January 20, 2004
What Would the World Be Like...
In a recent article on the Brazzil website, Guy Burton sheds light on a little-known event in Brazilian history. It seems that in 1834, somebody presented a bill to the Brazilian legislature that would have, in effect, joined Brazil and the United States together as one national entity. The bill, as quoted by Burton, stated the following:
Art. 1 Brazil and the United States will be federated for the purpose of mutually defending themselves against foreign pretensions and will aid each other in the development of the internal wealth of both nations.
Art. 3. Each one of the nations shall be represented in the national assembly of the other.
Art. 4. The products of each nation shall be received in the other in the same manner as its own, free from all imposts.
Obviously this bill never went very far. The Mr. Burton notes that even if it had been passed in Brazil, it would have had to have been ratified in the US as well.
As somebody with strong ties to both countries, I cannot help but wonder how history would be different if something had actually come of this, and both Brazil and the US had ratified this treaty.
Below are some headlines we might have seen over the last two centuries:
1834 Brazil and US to Join
1840 Portuguese Replaces French and Spanish in US Schools
1860 Brazil Convinces US That They Can Free Slaves Without a Civil War
1871 Slaves Freed
1903 Santos Dumont, Wright Brothers Team Up To Invent Airplane
1915 Germany decides NOT to Attack US/Brazilian Shipping. War Averted
1920 Aging Wyatt Earp Faces Off With Lampião
1925 World Series Held In Rio
1929 Stock Market Crashes
1930 Getúlio Vargas Takes Oath of Office in Washington
1941 Japan Decides NOT to Bomb US/Brazilian Base at Pearl Harbor. War Averted
1962 Cuba Decides to Follow Brazil Example. Missile Crisis Averted
1964 Fidel Castro Elected To Congress
1969 Man Lands On Moon: Declares Ôxente! Tá Cheio De Poeira, Né?
1970 US Soccer Team, With Star Pelé, Wins World Cup
Posted by Andrew on January 20, 2004 3:36 PM.
Comments
Posted by: Daniel at January 20, 2004 6:50 PM
dude, it would be very weird if that law would have been ratified. But, if I was Americans would probably also know how to speak Portuguese and not just English. :-)
Posted by: Megan at January 20, 2004 11:22 PM
And you would be much better off for it!
Posted by: Andrew at January 21, 2004 9:12 AM
1969 Man Lands On Moon: Declares Ôxente! Tá Cheio De Poeira, Né?- and the First man on Moon would be from Bahia, hehehe
1920 Aging Wyatt Earp Faces Off With Lampião- I can resume how I feel about this in 8 letters: ROTFLMAO
1964 Fidel Castro Elected To Congress- what the?
1970 US Soccer Team, With Star Pelé, Wins World Cup- nothing to say...
"Nesta terra de Barrabás, frutos não há mais"- my brother
Posted by: Mr. Creysson at March 1, 2004 7:56 PM
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Uhuh...sure. :-)