By focusing mainly on the 1920s, this article aims at providing material for a better understanding of the transition of power in Brazil from Britain to the United States, a long-term process with lasting consequences for the country's international relations in the twentieth century. The massive US encroachment upon the Brazilian economy is examined in terms of direct investments (including the case of the automobile sector), foreign trade and finance. British influence, on the other hand, was shattered by the impact of the First World War and the trend towards decline in the interwar period could not be reversed. It is suggested that, if the great battle for supremacy in the 1930s opposed the United States and Germany, in the 1920s the major dispute in Brazil was the clash between Britain's conservative interests and the US challenge.
Brazil-United States; Brazil-Britain; Transition of Power; Interwar Period
