Brazilian cavalry
The Brazilian cavalry is one of the branches that make up the Brazilian Army. It operates in armored vehicles and, like the infantry, has the role of directly confronting the enemy, but with distinct missions such as reconnaissance and vanguard. It is organized into regiments and squadrons, which are equivalent to the infantry's battalions and companies. Its main types are tank, mechanized, armored and guard. Its troops serve in vehicle crews or as fusiliers on board, who can also fight on foot.
Brazil has had cavalry on horseback since the colonial period, standing out in the South. It had different forms and origins, such as the social elite in the Milícias and Ordenanças, the Regular Regiment of Cavalry of Minas, with a police character, the peon militias on Brazil's southern borders and the Guarani and German Lancers. Officers from Rio Grande do Sul preferred the cavalry branch during the Empire of Brazil era and in the Military School of Realengo, among them the patron of the cavalry Manuel Luís Osório, who distinguished himself during the Paraguayan War. Material difficulties hampered the maintenance of horses during campaigns.
Horses became obsolete in the 20th century world wars, being replaced in industrialized countries by motorized, mechanized and armored forces. In Brazil the process was lengthy, and traditionalists argued that the country's economy and infrastructure were insufficient to sustain full mechanization. In the 50's and 60's mechanized forces coexisted with horses. Only during the 1970s reforms the country's arms industry had developed enough to retire horses. As in some other countries, the change did not extinguish the cavalry branch: its armored vehicles have capabilities and roles similar to those of horses, while the traditions of the cavalrymen remain in part inherited from the horseback period. Since then, its technological level depends on the acquisition of new generations of vehicles. As in neighboring countries, they are not of the latest generation.
Most of the corps are grouped into five brigades, four in the South and one in the Central-West region. Infantry brigades also have some cavalry forces, including specialized squadrons — parachute, airmobile and jungle squadrons. A division-based organization lasted from the 1921 reform until the 1970s, when it gave way to the current brigades, each with, in addition to cavalry, artillery, engineering and logistics forces. Four cavalry brigades are mechanized, with mechanized and armored regiments, and one is armored, with tank regiments and armored infantry battalions.
Basic concepts
Troops can be classified into infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineering and logistics. The first four are called armas, and the last one is divided into "cadres", "services" and other names. Cavalry and infantry are "base" branches, that is, they directly face the enemy, unlike support branches: artillery and engineering; its units are then called "maneuver" units. The cavalry has its own terminology for its ranks: squadrons and regiments. The former are equivalent to infantry companies and artillery batteries, and the latter to infantry battalions and artillery groups. So-called "mechanized" forces use wheeled armored vehicles, while "armored" forces use tracked armored vehicles.Cavalry traditionally goes to the front, flank or rear of the main force, with missions such as security, reconnaissance, connection, penetration, command recovery, withdrawal etc. Many armies still give the designation of cavalry to units with these responsibilities. Despite the technological difference between horses and armor, they share attributes such as mobility. The "shock" power, characteristic of the heavy cavalry, exists today in the tanks and is produced by the combination of mobility, armor and firepower. Added to these characteristics is a communications system capable of coordinating forces dispersed over great distances. In the Brazilian Army, the cavalry is the branch that most represents fire and movement together, and it is the one that operates the heavy means ahead of the offensives.
Image:Cavalaria_.jpg|thumb|Soldiers disembarking from an EE-11 UrutuThese vehicles' characteristics are also attributed to armored transports such as the Urutu. They carry "mechanized" and "armored" fusiliers that can fight on board the vehicle or disembarked, accompanying it on foot. The fusiliers are a kind of embarked infantry, just like the ancient dragoons, who fought on foot or on horseback. Analogies with horse-mobile cavalry are also made between tanks and cuirassiers and between lighter armored vehicles and lancers, uhlans and hussars.
The officers of each branch remain in it for the entire career. At the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras the differentiation occurs when, still as cadets, they are called at the beginning of the 2nd year in order of school classification to choose which branch they will follow, then enrolling in their respective course, such as the Cavalry Course. Those lowest ranked are "compulsed" to fill the remaining positions.
History
Horseback period
Colonial Brazil
The governors-general of the State of Brazil used cavalry forces against amerindians in Bahia and Espírito Santo in the mid-16th century, with the first combat recorded in Porto Grande, near Pirajá, Bahia, on 26 May 1555. The first decisive use was in the war against the Tupiniquins in 1558–1559. However, horses were scarce, expensive and the privilege of a few settlers. In the first two centuries the maintenance of cavalry units was difficult. The existing network of fortifications was much more useful for the defense of the territory than the cavalry.The post-Restoration Portuguese Empire had an army divided between Regular Corps, professional and paid, and two categories of territorial and unpaid character, the Auxiliary Corps/Milícias and the Irregular Corps/Ordenanças. Both spent most of their time in their civilian occupations and were divided into units of whites, pardos and freed slaves. Several militia cavalry companies fought the Dutch invasions of Brazil and a squadron participated in the first battle of Guararapes in 1648.
The Ordenanças of horsemen had a social elite character in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 18th century Minas Gerais, among the Cavalry Auxiliaries and Ordenanças on horseback, there were no units of pardos or freed slaves. Both gave priority to the richest and noblest men. Regular cavalry emerged in the early 18th century, at first as mounted infantry of a police character. In the gold cycle, several companies of dragoons were formed from 1719 onwards. They were consolidated in 1775 into the Regular Regiment of Cavalry of Minas, funded by the local power — the Captaincy of Minas Gerais itself — and ancestor of the Minas Gerais Military Police.
Throughout the colonial period, cavalry was recruited from different social strata. In colonial Rio Grande do Sul, a militarized, frontier and pastoral society, the cavalry militia was constituted with peons. It was commanded by its ranchers "like the contingents of feudal barons"; they were charismatic leaders who organized the force from their own lands. Mobilized only for war or to fight indigenous peoples, the troops did not follow orthodox military discipline, increasing and decreasing with desertions and admissions. The peons were well adapted to the terrain and riding; they improvised spears and lived in a society where the horse was of great importance. The militias were almost all cavalry, but as in the rest of the country, there was little regular cavalry. In the 18th century, a Dragoon and an Auxiliary regiment appeared in the captaincy. Another southern phenomenon was the recruitment of indigenous people as lancers; these indigenous people were forming nomad societies based on horses. With the transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil a regiment of Guarani lancers was created in the Missões region.
Then prince regent John of Portugal deemed cavalry necessary to ensure the country's military capabilities, and several regiments were created in the early 19th century. They were armed with 17mm and 19mm Tower or Brown Bess flintlock carbines, 19mm flintlock pistols, spears and sabres.
Empire of Brazil
The Empire of Brazil abandoned the denomination of "dragoons", reorganizing the forces into seven numbered cavalry regiments. These were considered light, but sometimes southern units were considered spearmen for using this weapon, such as the German Lancers. The spear, adopted in 1826, was a novelty inspired by European spearmen and gaucho militiamen. Until then, dragoons only used sabers and carbines and did not take advantage of the shock power of mounted charges. The doctrine in use was Beresford's: offensive role and mounted combat, without dismounting. During the reign of Pedro II, the weapons in use were fulminant carbines, Minié, of various brands and weights; sabres, Colt and Lefaucheux revolvers; Minié pommel pistols and spears.With their own opinions and experience, cavalrymen were held in low esteem by intellectuals in the capital. There was the saying: "as in the cavalry, fast and badly done". The current patron of the branch, marshal Manuel Luís Osório, served during this period. He was a gaucho and a typical rancher-commander. Gauchos predominated in the ranks and location of the regiments; they were excellent cavalrymen. The gaucho lancers, nicknamed "centaurs of the pampas", are emblematic of the wars in the south of the country. Horses were trained "wildly" and treated insensitively. Along with the poor quality of Portuguese saddles and food, they weakened over time and each soldier had to take two or three horses to campaign. They could be abandoned on the way. Horse theft was practiced both by Brazilian gauchos and by neighboring Argentines and Uruguayans. In the southern wars from 1825 to 1870, horses were of a low breed standard and climatic, environmental, sanitary, and logistical conditions were appalling. Added to the conditions of the terrain, in many cases cavalrymen fought on foot during the Paraguayan War. Even so, in suitable terrain they still attacked mounted, as in the large cavalry charges performed at the battle of Avay.
Image:Avaí Osório.jpg|thumb|Osório in the Battle of Avay
It was in the Paraguayan campaign that the gaucho lancers reached their peak, and at the same time, the use of spears went into decline. The regiments, in the French manner, had a squadron of dragoons with carbines and the rest of lancers. Under the command of the Duke of Caxias the proportion of lancers dropped from 3/4 to 2/3, but failures with new firearms in general led to more primitive tactics: in the battle of Avay general Osório was one of the last to defeat infantry squares in a "cold iron" charge, with only sabres and spears. After 1869, when command of the Imperial Brazilian Army was given to the Count of Eu, firearms were once again valued. Carbine squadrons were separated from lancers and grouped into ad hoc units. They had great success with the modern Spencer carbine. After the war the infantry lost the distinction between caçadores and fusileiros. The cavalry, following the experience and observing what happened in Europe, could have given equal preparation to shock action and dismounted combat, but this did not consolidate, returning to the mixed configuration.