[lbg_audio3_html5 settings_id='1'] History of the Future - Volume 1 - the Brazilian Insurgency - SCRAP COMICS

1   the Brazilian Insurgency   

The 21st century was marked by a period of American economic expansion and an increase in American spheres of influence.  Sympathetic for the victims of the Boston Bombing, critics of America suspended their censure.  As a result, U.S. internal and foreign policy officials were able to pass controversial bills in Congress.  The pseudocolonization of Brazil and Peru was a result because American corporations began exploiting Latin American natural resources at an unprecedented rate.  As time passed further away from the terrorist attacks on American cities and military bases of the early 21st century, Americans and the world began to realize the atrocious corruption that had passed them by.   In the Southern Hemisphere autumn of 2051, Brazil would backlash against American maritime authority. 

            The Brazilian Insurgency of 2051 culminated in the death of 3.5 million people and over $870 billion in property damage.  The Brazilians initially dominated the battlefields with a new strategic method of aviated guerilla warfare.  The Americans were routed again and again and Brazilian victory seemed imminent.  However, the United States renewed the war effort under a new presidential administration.  President Richards managed to inspire an incredible amount of patriotism and mustered a voluntary army of 50 million troops.  With this, along with massive support from private American weapons producers, the United States was almost able to reclaim the upper hand in the War.  However, just as the tide began to turn in favor of the Americans the Brazilians signed agreements with the economic rival of the US, Japan.  In addition, a war was beginning to manifest itself in the other American pseudocolonies in the Middle Muslim World.  Just as their success on the battlefields of Brazil reached their heights, they realized that they had to refocus their energy.

            In the Treaty of Tokyo, the Brazilians obtained exactly what they had wanted: complete rights over Brazilian natural resources and a reorganization of American lumber and mining industries, and computer research and education facilities in an attempt to lessen American influence significantly.  The Americans, fearing an imminent war with the Japanese, decided to acquiesce to nearly all the requests of the Brazilian government.  Liberated from half a century of American interference the revolutionary government that was formed to organize the Brazilian Insurgency was left free to evolve.  The government was left noticeably undeveloped and malleable after the war.  As a result the population, rallied by philosophical icons, virtually turned the government on its head and formed an incredibly radical system that was inspired by American “big-thinkers” and other philosophical movements around the world.

 

Setting the Mood

 

 

The Brazilian Insurgency was the result of a long history of animosity between the U.S. and Latin America.  American foreign policy had been growing more and more exploitive since 2005.  This led to many negative effects on Latin American society, economy, and politics.  In addition, the movement of the “big thinkers” gave Brazilians an articulation of their grievances.  By the 2050s the melting pot of hostility began to overflow.

American Foreign Policy

The people of the United States were fervently patriotic.  After the suburbs of Boston became ground zero of a terrorist nuclear attack in 2018, the Americans supported their government almost blindly.  When politicians began to adjust to this vigor, suppressive policy followed.  Aside from suspensions of civil liberties to protect against terrorists within the US, the US government took measures to protect itself in foreign countries.   The US protected American businesses around the world and insured their dominance against the businesses of the host countries.

Educated labor was the primary resource tapped by US corporations.  Computers in the mid-21st century contained many bugs, especially in software.  A large workforce of computer programmers was required to debug the many technical difficulties.  Employment in the United States was too high.  More importantly, the American workforce of computer programmers was expensive.  The three computer business giants Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and Epson, probed Latin American countries for computer programmers.  They began to build universities to teach Latin Americans how to computer program.  The students were often asked to sign put into a contract, offering a free 5 year education, room, and board in exchange for 15 years of moderately pay paid computer programming work.  The result was much cheaper research and development.  Similar universities were built to produce technologically skilled labor in other sectors, such as engineering appliances.  The programs took off in the 2030s and 40s. This meant that the labor forces where arriving out of the university between 2035 and 2045.  Indigenous workers were grateful for the well-paying jobs, but at the same time sour that computer programmers of in the developed world were paid over double their average salary.

The United States found the natural resources of metals, lumber, and oil in Latin America useful to American industry.  In the 20th century, America had set up a system of corporate industry in Latin America. In 2005, the US passed a bill stating that American citizens in other countries would be protected by the US military to the same extent that US citizens within the US were.  Although this bill means little in and of itself, after its enactment the US drastically increased its interference in Latin America.

After this bill, the US government started to found “public works projects” in foreign countries, especially Brazil.  US corporations with the backing of the US government, such as A&E, began several “public works projects” to start oil drilling and mining operations.  The stated purpose of these projects was to help boost the teetering economies of Brazil and Peru, and provide jobs for the multitudes of out-of-work locals.  Also, when an American mining, lumber, or oil company was threatened by bankruptcy, the corporation would be funded by the American Government to help it survive.  In addition to industrial facilities, the US funded housing for the Americans who were contracted to these sites.  These actions helped the American economy more than the economies of the countries they were placed in.  Many of the jobs offered to the local workers were low paying, while most of the higher paying jobs were held by Americans.

The US began building embassies in every city in Colombia, Panama, Peru, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay.  These embassies were often heavily fortified with soldiers and sometimes even machine gun nests and artillery.  They acted as forts.  Their purpose was to protect American businessmen in the local industries when a strike-riot occurred.  The embassies were successful, and enabled businessmen to conduct business freely without having to worry about their personal safety.  This encouraged more American business in Latin America.

These policies were dubbed pseudocolonization.  The American corporate world supported by the American Government did what some critics called a “blatant exploitation of foreign resources.”  Over 50% of the produced capitol in Brazil went directly to American business.

 

Results

Although interventionist US policy spread into every continent, the potential of the Latin American economy was curtailed the most severely.  Many Latin American corporations were directly hindered by the US.  The small businesses that made up the Latin American economy were buckling under the pressure of the massive competition from corporate America.  The few large corporations that still existed were absorbed by American corporations. Social classes especially in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela drifted further and further apart.  The governments of these countries became puppets.  While American intervention had helped the US economy on its rise to its highest peak in history, the opposite was true for Latin America.

The US had no tolerance for terrorism, and any connections with terrorist groups meant America would start an investigation.  These investigations carried out by the CIA, often resulted in the temporary shut down of the accused businesses.  Latin America was no stranger to radical terrorist groups.  In Argentina, the boat manufacturer BDA, Los Botes De Argentina, was accused of selling large recreational boats to members of Al Qaeda.  BDA factories were shut down for intensive investigation.  A detective found an e-mail from an Al Qaeda operative.  Three high ranking employees of BDA were replaced by Americans and BDA was forced to reinvest 30% of its funds towards counter-terrorist efforts.  This and many similar interventions repressed the efficiency of Latin American business.

The expansion and protection of American businesses did not apply to small businesses in Latin America. Sixty percent of Brazilian manufactured goods came from small commercial organizations with no more than one or two factories.  In Peru, 75% came from such businesses.  With limited purchasing power, small organizations had trouble competing with the prices of American firms.  In addition to inherent efficiency advantages, when American organizations were losing in a competition against Latin American business the US government would send money to support the American corporation.  The result was an unwinnable economic war against American institutions.  Most Latin American companies merged with their defeaters or were bought out.

The disparity between social classes in Latin America was a growing issue.  In Argentina and Venezuela they were separated into small property owners and landed estate holders.  In Brazil and Peru the problem was a lot worse.  In Brazil not more than 300 people owned 95% of the wealth of all Brazil.  The living conditions of the poor were deplorable disastrous.  The average proletariat residence consisted of less than 10 square meters.  Wages reached all-time lows.  Although expanding American factories paid high wages relative to most, competition forced Latin American business to repress wages.  When revolts broke out from wage drops, American troops were often sent in to “restore order.”  The ditch between the rich and poor had become a wide valley.

In addition, native governments were made impotent in Latin America.    The US often sent confidential money to local governments to keep any objections to interventionist laws from being enacted.  The Brazilian government was the most influenced.  Brazilian politicians received 1.3 billion dollars a year from the US government.  The oppressed peoples of these countries could not turn to their governments.

The effects of pseudocolonization in Latin America had reached its peak by the 2040s.  American business in Brazil produced more capitol than all local business by 2046.  The UN in 2039, officially declared Brazil, Peru, and Chile 3rd world countries.  Latin America stooped into depression.  Peru had a 35% unemployment level.  The future of Latin America looked bleak.  Critics immediately blamed it on American intervention.  Despite the truth in this, America was not fully to blame.  Latin American society had had deeply divided social classes since before American intervention.  Latin America had failed to keep up with the globalization of trade and the modern industrial economy.  The US attempted to help bring Latin America into the modern economic system.  However, these attempts only helped Americans.  Notwithstanding America’s original intentions, bitterness became the new enemy of the US.

 

Ideology

The philosophy surrounding the crisis in Latin America was mixed.  After the Boston bombing of 2018, American ideology was largely consisted of patriotism.  Americans felt intense sympathy for the 3 million people who died in the explosion.  The conservation of “freedom and democracy” dominated the minds of Americans. In contrast, as time passed further away from the tragedy in Boston and controversial foreign policy legislation passed a group in the US criticized the US government.  This group was comparatively radical.  With radical wings feuding with conservative Americans, ideologies grew in contrast to each other.

One famous American enthusiast was Larry Howard:

“America needs to be protected against the evil of terrorism.  The future will not have further disasters in it.  We must tame the world.  We must organize with our neighbors.  We must support our government.  We must stand united.  We must not let cowardly persons prevail.  We have to ensure that no country will support the evil institution of terrorism.  When a country does, we must not put up with it…We must not spend our time fighting the government.  We must help it on our mission.  Only patriotism can save our future.  Together we can vanquish our arch enemies.”

Howard was exceptionally popular in the Mid-West and within the Democratist Party.  Larry Howard’s statement epitomizes the mentality of the nationalists.  Other thinkers such as Jacob Stewart, John Quebec, and Lisa Johnson led Americans in patriotism.  The fervor showed an unprecedented degree of pride during the Pseudocolonization Era.

In reaction, during the 2040s a group developed the opposite view.  Dubbing themselves the “Big Thinkers,” they gained popularity in many large American cities as well as Asia and Latin America.  This philosophical group professed that patriotism is dangerous.  The most important “Big Thinker” was Brig Rigby.  He began writing editorials in the Los Angeles Times, but his words fell on deaf ears and his success was limited.  He moved to Peru where he became slightly more successful until dying in 2050.  His words gained a larger impact during the Brazilian Insurgency a year after he died. In his work Think for Yourself, or Think for Me he states the following:

“In the course of history pride and nationalism have led to the downfall of many societies… The only reason a world power ever collapses is because it wallows in pride and stops criticizing itself.  The nation halts and looks back into its glory days.  Then the nation goes into a mode of conservation.  At this point progress is feared and the country begins a battle against downfall that cannot be won.  This phenomenon is apparent in the histories of Rome, China, the Asian Steps, Britain, and I fear in the United States of America.  I believe that our States may be too united to see the mistakes that will cannibalize the US and send it into violent ruin.” 

Rigby and others created a political mindset that attacked traditions of American society and they were later referred to as the pre-Evolutionists.  They offered a second viewpoint on US foreign policy that contrasted greatly from others.

The “Big Thinkers” gained popular support in the pseudocolonies while the nationalists gained support in America.  Using television and web-locals as medians, the two philosophies grew.  The differences led to great animosities between associated countries and a clash seemed imminent.  The “big thinkers” were to play a major role in the 2050s.

 

Scandal, Scandal, Revolution

 

Xingu Dam Affair

In 2050, controversy broiled over a flame called the Xingu Dam Affair.  In the interior of Brazil a dam was being built, contracted in 2023.  The dam was the largest and most ambitious construction project in history for that time.  It was organized and funded by the American Turbine Energy Corporation (ATEC) and multiple industrial organizations in Brazil.  Although the Xingu River itself was of normal size, the dam was assigned the task of taming the Amazon.  The unpredictable Amazon floods were to be regulated and exploited for energy by damming the Xingu River, a major tributary of the Amazon River.  The Dam was 4 kilometers wide and 100 meters high.  This gargantuan dam was the ultimate conquest of nature.

Near the completion of the dam in 2050, a scandal broke out.  American safety inspectors discovered connections between Brazilian businessmen in the dam project with the terrorist organization Shedaq.  Although the evidence was sketchy the US Congress sent in troops and put the project under marshal law until the investigation could be sorted out.  Twenty Brazilian high ranking businessmen were sent to American jails and replaced by American businessmen.  The dam’s administrators shifted to predominately Americans.  In addition, under new bosses, 60% of the engineers, and 20% of the construction workers of the dam were fired and replaced by imported American workers.  Brazilian employment was dramatically affected.

Brazil and the world were outraged.  Even the strong American ally, Germany, refused to sanction America’s actions.  Animosity swelled, and radicals in Brazil were set into a mass hysteria of passion and hatred.  With the switching of employment in the Xingu Dam Project, the estimated money flow changed from 60% towards Brazil to the mere scraps of 30%.  This was “the final insult!”

 

Radical Mobilization

Revolt was the reaction to this scandal.  In many cities, passionate philosophers and young radicals began to organize the people for revolt.  The first uprising actually occurred in Sechura, Peru.  The city had become a haven for radical philosophy and was outraged by the scandal in the neighboring country.  Armed with comparatively primitive weapons they attempted to overthrow the local American embassy but were thwarted by the heavily fortified American outpost and order was strictly returned to the city.  Similar outbreaks followed all around Brazil.

American revolt breakers were sent in and the crisis escalated with small skirmishes popping up in different parts of Brazil.  The crisis escalated and more and more casualties were reported.  On May 12, 2051, the government of Brazil officially joined the aggression on the side of the insurgents.  The US felt their power slipping and knew that more decisive action had to be taken.

This Means War

On May 20, a force of 1,500 quintuple-sonic jet fighters began their flight toward Brazil.  Facing a formidable force the Brazilians had little hope.  The young air force general, Fidel Porto (2022-2112), of Brazil was only 29, and although well trained, had no experience.  Porto instituted a new strategy in military history called aviated guerilla warfare.  While the American triple-sonic jets flew in formation toward Northern Brazil, the Brazilian jets started a slow process of single jet fighters to lead the American fighters toward their intended destination, the city of Sao Paulo.  Unexpectedly Brazilian jets arrived to the South and West of the American plane formation’s position, 3,000 kilometers North of Sao Paulo.  The entire Brazilian air force, consisting of half the engaged American fighters, started a desperate push of the American fighters to the coast to the east where the Brazilians had a massive arsenal of antiaircraft silos hidden in the City of Sao Mateus.  The plan worked, and the American quintuple-sonic jets faced an onslaught of surface-to-air missiles that had been turned around to aim inland.  Only five American jets escaped intact, while only 57 Brazilian jets were destroyed.

The explosive success of the Battle of Sao Mateus was decisive in gaining time and support for the insurgents.  In June Peru signed on with the Insurgency in support of Brazil.  Amphibious operations followed in attempts by the US to begin a massive land invasion while subduing Peru with Air strikes.  Although casualties were immense for the Brazilians the amphibious invasion failed.

On June 10, a full scale invasion by American forces was attempted on the mid Eastern coast of Brazil. As American troops approached they detected merchant vessels blocking their path.  The Brazilians had gathered 10,000 American commercial vessels in their docks and held them hostage, then moved them all to act as a passive blockade against the American naval forces.  In addition, the Brazilians mixed the commercial ships with dispersed military craft.  The American naval formation hesitated as they were bombarded from the cluster of merchant ships.  Unable to distinguish the different craft on violet-system radar, the American Navy retreated to avoid hitting the American commercial ships.  This circumvented battle was the last encounter before the United States declared all out war.

Military versus Political Warfare

 

 

After a series of surprising Brazilian victories the tide was about to turn.  President Richards of the US began a new campaign to win American support to put down the Brazilian Insurgency.  He established massive support and the US reclaimed the battlefield.  The political battlefield had a different outcome.  Brazil and Peru managed to gain support from other powers and the US was soon distracted by a new international issue.

Patriotism, with a Vengeance

In the first half of the war, the US was reluctant to exert full force against Brazil because of international and domestic disapproval from the Xingu Dam Scandal.  However, traditional patriotism in America was revived when news reports were released giving statistics for Bostonians who died belatedly from the Boston Bombing.  Over 1,000,000 deaths were added to the casualty statistics. These were mainly deaths from all caused by cancer from residual radiation from the blast in 2018.  In sympathy, nationalism grew again with the encouragement of the press in America and the war effort against the insurgency in Latin America was revived.  The US now descended on Brazil and Peru with full force.

The most prominent battle plan was called the Beta Plan.  The Beta Plan sent small units of infantry to slowly advance from the South to the North of Brazil.  The infantry invasion was unique in that a new type of infantryman was employed for the first time in a major war.  The American infantry carried bullet-proof shields, similar to those used in riot breaking, along with a modified version of the usual g40 assault rifle.  The rifle was designed with a ridge for mounting in a window slot in the shield.  This gun and shield setup provided for complete cover with complete firing capability.  This military unit was immensely successful, with an average kill ratio of 7 to 1.  For four months in 2052, from January 10 until April 23, American ground forces met with Brazilian militia and slowly advanced through small skirmish victories.  Carpet bombing strengthened the American advance.  It was during the Beta Plan that most of the casualties were incurred; 690,000 died in the thousands of infantry skirmishes and 2.3 million died in bombings.

On March 20, the US captured Sao Paulo. Similar battles erupted in Peru.  The US estimated that by December it could conquer every city in Brazil and Peru.

Political War

While the insurgents were losing the war in the battlefield they were signing treaties with other governments.  They established a new system of alliances to combat the US.

Brazil and Peru signed an agreement with America’s largest economic rival, Japan.  In hopes to undermine US commercial superiority, Japan signed the Kyoto Pact of 2052 on April 2 that stated that Japan would pay all expenses Brazil and Peru would incur in the insurgency with a no-interest loan.  This established a military and trade alliance that would snowball against the US.

After April 2, other countries joined the alliance.  Argentina, Chile, Cuba, China, and the Netherlands signed on to what became known as the Southern Coalition with Brazil, Peru, and Japan.  The balance of power had shifted to challenge the previously unchallenged alliance between Canada, the US, and the major European powers.  Although the US and its allies had a massively dominant military compared to the Southern Coalition, the latter had a significant economic edge.

Relief  [sigh]

US military troops continued to advance while the US government was deciding how to handle the new situation with the alliance systems.  The US occupied nearly all of Brazil and Peru when the alliance balance changed.  Although military victory in South America was clearly established, Americans were afraid of a war with Japan.  The Congress of the US government debated over whether to establish a peace and pull out of Brazil and Peru or risk war with Japan.  While this issue was being argued, an event in Western Asia decided for them.

The CAS (Coalition of Arab States, as referred to by the CIA) saw an opportunity to eliminate the pseudocolonial status of its member states.  On October 24, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq began to attack US embassies.  Because the attacks were by trained military and backed by the host nations, the US was forced to declare war.  Realizing it could not hold both hemispheres, the US was forced to acquiesce to the Southern Coalition on December 16, 2052 in the Treaty of Tokyo.

The insurgents got nearly everything they asked for.  The American government was stripped of its sovereignty over any Brazilian or Peruvian issue.  However, other countries were not mentioned.  Concerning the Xingu Dam, all decisions were now under the authority of the Brazilian government and wages were rearranged to insure that 70% of profits went to Brazilian citizens.  Also, all natural resources in Brazil were re-declared as property of the public of Brazil unless otherwise allocated.  The Treaty of Tokyo marked the beginning of a new phase of more limited American pseudocolonialism and the rebirth of Latin American independence.

Aftermath

After the Brazilian Insurgency was settled, new questions arose.  What was to become of the disestablished Brazilian government?  How would this effect the world?

Building Government

Peru

Peru underwent a coup which eliminated the American influenced government in the winter of 2051.  The resulting regime developed a radical approach which ensured anti-autocratic statecraft.

The office of president was replaced by a council of seven officials.  The philosopher Jesus Hernandez (2020-2110) stated that “the office of president is too much power for one man.  No man should have more power than any other man.  There should always be an equal.”  These executives were directly voted on by the people.  In addition, on all non-military affairs, the officials would discuss policy in an auditorium.  The officials would go on tour from city to city in different auditoriums discussing issues.  This was meant to limit secrecy and increase participation among voters.

The executive branch was accompanied by a legislative branch, a judicial branch and a public information branch.  The public information branch was created to inform the public of actions by the other branches.  Peruvians felt that the main fault of the US government was that it had become corrupt because of secrecy and an uninformed public.  However, the basic principles of the US government were respected and adopted.

 

Brazil

Before the Insurgency, the Brazilian government functioned at the whim of American doctrine and had devolved into an inconsequential republic that could not stand alone.  After the Brazilian government officially supported the insurgency in 2051, a new system was developed to fund and organize the war effort.  From a simple foundation, a Latin American nation created a new form of government.

The malleable government that Brazil developed during the insurgency had a unique structure.  Drafted by philosophical statesmen, such as Betriz Nunez (2015-2070), the existing government was split into a military, an economic, and a social branch to handle separate issues during the war.  All state funds came from a 20% income tax from all citizens and a 5% tariff on imports.  The creators of the system meant it as a quick solution and made it completely amendable.

A year after the Treaty of Tokyo, in 2053, public assemblies were held from January to late March to draft a final form of government.  After debates and testing, the final draft was instituted on March 30.  The main influences were Betriz Nunez, Diogo Fernam (2000-2095), and Gomez Goterrez (1997-2090), all of which were political theorists and social scientists.

The government was unique in stating a clear purpose for its existence and having every policy purely a means to reach the stated goal.  The purpose of the constituição was to give the most happiness, prosperity, and protection to the greatest number of citizens (in 2055, it was modified to only happiness).  The rest of the government was structured to systematically achieve this tese (literally translates to thesis).

As a result, a scientific approach was adopted.  It was theorized that the separation of powers principle created by Montesquieu and established by the US was important for limiting corruption by having the government keep itself in check.  From this principle, social scientists established this system by separating the funds of the different branches of government.  Therefore, each branch would collect separate taxes.  The military, economic, and social branches were created and separated giving Brazil 3 different governments.  Their only binding agreement was that of the central tese.

            This was a much stronger version of checks and balances.  Each government managed on its own but could not act without approval from the other branches.  Because the power in each government was physical and not just theoretical the security in the system was tight.  For example:  if the military government tried to oust the other governments the economic government could cut weapons production in factories and call in all loans from the military, while the social government could stop recruitment with a military strike.  Also, because each government had international recognition, Brazilian governments established alliances that would protect one branch from the other.

The tax scheme reflected this methodical thinking.  An exponential growth tax graph was adopted that included negative income (debt), meaning that persons in dept would be subsidized by the government. The governments established this system so that they could collect a high amount of revenue in addition to promoting the general welfare and class stability.  The military government, however, had a flat tax graph where everyone paid the same percentage.  This was to avoid the national defense only protecting its major source of income, the wealthy.

Also, direct or pure democracy had major influence.  Citizens could directly vote on many issues.  In addition most government officials, except in the military government, were voted upon.

The new governments set up a radical form of rule.  However, the philosophical influences toward a radical evolutionary government were not the complete controlling factor over the system.  The arrangement was created simply to be the most practical and efficient, based on historical and contemporary observations and speculations. This practicality and social scientific approach to rule and organization was to play a major role in the upcoming intellectual movement known as the Evolution.

International

The Brazilian Insurgency inspired other revolts around the world.  Industry was significantly liberated in Latin America.  The Japanese economy was boosted because of the war. On the other hand, the war effort and military defeat caused the US market to plummet.  A new system of alliances was established between the participants of the conflict.  The effects of the Brazilian Insurgency on the world were great.

The clash against American authority inspired several nations to rebel.  It is important to understand that the Brazilian Insurgency was not purely a Brazilian insurgency.  Peru joined Brazil’s struggle.  Two fifths of the Insurgency was fought within Peruvian borders.  In nearly every Latin American country there was a small revolt to overthrow a US embassy.  Argentina, Chile, and Cuba also helped and conducted their own small insurgencies. Columbia, however, was so repressed by US counter-drug activity that it was unable to revolt.  In Vietnam and South Korea there were rebellions to liberate workers in plantation factories where most American products were made.  The CAS officially made enemies with the US and waged a major war to free Middle East oil resources from US hands.  In many locations around the world the insurgency of Brazil inspired counter-American actions.

Due to these military uprisings, America was forced to slacken its hold in some of its pseudocolonies.  Latin America experienced the most benefit from this.  Although only Peru and Brazil were included in the Treaty of Tokyo, the US forced American businesses to loosen their spheres of influence in fear of more revolutions.  All of Latin America experienced and benefited from the withdrawal.  The Latin American economy was now able to flourish unhindered by stops from the US.  As a result, science, philosophy, and new ideas of statecraft were on an upward slope in Latin America.

The Japanese economy also experienced stimulation.  The stock market in Japan rose to heights unprecedented in Japanese history.  In 2055, the Japanese peaked for a short time as the richest nation in the world, beating out America for 2 months.

The American economy suffered.  Because of the loss of the war in Brazil, American stockholders lost faith in American business.  The stock market dropped and hundreds of businesses went bankrupt.  In addition, the cheap resources that America was able to acquire in Latin America were now significantly reduced and prices soared in nearly every industry.  On top of all that, the war in Brazil forced President Richards to raise taxes. The national surplus was drained and the national debt increased.  The resulting depression in the US nearly equaled that of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The war had separated the major powers.  Two major alliances were created by the time the war ended.  One was the Southern Coalition (Japan, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, China, and the Netherlands) and the other was the High Entente (US, Canada, Germany, Australia, France, England, Russia, Scandinavia, Finland, and Italy).  This was a new environment consisting of 2 power blocks that would control much of the subsequent history of the world.

 

 

The Brazilian Insurgency and its surrounding events marked a new era.  Before this curtailment of American pseudocolonial supremacy, the United States was an unchallenged imperial powerhouse.  America dominated the planet militarily and economically.  Other nations paled in comparison.  Latin America experienced great depression prior to 2051 due to a lack of industrialization.  The tightening grip of American intervention in this already agitated region resulted in umbrage and insurgency.

            The war showed that the US was not invincible.  It showed that other countries could rise against American hegemony.  With this new inspiration, American authority was no longer what it once was.  The American economy was no longer what it was.  The world economy was no longer what it had been.  American dominance was becoming past glory and Latin American prosperity was growing into future glory. America had reached and passed its peak and Brazil and Peru were passing their dip.   The Brazilian Insurgency clearly marks this monumental shift.

            The ideology of the insurgency era was to play a great role in the late 2000s.  The governments established by the insurgents greatly inspired intellectuality in statecraft.  New ideas were brought forth.  The testing of the new systems would greatly effect how people thought.  In addition, the view that the American system was the perfect system of government, as it was believed by many to be before 2051, was now looked at in a new light.  The prestige of the US was hampered, and from 2051 ideas contrary to American thought emerged.  The new intellectual climate was brewing a storm of inquiry.  The next stage of intellectual evolution was on the horizon.

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