Trial of Allegiance | Historical Brazil

Last year, we announced the formation of a new team dedicated to content creation. The Trial of Allegiance Country pack is the result of their efforts, showcasing three major focus trees for Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Furthermore, it introduces additional content for both old and new tags in South America. If you haven't seen our announcement trailer, be sure to watch it below!

Before I pass the mic to our Content Designer leading the development for Brazil, I also want to let you know that as part of our push for more HOI content, the team is also working on another big and exciting project that will be dropping later this year. So stay tuned, and as always happy map painting!

Intro

Hello there! AveeBee here to introduce you all to the work we’ve been doing in South America, kicking things off with a deep dive into historical Brazil! Some of you are likely very familiar with the history of the nation during this time period (we see you Brazil players!), but there’s likely a lot more of you that aren’t quite as familiar with this area of history beyond smoking snakes and the Brazilian Expeditionary force. So, I’m going to try and give a brief overview of the nation prior to 1936 and how that is represented in game, before moving into the narrower chapters of historical events from the establishment of Estado Novo, the Vargas era and Brazil’s eventual participation in World War II alongside the allies.

Context Pre-1936

After the fall of the Brazilian Empire and its reconstruction as a republic, oligarchs from the agricultural industry dominated the nation's economic and political life. This came to an abrupt end in 1930 when Getúlio Vargas led a revolution to overthrow the old republic. Following this, the nation attempted to establish a new republican system that would avoid the issues of its predecessor. However, the various forces that backed Vargas ultimately created a constitution which satisfied none of them. In this power vacuum, Vargas dominated the politics of the nation in his role as president.

Amidst this political turmoil, the communist party and their allies orchestrated an attempted revolution of their own in late 1935. Although this revolution was ultimately crushed by forces loyal to the government, the ramifications of it were still being felt in 1936 as the establishment prepared to sentence and punish the leaders of the movement. Furthermore, the fear of communist infiltration of society would give politicians and the military a justification for their more authoritarian policies in years to come.

Another internal problem that had plagued Brazil for decades was the issue of separatism. Many of the constituent states of the republic had at one time or another attempted to secede or at the very least had sizable separatist movements. Many of these movements had grown from a sense of being neglected by the federal government. A related issue at the time was that of the Cangaço; bandits who operated in the North East of Brazil. Although violent in their activities, they often gained support among the poor for their resistance and attacks against the wealthy in the region.

On the economic side,