The Great Depression in Latin America: Brazil

The through-line

Brazil is the IB's Latin America case study, and Vargas is the third answer: the US got a New Deal, Canada got new parties, Brazil got a dictator.

Content overview

The IB asks students to pick one Latin American country for this part of Topic 12 and to name it in the introduction of the essay; this sequence picks Brazil. It runs on three presentations — "G.D. in Latin America" Parts I, II and III — moving from the Old Republic and the revolution of 1930, through Vargas taking and expanding power, to the economic and social policies of the Estado Novo. It opens on the Canada test still being written and closes on a Paper 3 comparison of FDR, Vargas and Mackenzie King, which is where the whole of Topic 12 has been heading.

How to use the lesson pages

• Seven lessons from a page labelled Day 0 to Day 6. The source's "Day 0" is a real meeting — the Canada test plus the first Brazil material — so it is Lesson 1 here and every later label shifts by one: source Day 1 is Lesson 2, Day 2 is Lesson 3, and so on through Day 6 as Lesson 7. Each page names its own source day label so you can find your place on the Weebly page.
• Each lesson offers a 90-minute block and a short period, matching the course's A/B block schedule. Only the block is timed.
• No timings anywhere in this source. Every minute on every page is an estimate, and each page says so. The one clock time on the page — "Test (10:35)" on Lesson 1 — is when the Canada test starts, not how long it runs.
• One objective and one essential question, repeated word for word across the whole sequence: "Identify the similarities and difference(s) between the Great Depression in Brazil v. the US and Canada" and "Why was Brazil affected by the Great Depression?" They frame the unit, not the individual day, so each page's blurb rather than its objective is what tells the lessons apart. The source's own wording drifts between "difference" and "differences" and each page keeps its own day's version.
• Two days have no title at all. The source's Day 4 and Day 5 headings read just "Day 4:" and "Day 5:" — Lessons 5 and 6 here carry descriptive titles written during conversion, and both pages say so. Renaming them to something you prefer is a one-line edit.
• Two days share a title. The source's Day 1 and Day 2 are both "Background, The Early Republic, the Election of 1930, and Vargas Overview", so Lessons 2 and 3 read as that title and "Pt. 2" — the convention used in Topic 12 Part 1. Lesson 3 is also the thinnest page in the unit: four lines on the source page, with no objective, no essential question and no header of its own.
• Lesson 2's source is a working draft and is kept as one. Its numbering runs Task #1, 2, 3, then a horizontal rule, then a second item numbered 2, then more rules and unnumbered items. The written order is preserved and the collision is described on the page rather than renumbered away; what the rules were meant to separate, the source does not say.
• Four things the source leaves unfinished, and they stay unfinished: a bare "Guiding Question" heading with nothing under it (Lesson 4), a bare "Possible Prompts" line with nothing under it (Lesson 6), the essay stem "TWE: Was Varges Suggess" — "To what extent was Vargas successful", abandoned mid-word (Lesson 4), and "Vargas Newspaper Articles", an assignment named on two days and linked on neither.
• Dates are almost entirely absent. Two IA deadlines and the two tests are announced only as "Friday", "Tomorrow" and "Next Class", never dated. The single firm date on the whole page is Lesson 7's "First Day Back from Holiday Break (1/6/25)" — which sits oddly beside a test document stamped 2024. Check the calendar rather than the page.
• The IB Internal Assessment runs alongside the history. Lesson 2 carries "Part 1 Rough Draft Due Friday" and Lesson 3 carries "IA Part 2 - Due Friday". Neither Friday is dated.
• Resources repeat heavily across consecutive days. The Part II and Part III presentations, the "13: Graphic Organizer", the "Vargas, Pro/Cons" assignment, the FDR/Vargas/King comparison chart and the "Practice Paper 3: Vargas v. FDR" closer each appear on two or three lessons in a row. Each page lists what its own day named, and notes the carryover.
• The Kahoot on Lesson 6 is a Quizizz. The source calls it a Kahoot; the link goes to quizizz.com. The page says so rather than picking one.
• No standards codes. This is an IB course; the page carries none, and the NC codes used elsewhere in this repo do not apply.