While the rest of the planet teetered on the brink of one of history’s most expansive wars, we were busy looking inwards. The Contestado War had been raging in Santa Catarina and Paraná since 1912, as settlers fought with landowners, who were backed by the military and police forces, for land rights. Meanwhile, European settlers arriving in recent years had brought with them ideas of anarchy and communism – something that was causing a significant headache for a political class made up of oligarchs and rural aristocracies.
So when the rest of the world entered into a state of war...
