This paper aims to present Brazilian foreign policy thought in the Second Empire and in the First Republic. It is argued that Brazil's position in bilateral relations with great powers from 1845 to 1866 and in multilateral conferences from 1906 to 1907 is enunciated t hrough the particular/universal and civilization/barbarism antitheses. By means of the former, policymakers inscribed the country within the scope of an intra-European pattern of relationships, debating among themselves the limits international norms could impose to sovereign practices. By means of the latter antithesis, policymakers repudiated Brazil's inclusion in the group of countries subjected to an extra-European pattern of relationships. Instead, they affirmed an imperative of modernization of society by the state, aiming at avoiding the disregard for Brazilian territorial sovereignty and at legitimizing the country's insertion in the intra-European pattern.
Brazilian Foreign Policy; Second Empire; First Republic; Particular; Civilization