The same Great Depression that had ushered Vargas into power also emboldened calls for social reforms. With the challenges of the Paulista Revolt out of the way, and the looming mass-mobilization of a potential new enemy— the urban proletariat—Vargas grew more concerned with imposing a paternalistic tutelage over the working class, functioning to both control them and co-opt them. Vargas' backers in both urban and rural Brazil would begin to view labor, larger and better organized than directly after the First World War, as an ominous threat.