After a period of broad expansion throughout much of the state, by the mid-twentieth century the old model of small rural property found itself on a seemingly dead-end path. The previous decades had been turbulent with the Vargas repression of foreigners and Brazil's entry into World War II against Germany. However, in the face of modernization, accelerated urbanization, mechanization of farming, and industrialization, an entire productive system that had been in place since the 19th century was entering a crisis. In Argemiro Brum's analysis,
