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The Military and Society in Bahia, 1800–1821

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

F. W. O. Morton
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Extract

In recent years, the military institutions of societies both past and present have become an increasingly active field of study and research. Brazil, where the professional military play so commanding a role in the national life today, has received a substantial share of attention. But studies on the Brazilian, military have hitherto been principally concerned with the period since the fall of the Empire (1889). This is understandable.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , November 1975 , pp. 249 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

1 Luís, Monteiro da Costa ,Na Bahia Colonial: Apontamentos para História Militar da Cadade do Salvador (Salvador, n/d) p. 6.Google Scholar

2 The regulars totalled perhaps 2,000 all ranks in 1800; the free population is unlikely to have exceeded 200,000 in that year. See the letter of Marechal-de-Campo Corrêa de Mello to Governor D. Fernando José de Portugal of 14 May, 1800 in the Secão dos Manuscriptos of the Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (hereinafter cited as BN/SM) 1, 31, 30, 95. This compares with 6,150 regulars in all of far more populous New Spain in the same year. Lyle, McAllister, The “Fuero Militar” in New Spain (Gainesville, Florida, 1957), p. 98. By 1818, the Bahian regulars had a paper strength of 3,138.Google Scholar

3 See the petition of the Bahian militia colonels for recognition of their equality with the regular colonels in 1769 in BN/SM II, 33, 29, 48.

4 Caio, Prado Junior, Formacão do Brasil Contemporáneo (10th ed., Rio de Janeiro, 1970) p. 310.Google Scholar

5 Boxer, C. R., The Portuguese Seaborne Empire (London, 1969), p. 311.Google Scholar

6 See letter of Corrêa de Mello cited above (Note 2) in BN/SM I, 31, 30, 91; also Luís, dos Santos Vilhena, A Bahia no Século XVIII (3rd ed., 3 vols., Salvador, 1969), 1, 248.Google Scholar

7 Dundonald, , Earl of (Lord Cochrane), Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chile, Brazil and Greece (2 vols., London, 1859) 11, 13.Google Scholar

8 Compare the paylist of 1803 in BN/SM II, 33, 28, 10 with that in José, Antônio Caldas, Notkia Geral de Toda Esta Capitania da Bahia (facsimile of 1759 edition, Bahia, 1951), p. 464.Google Scholar On prices, see Kátia, de Queiros Mattoso, ‘Conjoncture et Societé au Bresil à la Fin du XVIIIe siècle: Prix et Salaires à vieille de la Révolution des Alfaiates Bahia 1798’ in Cahiers des Amériques Latines, 5 (1970), 33–53.Google Scholar

9 The analysis which follows rests on the Livros de Patentes for the regulars in the years under study in pastas 384, 386, 387, 389, 395–6, 399–400, 402 and 404 in the Documcntos Históricos of the Arquiuo Público da Bahia (hereinafter cited as APB.DH.) and in the section of Ordems Régias in the same place. Material has also been found in the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino at Lisbon and in the Secão dus Manuscritos of the Biblioteca Nacional at Rio. There were 336 individuals (other than military surgeons and chaplains) who are known to have served as officers at Bahia in the years 1800–21. While this figure is certainly not complete (e.g. an officer who served without promotion from 1800 to 1812 and then retired would probably be missed), it is probably something like 90% of the true total. 223 of these individuals can be classified into the five groups, leaving 113 whose previous place of service or rank are unknown.Google Scholar

10 On cadetship, see the carta régia of 27 February 1813 in APB.DH. Ordems Régias. pasta 115/124. Even natural sons of nobles were eligible: see APB.DH. Ordems Regias. pasta 106/132.

11 Palmer, R. R., The Age of Democratic Revolution (2 vols., Princeton, 1959), 1, 73–4.Google Scholar

12 Professor John, N. Kennedy, in ‘Bahian Elites 1750–1822’, Hispanic-American Historical Review, 53 (1972), 415–39, has stated that ‘no sons of landowners or merchants have yet been discovered in the service’ (p. 429). The present writer agrees with this so far as the merchants are concerned, but he identified not only sons of landowners but several important senhores de engenho among the professional officers.Google Scholar

13 The birthplaces of 40 officers can be known with certainty and those of 140 with some probability, principally from petitions from them or their relatives preserved at Bahia and Lisbon. Of these 180, 39 belong to the 113 officers who are not included in the five groups (above, note 9). There are thus 141 officers whose birthplaces and previous rank or place of service can be compared. Among the 36 who had served in Portugal the correlation is (not unexpectedly) very high, 35 having been born there; 20 out of the 25 who had served elsewhere in Brazil had been born there; and while the birthplaces of only one-half (83) of the officers in the three ‘Bahian’ groups are known, 80 of them had been born in Bahia.

14 BN/SM I, 31, 30, 91 APB.DH. Ordems Régias. pasta. 93/76.

15 Laurenço, Lago, Brigadeiros e Generais de Dom João VI e Dom Pedro I no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1941), p. 63.Google Scholar

16 APB.DH. Ordems Régias. pasta 94/72: Sousa, Coutinho to Fernando José de Portugal, D., 21 04 1801.Google Scholar

17 APB. Documentos jurídicos. Notas de Escritura da Capital. pasta 147/373.

18 APB.DH. Ordems Régias. pasta 111/244: Caldeira Brant to Arcos 26 Jan. 1811.

19 APB.DH. Ordems Régias. pasta 95/36, 723.

20 APB.DH. Inspetoria das Tropas. pastas 588–595.Google Scholar

21 Thales, de Azevedo, Povoamento da Cidade da Salvador pp. 224–226;Google ScholarJosé, da Silva Lisboa, ‘Carta a Domingos Vandelli’ in Anais da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janciro, 32 (1910), 505.Google Scholar

22 APB.DH. Capitães-Mores. pasta 417: Antônio José Camon de Souza e Eça to D. Fernando José de Portugal, 23 March 1800.Google Scholar

23 BN/SM II, 33, 32, 28: lists of deserters by Manuel Alexandrino Machado, 28 July 1827.

24 APB.DH. Inspetoria das Tropas. pasta 589: Caldeira Brant to Arcos, 23 Oct. 1810.Google ScholarCf., Thomas Lindley, Narrative of a Voyage to Brazil (London, 1805), p. 88.Google Scholar

25 Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino de Lisboa, Documentos Avulsos do Conselho Ultramarino, caixa 400 (Bahia): D. Antonio Miguel de Mello to Sousa Coutinho, 30 March 1797.

26 APB.DH. Inspetoria das Tropas. pasta 591: Caldeira Brant to Arcos, 12 Aug. 1813.Google Scholar

27 APB.DH. Inspetoria dat Tropas. pasta 588 (1810).Google Scholar

28 APB.DH. Ordems Régias. pasta 94/148: carta régia of 27 09 1787; pasta 106/223 Sousa Coutinho to Ponte, 24 November 1808; pasta 106/272 Linhares to Ponte, 24 Jan. 1809. Arquivo Hisrórico Ultramarino de Lisboa, Documentos Avulsos do Conseiho Ultramarino, caixa 398 (Bahia) cartas régias of 11 Aug. 1803 and 4 Nov. 1803.Google Scholar

29 Bras, do Amaral, História da Indepéndéncia na Bahia (Salvador, 1923) Pp. 11/12;Google ScholarInácio Accioli de Cerqueira e Silva, Memórias Histdóicas de Provincia da Bahia (2nd ed., ed. & ann. Bras do Amaral, Salvador, 1919–1940) 111, 270–274.Google Scholar

30 Anais do Arquivo Público da Bahia xxvii (1941) 126–142;Google ScholarBras, do Amaral, História, pp. 117, 125;Google ScholarAccioli, , Memórias, III, 293–332, 455–480, 488–519.Google Scholar

31 Archives du Minisrère des Affaires Extèrieures, Paris: Correspondence Commerciale/Brésil/Bahia vol. 1/334: Guincbaud to Minister, 21 Sept. 1823.

32 Accioli, , Memórias, IV, 147, 182–183.Google Scholar

33 Anais do Arquivo Público da Bahia xxix (1969) 161/xix (1931) 156–157.Google Scholar APB.DH. Presidente da Província: Governoás Câmaras pasta I.269.Google Scholar

34 Public Records Office, London: Foreign Office Archives, Brazil (F.O. 13), LXXXVIII, 72, Parkinson to Aston, 16 April, 1831.

35 Accioli, Memorias IV, 279–280, 283, 348; F.O. 13, LXXXVIII, 101, 106, 146, Parkinson to Aston 14 May, 27 May, and 2 Sept. 1831; Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro IG 115/112 Barros Paim to Lima e Silva 23 Nov. 1831.Google Scholar

36 The permanent police force which had been raised in 1832 supported the rising at the outset but deserted to the government side on 13 Nov. Its commander was a member of a sugar family and its pay differential over the military had been abolished by the rebels. Bras, do Amaral, História da Bahia do Império a República (Salvador, 1923), p. 135.Google Scholar

37 This analysis is based on the pre 1821 Livros de Patentes in the Bahia Archives, and on the trials of the insurgents in 1838–1840, printed in Anais do Arquiuo Público da Bahia, XXXIX (1939).

38 APB.DH. Presidente da Provincia: Militares Pessoal. pasta 3.777.Google Scholar

39 APB.DH. Inspetoria das Tropas. pasta 591 (1813). Other examples abound;Google Scholarcf., Palma to Vilanova, Portugal, 2 10 1818 in Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, IG 113/460.Google Scholar

40 APB.DH. Presidente da Provincia: Militares propostas. pasta 3.770; Militares Quarrel-General pa. 3.888.

41 McAllister, The ‘Fuero Militar’ in New Spain, p. 8.Google Scholar

42 APB.DII. Inspetoria das Tropas. pasta 588 (1810).Google Scholar

43 BN/SM II, 33, 34, 28: Table of Five Recôncavo Militia Regiments 1 Feb. 1802.

44 APB.DH. Presidente da Provincia: Militares Capitāes-Mores. pasta 3.798.

45 APB.DH. Patcntes. pasta 406; Anais do Arquivo público da Bahia xix (1931) 97–98; BN/SMI, I 4, 2, 26, nos. 87, 142.Google Scholar

46 APB.DH. Presidente da Provincia: Militares Capitāes-Mores. pasta 3.798.

47 Anais do Arqnivo Publico da Bahia XXXIX (1969) 206.Google Scholar

48 FO.13 vol. LXXXVIII, No. 72: Parkinson to Aston 16 April 1831.

49 Luís, Viana Filho, A Sabinada: A Repúlica Baiana de 1837 (Rio de Janciro, 1945), pp. 103–105.Google Scholar

50 Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro IJ1 707; Accioli, , Memórias, IV, 358–362.Google Scholar

51 There were more than 700 who had not done so in 1805: Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino de Lisboa: Conseiho Ultramarino, pasta 251/124, Carta régia of 5 Feb. 1805.