Quand La République Arrive Dans La Marine De Guerre Brésilienne: Quel Projet «modernisateur» Pour Les Équipements Et Pour Le Personnel? (1889-1910)

Abstract

Illes i Imperis-21 Quand la République arrive dans la Marine de guerre brésilienne When repuBliC arose for Brazil's iMperial navy: the prospeCts of «Modernization» of fleet, equipMent, and personnel for the navy in Brazil in the early deCades of the repuBliC Notwithstanding the numerous continuities, not least the preservation of the preceding social order virtually intact, régime change in Brazil, with the proclamation of the Republic (1889), made way for the conception and rethinking of a broad «modernizing» project for the country's institutions. The Navy, in a context of constant change (technological and human), had also to answer to the country's diplomatic demands and aspirations, especially those related to territorial expansion and regional leadership, before a global landscape characterized by late nineteenth-century Imperialism. On the one hand, this «modernization» was carried out by means of an ambitious naval enterprise, with the purchase of large state-of-the-art war vessels. On the other hand, the various Navy ministers who succeeded one another were kept constantly busy with the insufficient number of conscripts and the poor training of men in the Navy's lower hierarchy. Although still tied to the same imbalanced and stratified social structure as ever, the many sailor schools sprouting across the country were conceived of as a «modern» answer to the Navy's concerns at the time. The obstacles and contradictions faced domestically were, nonetheless, striking, as a close reading of the contemporary diplomatic and the Navy's own internal documents (reports, correspondence, publications, books, and so on) dated from the two first decades of the republican period reveals. The Sailor's Revolt of 1910 against the institution of corporal punishment and for the implementation of better working conditions in the Navy can be understood as part of this «modernizing» intent, highlighting not only the contradictions, but also the nature of the efforts that were, in fact, taken, and yet much too limited in scope.