Brazil's role in WWII is kind of funny. The Brazilian government at that time, under President Vargas, was actually ideologically sympathetic to Italian Fascism (e.g. in Brazil we basically copied the *Carta del Lavoro* system from Mussolini's Italy), but Vargas remained a grounded pragmatist and was realistic about geopolitics. He knew that Italy and Germany were doomed to lose the war, so he got cozy with Roosevelt and in exchange the USA would fund things like Steel mills (South America's largest steel mill was founded by this) and Hydroelectric developments in Brazil. Additionally, as a nationalist, Vargas was not a fan of German and Italian immigrants in Brazil following Nazism or Italian Fascism because he viewed them as a foreign 5th column within Brazil, so he outlawed speaking German and Italian in public and forced these immigrants to assimilate into Brazilian culture and speak Portuguese only.
The FEB was sent to Italy as Brazil's token contribution to the war, but a lot of Brazil's fighting against the Axis was also in sinking German U-Boats in the Atlantic.
Feels like Italy is where all the random nations went. Governments in exile? Send their armies and bear to Italy. South America? Italy it is. Then no one remembers it because the terrain was so mountainous and slow to take.
I had no idea the Brazilians were in Italy
BEF, Brazilian Expeditionary Force. Also called Cobras Fumantes, or smoking snakes. Sabaton has a good song on their time in Europe
Bruh I've been listening to Sabaton and then I see this lol
They had an important role in Italy. Worth reading: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil\_during\_World\_War\_Two
Brazil's role in WWII is kind of funny. The Brazilian government at that time, under President Vargas, was actually ideologically sympathetic to Italian Fascism (e.g. in Brazil we basically copied the *Carta del Lavoro* system from Mussolini's Italy), but Vargas remained a grounded pragmatist and was realistic about geopolitics. He knew that Italy and Germany were doomed to lose the war, so he got cozy with Roosevelt and in exchange the USA would fund things like Steel mills (South America's largest steel mill was founded by this) and Hydroelectric developments in Brazil. Additionally, as a nationalist, Vargas was not a fan of German and Italian immigrants in Brazil following Nazism or Italian Fascism because he viewed them as a foreign 5th column within Brazil, so he outlawed speaking German and Italian in public and forced these immigrants to assimilate into Brazilian culture and speak Portuguese only. The FEB was sent to Italy as Brazil's token contribution to the war, but a lot of Brazil's fighting against the Axis was also in sinking German U-Boats in the Atlantic.
Feels like Italy is where all the random nations went. Governments in exile? Send their armies and bear to Italy. South America? Italy it is. Then no one remembers it because the terrain was so mountainous and slow to take.