ipl-logo

Why Was Brazil During The Great Depression

830 Words4 Pages

Another country whose economy was hitting rock bottom was Brazil. Brazil, just life most of Latin America, was dependent on global trade. Brazil’s economy was specifically dependent on agriculture. Coffee was Brazil’s most important product, as it was the source of 70% of their revenue. If their economy could have stabilized coffee production and prices, which the Sao Paulo Institute for Permanent Defense of Coffee, tried to do, Brazil might not have gone through their depression, There are very significant causes of the Brazilian depression surrounding coffee.
Right before the depression, Brazil had a foreign debt of $900 million. The export of coffee was what they relied on to pay this back. Unfortunately in May 1929, after the Wall Street Crash, coffee prices rapidly declined. Brazil’s economy was further weakened by the growth in output from other nations and themselves. This sparked foreigners to …show more content…

About 1 billion Brazilians were impacted by the crisis. One of the biggest effects of the depression was its influence it had in presidential elections. Getulio Vargas strategically got the popular vote from Brazilians by advocating his support for coffee valorization and his financial solutions. Unexpectedly, the other candidate, Julio Prestes still won. This resulted in revolts to overthrow Prestes. The rebel forces won and Vargas became provisional president of Brazil. This revolutionary junta was only possible because the depression weakened the government making it easy to overthrow. Another political effect of the depression was Vargas creating a new constitution for Brazil. This constitution “established the 8 hour workday, and abolished child labor to help the economy” (Gomez). Another effect of the depression was the society changing. For example women were granted to vote in 1932. All in all, the depression impacted different sectors of the Brazilian

Open Document