Pragmatic Nationalism Amidst Global Uncertainty

Leader of a successful insurrection in 1930, Getúlio Vargas remained in power until 1945, passing unscathed through the Great Depression, growing global polarization, and the Second World War. He governed as head of a provisional government (1930–1934), president indirectly elected by a Constituent Assembly (1934–1937), and, after a self-coup, dictator in a political system that closed the legislatures, banned political parties, and imposed intervenors in the states (1937–1945). Vargas survived the global upheaval of the 1930s and early 1940s by undergoing successive metamorphoses. At each stage, he incorporated ideas and experiences from diverse origins. Although he has frequently been classified as populist in retrospective analyses, Vargas showed no interest in creating organizations of mass mobilization. Almost a century after he came to power, scholars still struggle to clearly define Vargas’s ideological identity. This chapter analyzes Vargas’s pragmatic nationalism over the decade and a half of his first term in office, highlighting the influence of the positivist environment of his home state of Rio Grande do Sul, his relationship with the workers’ movement, and his pendulum foreign policy between Germany and the United States.