Describe and discuss the world economy and the world wars as they affected the internal political ...

ANSWER:
Before the First World War, Brazil produced most of the world's coffee, cacao, and rubber. These resources were in the hands of a minority of the population. Likewise, Argentina's wealth was in the hands of large landowning farmers who raised cattle, sheep, and wheat. Both of these country's elites had little interest in industrialization and allowed outside interests (Great Britain, for example) to build and control the infrastructure. Both countries had small and outspoken middle classes. Beneath them was a large group of poor, in Argentina landless farmer laborers and factory workers, and in Brazil sharecroppers and plantation workers. The power elites were content to export agricultural goods and to import manufactured goods. However, competition from Asia crashed the rubber export business in 1912, and World War I stopped the flow of imports and lessened the flow of exports. Some immigrants started their own manufacturing of textiles and household goods. Great Britain sold off many of its holdings to pay for the war. This weakened the trading patterns of the landowning class. In Argentina, the middle class got the secret ballot and suffrage in 1916 and elected a liberal president. In Brazil, military officers often attempted coups. The wealthy landowners and the middle class shared power at the expense of the landless poor. The Depression hit these countries very hard. Agricultural exports fell by two-thirds, and authoritarian governments took power. Getulio Vargas of Brazil staged a coup and began industrialization in 1930. However, the distribution of wealth still remained so unequal that communist and fascist movements were unsatisfied. Vargas ended the pretext of democracy and made Brazil into a fascist state. Argentina likewise had a military coup in 1930. In 1943, another military coup was staged by Juan Pern. The coup leaders were corrupt and wanted nothing less than the conquest of South America. The defeat of the Nazis in Europe led to a loss of popularity for these governments. Pern, however, reinvented himself as a champion of the downtrodden urban workers, and his wife, Eva Pern, became the champion of women, children, and the poor. Juan Pern won the presidency in 1946 and created a popular dictatorship.