The Revolution of 1930 Brings Getulio Vargas to Power
A disputed election and a collapsing coffee economy end the Old Republic
Quick facts
- Leader
- Getulio Vargas, governor of Rio Grande do Sul
- Trigger
- Disputed 1930 election; collapse of coffee prices
- Effect
- Centralized power in the federal government
- First phase
- Provisional government, dictator 1930-34
What happened
The Great Depression gutted coffee prices, and the 1930 presidential election, seen by opponents as rigged for Sao Paulo's candidate, gave the losing coalition a cause. A revolt swept the country, and Getulio Dorneles Vargas, governor of Rio Grande do Sul, took national power. Brown University's Brazil: Five Centuries of Change records that the disintegration of the old political order gave rise to the triumph of Getulio Vargas in the Revolution of 1930, which instituted a swing towards centralization of power in the federal government. The Library of Congress country study notes that Vargas then ruled as dictator from 1930 to 1934 in a provisional government before a brief constitutional period.
Why it matters
The Revolution of 1930 ended the coffee oligarchy's monopoly on national power and began the fifteen-year Vargas era that reshaped the Brazilian state, centralizing authority, building industry, and creating labor laws that still frame Brazilian politics. It is the hinge between the rural, oligarchic Old Republic and the modern, centralized, industrializing Brazil that followed.
How we know
Vargas's rise in the Revolution of 1930 and the swing toward federal centralization are documented verbatim in Brown University's Brazil: Five Centuries of Change, with his rule as provisional dictator from 1930 confirmed in the Library of Congress country study.
Sources
- Brown University Library, Brazil: Five Centuries of Change. Chapter 5: Building to a Dictatorship and World War II · Reputable sourcelibrary.brown.edu · The domain "library.brown.edu" is on our Reputable source registry.
- Library of Congress, Country Studies (Federal Research Division). Brazil: The Vargas Era (Country Studies) · General sourcecountrystudies.us · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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