Vargas Era

The Vargas Era (Era Vargas) is the period in the history of Brazil between 1930 and 1945, when the country was under the leadership of Getúlio Dornelles Vargas.

The Brazilian Revolution of 1930 that marked the end of the Old Republic (with the deposition of President Washington Luís; the abrogation of the country's 1891 Constitution with a view to the establishment of a new constitutional order; the dissolution of the National Congress; Federal intervention in State governments and the alteration of the political landscape, with the suppression of the hegemony until then enjoyed by the oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais), signals the beginning of the Vargas Era (given that, upon the triumph of the Revolution, a provisional military junta ceded power to Vargas, recognized as the leader of the revolutionary movement).

The Vargas Era comprises three successive phases: the period of the Provisional Government (1930–1934), when Vargas governed by decree as Head of the Provisional Government; the period of the Constitution of 1934 (when, in the wake of the adoption of a new Constitution by the Constituent Assembly of 1933–34, Vargas – elected by the Constituent Assembly under the transitional provisions of the Constitution – governed as President, alongside a democratically elected Legislature); and the Estado Novo period (1937–1945), that begins when, in order to perpetuate his rule, Vargas imposes a new, authoritarian Constitution in a coup d'etát, and shuts down Congress, assuming dictatorial powers.

The deposition of Getúlio Vargas and his Estado Novo regime in 1945 and the subsequent redemocratization of the country with the adoption of a new Constitution in 1946 mark the end of the Vargas Era and the beginning of the period known as the Republic of 46.