Brazilian Army
The Brazilian Army is the branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible, externally, for defending the country in eminently terrestrial operations and, internally, for guaranteeing law, order and the constitutional branches, subordinating itself, in the Federal Government's structure, to the Ministry of Defense, alongside the Brazilian Navy and Air Force. The Military Police and Military Firefighters Corps are legally designated as reserve and auxiliary forces to the army. Its operational arm is called Land Force. It is the largest army in South America and the largest branch of the Armed Forces of Brazil.
Emerging from the defense forces of the Portuguese Empire in Colonial Brazil as the Imperial Brazilian Army, its two main conventional warfare experiences were the Paraguayan War and the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, and its traditional rival in planning, until the 1990s, was Argentina, but the army also has many peacekeeping operations abroad and internal operations in Brazil. The Brazilian Army was directly responsible for the Proclamation of the Republic and gradually increased its capacity for political action, culminating in the military dictatorship of 1964–1985. Throughout Brazilian history, it safeguarded central authority against separatism and regionalism, intervened where unresolved social issues became violent and filled gaps left by other State institutions.
Changes in military doctrine, personnel, organization and equipment mark the history of the army, with the current phase, since 2010, known as the Army Transformation Process. Its presence strategy extends it throughout Brazil's territory, and the institution considers itself the only guarantee of Brazilianness in the most distant regions of the country. There are specialized forces for different terrains and rapid deployment forces. The armored and mechanized forces, concentrated in Southern Brazil, are the most numerous on the continent, but include many vehicles nearing the end of their life cycle. The basic combined arms unit is the brigade.
Conventional military organizations train reservist corporals and privates through mandatory military service. There is a broad system of instruction, education and research, with the Military Academy of Agulhas Negras responsible for training the institution's leading elements: officers of infantry, cavalry, engineering, artillery and communications, the Quartermaster Service and the Ordnance Board. This system and the army's own health, housing and religious assistance services, are mechanisms through which it seeks to maintain its distinction from the rest of society.
Roles
The Brazilian Army is one of the three singular forces that make up the Brazilian Armed Forces, alongside the Brazilian Navy and the Air Force, all of which, according to article 142 of Brazil's constitution, act in the defense of the homeland and in guaranteeing constitutional powers and law and order, in addition to subsidiary attributions defined by complementary laws. The army forms the nation's land force, acting primarily in its external defense, but it also has a whole series of internal missions. Its declared objectives include deterring external aggression, gaining prominence on the international stage and contributing to "sustainable development and social peace".Historically, previous Brazilian constitutions defined both external and internal functions for the Armed Forces. A large workload is dedicated to the doctrine, planning, preparation and execution of law and order operations. The army has a long history of internal defense and state structuring, defending political regimes and addressing threats from unresolved social issues that have resulted in internal conflicts. Throughout Brazil's republican period, it is the most politically powerful of the three forces due to its past positions, its presence throughout the country's territory and its larger strength.
Covering the incompleteness of the national State, filling gaps that should have been satisfied by other institutions, is part of the army's culture. Through its "Presence Strategy", it occupies demographic voids, acting as a "colonizing army", whether through the military colonies it established in the 19th century or through current border posts, and sees itself as the only factor of Brazilianness in these remote regions of the country. Subsidiary roles are constant. Possibly at the expense of preparing for war, the army operates in the scientific-technological and socioeconomic fields, carries out engineering works, receives refugees and distributes water in Northeastern Brazil, among many other missions.
History
The Brazilian Army originates from the defense forces of the Portuguese Empire in Colonial Brazil. A Brazilian national army was designated by law for the first time in the Brazilian Empire's 1824 constitution, but land forces had already been fighting under the Brazilian flag since the proclamation of Independence in 1822. Command of these forces, until then dispersed among the viceroys and captain-generals of the captaincies, was unified under the Secretariat of State for War Affairs in 1822.Since 1994, the Brazilian Army has officially commemorated the First Battle of Guararapes, fought on 19 April 1648, as the moment in which the "seeds" of the institution were planted. There was still no "Brazilian nation" or Brazilian Army, however, and no current military organization in the country has institutional continuity with those that fought in 1648. Several current units, however, trace their history back to the colonial period, such as the Old Terço of Rio de Janeiro, from 1567, whose heir is the 1st Mechanized Infantry Battalion.
The highest authority in the army was the Adjutant General, whose body, the Adjutant General's Office, was created in 1857. The Adjutant General was always a military officer and served as an intermediary between the army and the Minister of War, whose position was a political one. When the office was abolished, the chiefs of the Army General Staff, created in 1899, and the Ministers of War began to compete for primacy of command. The Ministry of War won the dispute. In 1967, it was renamed Ministry of the Army, which was later transformed into the current Army Command, subordinate to the Ministry of Defense, in 1999.
19th century
First reign
The Brazilian War of Independence divided the military forces present in what is now Brazilian territory: some joined the Brazilian cause and others remained loyal to Portugal. The Brazilian victory in the war did not break the continuity with the military organization and doctrine of the Portuguese Army, whose characteristics would be visible in the Brazilian institution until the beginning of the 20th century. Portuguese professionals, landowners, European mercenaries and ordenanças came together in a heterogeneous army.The hierarchy had feudal aspects. Promotion criteria were poorly defined. Some officers progressed in their careers within the institution, but others, coming from the civilian elite and the aristocracy, moved between the ranks and politics. Officers did not serve far from their birthplaces, and it was only later that service rotation in the provinces emerged. Soldiers were generally obtained by impressment, although there were volunteers, including fugitive slaves. Until 1830, and again in 1851–1852, foreign mercenaries served in the ranks, and even staged a revolt of their own. Military service, stigmatized, was known as the "blood tax".
In December 1824, the nominal force numbered 30 thousand men of the 1st line and 40 thousand of the 2nd line. Lack of training and politicized recruitment limited the military capacity of the 2nd line. The 1st line was organized into regiments, battalions and some smaller units called "corps". In December 1824, it comprised three grenadier battalions, 28 battalions, seven cavalry regiments, five horse artillery corps and 12 field artillery corps. Five brigades briefly existed in the Court, but throughout the century the army did not maintain large formations in peacetime. Provincial "commanders of arms" were subordinated to local governments, whose presidents were in turn appointed by the Emperor. This organization would undergo numerous changes. The structure of the Secretariat of State for War Affairs was small, and there was no general management body for the army in peacetime.
The army was initially an instrument of emperor Pedro I's authority, closing the Constituent Assembly in 1823 and suppressing a separatist movement, the Confederation of the Equator. Its greatest difficulty was in the Cisplatine War, when it faced logistical obstacles and a high desertion rate.
Regency period
At the beginning of the regency period, the Liberal Party, predominant in politics, did not accept a large-scale professional military force, associating it, since previous years, with military losses in Cisplatina, mercenary revolts and the possibility of a coup. The 2nd line troops were replaced by the National Guard, which was considered civilian and was outside the jurisdiction of the Secretariat of War. The army did not have a monopoly on legitimate violence, which was shared with the National Guard and the justices of the peace, parish priests and police chiefs, who had authority over recruitment. Personnel were drastically reduced: in 1837, the entire force numbered just 6,320 men.Faced with the numerous rebellions of the period, the political elite realized that territorial fragmentation of the country was the greatest danger and could not be controlled with the National Guard alone. Thus began the reconstruction of the army, which put down the Cabanagem, Balaiada, Sabinada and Ragamuffin uprisings. It is for this reason that the Duke of Caxias, the patron of the army, is known as the "Peacemaker". The army's official history emphasizes its role in ensuring national integrity.