The subject of this article is the dynamics of military recruitment in Imperial Brazil, particularly before the Paraguayan War. It is argued that, in the field of military service, the imperial State depended on indirect forms of governance, specially the liturgies of the local notables. The moral and material bases of honorary administration imposed many obstacles to governmental action, promoting the local translation of recruitment. The honorary administration and the orders of privilege circumscribed the limits and possibilities of recruitment in the Empire. The article describes the local operation of recruitment as a complex game combining strategies of the central authority, local notables and probable recruits immersed in protection networks.
Military recruitment; Brazilian Empire; Modern State; Honorary administration