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Brazilian Generals, 1822-1865: A Statistical Study of Their Careers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Michael C. McBeth
Michael C. McBeth*
Affiliation:
Redmond, Washington
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Extract

Luiz da França Pinto Garcez, a representative nineteenth-century Brazilian general, was born in Lisbon in 1799, the son of General Luiz Paulino de Oliveira Pinto da França. His family migrated to Brazil in 1808 with João VI and in September, 1811 at the age of twelve, young Luiz joined the Bahia light infantry legion as a cadet, a position open to him because of his father's military rank. After obtaining a transfer to the First Cavalry Regiment in Rio de Janeiro in 1813, he received permission to enroll at the Royal Military Academy. His studies were interrupted four years later when he joined the government force sent to crush the 1817 Pernambuco revolt. For his services in that campaign, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant and, upon return to the imperial capital in 1819, he learned of his appointment as adjutant to the Inspector General of Cavalry and light Infantry in Bahia with the rank of captain.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , October 1987 , pp. 125 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1987

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References

1 Total Army and Officer Corps Size and Number of Generals (by year)

* actual effective strength

# theoretical strength on paper

Sources: Anais da Camara, June 10, 1829; Burns, E. Bradford, A History of Brazil (New York, 1970), p. 202;Google Scholar and Val, Nilo, Formação do exército brasileiro e sua evolução no sécalo XIX (Rio de Janeiro, n.d.), p. 652.Google Scholar

2 Emory Upton, The Armies of Asia and Europe (New York, 1878), pp. 146, 191, 250. Upton’s figures show that officers composed 4% of the British Army in the mid-nineteenth century, 4.8% in the Prussian Army and 3.5% in the Russian Army for that period. Curtiss, John S., The Russian Army under Nicholas I (Durham, 1965), p. 107,Google Scholar states that 4.8% of the Russian Army was in the officer corps in 1826.

3 Payne, Stanley, Politics and the Military in Modern Spain (Stanford, 1967), p. 8.Google Scholar

4 Miller, General William, Memoirs of General William Miller in the Service of the Republic of Peru (London, 1829), 2, 432.Google Scholar

5 Da Silva, Alfredo Pretextate Maciel, Os Generais do exército brasileiro desde 1822 a 1889 (Rio de Janeiro, 1940), 2 Vols.;Google Scholar and Lago, Laurenio, Brigadeiros e generáis de D. João VI e D. Pedro I no Brasil, dados biográficos 1808–1831 (Rio de Janeiro, 1938).Google Scholar Volume one of Pretextate deals with the seventy-five men who held the rank of field marshal and above during the First Empire; Volume two covers the fifty-seven men who made general between 1831 and 1865. The Lago volume contains both brigadiers and higher generals during the Joanine and the First Empire. Of the two hundred discussed in Lago’s work, I have reduced the figure to 107 because many died or retired before 1822 or returned to Portugal at independence. Although the Pretextate and Lago works do overlap a great deal for the First Empire period, Lago does contain thirty-two brigadiers not mentioned in Pretextate. Thus, I have taken the 132 case studies from Pretextate and added them to the thirty-two from Lago for a total of 164 cases.

6 The date of birth of only 120 of the generals was known and, consequently, whenever age at each rank or generation of birth is discussed, only 120 rather than 164 cases have been used.

7 Armitage, John, The History of Brazil, 1808–1831 (London, 1836), 1, 20.Google Scholar

8 The meaning of the known and unknown parentage must be raised here. When parents are known, does it mean they were more socially prominent than the unknown parents? Also, did known parentage (or social prominence) tend to speed one’s advancement in the army or are the parents only known for the more successful officers?

9 The Lima e Silva family—three generations.

10 “Extensive” campaign experience was defined as those known to have participated in three or more campaigns; those with “some” in one or two.