Capital Sins

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Capital Sins
Conquerors of Brazil
Brazil was colonized by Portugal and the country gained its independence from the Portuguese Crown Prince in 1889 and it retained its lands intact and in one piece after receiving it from the monarchy (Winn 166). It is the fifth in the world with the largest land area, population, and resources like it was once nicknamed ‘the coffee king’ for its large-scale cultivation of coffee which was exported to other countries.
The second conquerors of Brazil were the armed military forces which seized power in 1964 led by General Humberto Castelo Brancho becoming the president with support from the United States and the upper and middle-class Brazilians. The Brazilian military army came with the promise of making the country great, in according to the grandeza notion believed by all Brazilian people. The idea of gradenza shows the vision of Brazil as a country destined for greatness. Its popular saying is ‘Brazil is the country of the future and it will always be.’
Importance of Brazil to Latin American History
Brazil is important to the history of Latin America because it was the pacesetter in strategy development resulting in attainment of results which was followed by the other Latin American countries. The Brazil military came in power wanting to change the economy and its political habits. The military took power not only from the suspected civilian leaders for purposes of national security, but it was the first military regime to take control of a state with other agendas like economic development, political stability, and social discipline.

This set a trend among the other Southern, Latin American countries that emulated the Brazilian military, such countries included Chile, Uruguay and Argentina making analysts call this new way of leadership ‘the bureaucratic authoritarian regime’ (Winn 171).
As trend setters, the Brazilian military wanted to make the country powerful through its large territory, financial resources, material goods, technology, minerals, and wealth. Its leaders, including General Oliva, who studied ‘national problems’ and was a strategist came up with ideas in which comparative advantage is gained from the resources of country. The power was achieved by recruiting skilled civilian technocrats who designed policies that the democratic government could accept. Chile followed suit and used U.S-based trained young men who were commonly referred to as ‘the Chicago boys.’
Brazil is one of the countries that set a strategy which worked leading to its growth, and at one point its highest growth rate was 13% per annum. The industrial growth of President Kubitschek (1955-60) created a futuristic nation with a 50-year progressive strategy achieved in 5 years. The steel and automobile industries grew by 80% in Sao Paulo, right after the depression in the coffee sector.
Brazil is also important to Latin America as it invented the promotion of economic growth through export-oriented activities (Fausto 349). This strategy was different to the current culture of Latin Americans who were into inward-looking growth strategies. The export-oriented growth initiated by Brazil bore positive results making it one of the fastest growing economies between the 1940s to the 1960s. Other countries looked up to Brazil in terms of economic and political strategies that would elevate their own economies. For instance, during the first oil price crisis in the 1980s, Brazil shifted its policies and came up with measures to handle the changes by getting loans from international organizations. And at one point, the country bragged that even the US should come and learn how to handle the crisis from them.
Reasons for Declaring Brazil an Independent Empire
Brazil is a futuristic-thinking country with grand plans for itself and its people. The country was led by leaders who made strategies and achieved them, such as is the case of President Kubitschek (1955-60) with his industrial strategy that propelled the economy to greater heights. Its military regime led the country to economic boom, but its major failing was the uneven distribution of the gains to the entire population (Winn 167).
The country has expansive tracks of land, and it has managed to keep it intact once it gained its independence from the monarchy. Its independence is demonstrated by its ability to think of its problems, work hard at it, and gain solutions. Even the military thought not only to seize power from civilian leaders, but also the growth of the economy, social well-being of its people, and political stability. The military equally incorporated skilled civilians as technocrats to develop strategies for the growth and expansion of the country.
Brazil is an independent state because of its ability to transform itself from a small undeveloped nation with many problems like poverty, slum dwelling, and widening gap between the rich and the poor; to a giant economic powerhouse led by the military in what was termed ‘the Brazil Miracle’ to current crises such as inflation and foreign debts. Yet, the country can adjust and transform its problems into strengths for growth (Winn 208).

Works Cited
Fausto, Boris. A concise history of Brazil. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Winn, Peter. Americas: The changing face of Latin America and the Caribbean. Univ of California Press, 1999.