Brazilian Civil War (Pax Brasiliana)

Brazilian Civil War
Democratic soldiers in combat, September 1938
Date 23 July 1938 - 08 August 1939 Location Brazil Result Democratic victory Promulgation of the 1941 Brazilian Constitution 1942 Brazilian General Election Beginning of the Brazilian Great Flight
Belligerents
New State Loyalists Brazilian Army Brazilian Air Force Brazilian Integralist Action State Militias	Democrats Brazilian Navy National League Brazilian Democratic Union Legitimist Cause Social Democratic Party Moderate Tenentistas	Socialists Brazilian Communist Party Brazilian Anti-Fascist Front National Liberator Alliance Brazilian Maximalist Union Communist Tenentistas
Commanders and leaders
Francisco Campos Pedro Góis Monteiro Filinto Müller Américo de Almeida Olímpio Mourão Filho Eurico Gaspar Dutra Newton Cavalcanti Eduardo Gomes Afrânio de Melo Franco Gustavo Barroso Plínio Salgado	Joaquim Francisco de Assis Brasil Armando Sales Borges de Medeiros Marcondes Salgado Vespasiano Martins Euclides Figueiredo Tertuliano Potiguara Isidoro Dias Lopes Juarez Távora Arlindo Veiga dos Santos Protógenes Guimarães João Cândido José Isaías de Noronha	Luís Carlos Prestes Agildo Barata Rodolfo Ghioldi Francisco Mangabeira Gregório Lourenço Bezerra Miguel Costa Maurício de Lacerda João Amazonas
Strength
Early 1939: 100,000 soldiers 4 ships 76 aircraft	Early 1939: 200,000 volunteers 7 Submarines 15 Ships 46 aircraft	Early 1939: 150,000 infantry 12 aircraft
Casualties and losses
40,000 killed in action 4 ships sunk 31 aircraft lost	80,000 killed in action 4 ships and 1 submarine sunk 35 aircraft lost	100,000 killed in action 9 aircraft lost

The Brazilian Civil War (Portuguese: Guerra Civil Brasileira), also known as the Brazilian Revolution (Revolução Brasileira in Portuguese), was a civil war fought in the Federal Republic of Brazil from July 1938 to August 1939. A multi-sided conflict, its main parties were the New State (Portuguese: Estado Novo), the National United Front (Portuguese: Frente Única Nacional), and the Socialist Union (Portuguese: União Socialista).

The New State was the government that had ruled Brazil since the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution, which was crushed by Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas. As a consequence of his success in controlling the rebellious opposition, Vargas began a period of brutal oppression against his opponents and critics, establishing a proto-fascist totalitarian state. However, in 1938 Vargas was assassinated by communist partisans, who were engaged in guerrilla warfare. A power struggle between Francisco Campos and Filinto Müller emerged. Campos was the author of the 1935 constitution, which granted unlimited authority to the president and abolished the separation of powers. Müller was the head of intelligence of the New State. Campos obtained the support of the Brazilian Integralist Action, and as result, the Congress appointed Francisco Campos as the Brazilian president in May 1938.

Francisco, known by his nickname Chico Ciência due to his intellect, was unable to control the opposition. The Navy and segments of the Brazilian Army were particularly suspicious of him. In June 1938, Campos issued a decree abolishing all states, adopting a unitary model of government. This enraged the state oligarchs, who then began opposing him. In 9 July 1938, on the anniversary of the Constitutionalist Revolution, an assassination attempt on opposition leader and retired officer, Juarez Távora, was the nail in the coffin of the New State. On 19 July, Gaucho oligarch and liberal politician Joaquim Francisco de Assis Brasil declared the formation of the National League, a coalition of illegal parties that operated underground. On 23 July the city hall of the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, was occupied by the National League in a move that is considered to be the beginning of the Brazilian Civil War.