brazilian inequality indexes began rising, as the Brazilian GINI coefficient rose from 0.25 to 0.32 during the period of 2000-2006.
However, it was undeniable that even if inequality was up, the average Brazilian saw a big boost to their purchasing power, as wages rose, but monetary inflation was kept low due to the lack of a need to print money. As a result the Brazilian GDP rose from 3.767 Trillion dollars in 1999, to 4.143 in 2000, 4.549 in 2001, 4.806 in 2002, 5.214 in 2003, 5.678 in 2004 and finally 6.189 in 2005, representing the peak of the Brazilian growth before the shitshow that was the 2006-2009 period. Most important however, would be that the government was able to meet their goal of turning the country into the 2nd biggest economy by the year of 2003, as Brazil surpassed the Japanese economy of 5.001 trillion USD.
American magazine “The Economist” article about Brazil’s economical success (2004)
Besides that, socially, the country would see the early 2000’s as the peak of Brazilian cultural production in regards to movies, music and books. Brazilian literature became widespread throughout Hispanic-America, Latin-Europe, Portuguese-Africa and East-Asia. In particular, Brazilian culture basically entrenched itself on the East-Asian mindset as an alternative for American culture, as Brazilian movies caught up in Korea and China and solidified itself in Japan, specially as Brazil’s Asian communities started sharing Brazilian customs and culture to their relatives back in the old country. In regards to video-games, Brazil also started taking off as new companies such as Trento and Bosse, created by Brazilians Marcos Trento and Teodorico Bosse, began dominating the game market throughout Brazil and then Hispanic-America.
All in all, the early 2000’s would become a highly romanticized time in the Brazilian mindset, as the country became the center of attentions due to their cultural expression and economical development, with some authors even dubbing the period the “Roaring 00s”. Though wether this can last indefinitely is another question.
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The 90’s Abroad
Chapter CXXV - The 90’s Abroad -
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Similarly in the Congo Basin, the nations of Katanga and the Republic of the Congo also went to war with one another, due to worsening relations between both nations, as a result to Katanga’s increasing militarization in the Congolese border. Once the conflict began however, more and more nations began to be pulled in the squabble for control over the region. By 1995, a coalition of Katanga, Cameroon, Gabon and Uganda clashed with the Congo, Central African, Somali, Swahili alliance for a period of 4 years, in what many historians describe as an African reconstruction of the 1st World War. In the end however, after over a million dead, a peace treaty was decided, in which both the Congo and Katanga would create a demilitarized zone in their borders, as to diminish the tensions and avoid another future conflict.
Not all was bad on the African continent however, for many nations in the area were also stabilizing themselves and as a result, seeing high levels of economical growth. Such nations were dubbed the “Lions of Africa” and consisted of countries such as: Angola, Mozambique, Lüderitzland, South Africa, Somalia and Tunisia. All these nations would, thought the period of 1995-2006, grow an average of 12% per year, turning them into the world’s fastest growing economies. Lüdertizland in particular, was sort of the black sheep of the bunch, as they were still basically a German ethno-nationalist state that was pretty hostile to the other African nations. But they did enjoy very close economic relations with South America and Europe, which meant that they could sell their products overseas and still make a lot of money, specially as the country continuously attracted German immigrations and investments, as well as possessing the highest fertility rate of the developed world, at 3.3.
As for Asia, tensions were rising in the west as Iran and Saudi Arabia began to fight for influence over the Middle-East. Iran, which by now was a democratic and secular republic, opposed the spread of Saudi radicalism, which itself destabilized Iran as Shia fundamentalists grew in popularity throughout the country. Saudi Arabia for the other hand, opposed what they saw as a degenerate westernized Iran, as well as the fact they were Shia. As a result, a geopolitical realignment began occurring throughout the region during the 90’s. In which, Israel, a traditionally German ally, began approaching Iran for defense and economic purposes against growing radicalism in Hashemite Arabia and Egypt. Further helping Iran’s cause was that the secular Turkey disliked the current situation of Kurdish fundamentalists destabilizing Kurdistan. Saudi-Arabia for their part aligned itself with Egypt and Kurdistan, with Lebanon and Hashemite Arabia being neutral in the conflict, though the former favored Iran and the latter favored Saudi-Arabia.
Internationally, other nations also began interfering with the Middle-Eastern situation. Mainly Ukraine and China had a vested interested in expanding their influence in the wake of the Cold-War. Thus, they supported Saudi-Arabia, which they recognized as an “emerging underdog” just like them. Other nation’s however were less keen on supporting the factions. For instance, both the USA and Brazil were split on who to support, as despite being more ideologically similar to Iran and their allies, their financial ties to Saudi-Arabia and friends were also much more valuable. In Brazil, there was a clear divide between the parties, as the Conservative-PTB wished for greater approach meant with Iran, while the P-4 wished to maintain business ties with Saudi-Arabia, Hashemite Arabia and Egypt.
Asia in particular also had content with further polarization in the center of the continent. As in this region, the powers of Iran, Russia, China and India all veiled for influence over the Central Asian states. However, rather than ally with one another, each of the 4 powers fought the others for more control over the region. With the closest thing you had to an alliance, was that India and Iran were both more cordial to each other. However the situation could still be best described as a death match and those would bear the brunt would be the central Asians themselves. Afghanistan for instance was ruled by a Left-Wing Nationalist government, which tried to institute land reform and end most tribal-religious laws. The end result however was a Islamist rebellion throughout the country, with China supporting the Islamist rebels and India and Iran supporting the legitimate government.
So, in order to hurt China as well, India started supplying Uyghur opposition movements who opposed China. For in Uyghurs you had the nationalists, which opposed any form of approach meant with China following the Uyghur-China war, and the Socialists, who wished to build new ties with Nanking and develop the region up to modern standards.
Thus for now laid the world, which despite the euphoria and prosperity enjoyed in the west, was still marked by conflicts and tragedy around the world
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