¹ The literature on the professionalization of the Latin American military in the late nineteenth and twentieth century is extensive. One early study includes Johnson, John J., The Military and Society in Latin America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964)Google Scholar See also Nunn, Frederick M., Yesterday’s Soldiers: European Military Professionalism in South America, 1890–1940. (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1983);Google Scholar June, Hahner E., Civilian-Military Relations in Brazil, 1889–1898. (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1969);Google Scholar McCann, Frank D. Jr., “Origins of the ‘New Professionalism’ of the Brazilian Military” in Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 21 (1970), 505–522;Google Scholar Stepan, Alfred, The Military in Politics: Changing Patterns in Brazil. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971)Google Scholar and Markoff, John and Duncan Baretta, Silvio R., “Professional Ideology and Military Activism in Brazil: Critique of a Thesis of Alfred Stepan” in Comparative Politics, 17: 2 (1985), 175–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

² For the Brazilian model see Nunn, Frederick M., “Military Professionalism and Professional Militarism in Brazil, 1870–1970” in Journal of Latin American Studies, 4 (1972), 29–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The issue is also discussed in Frank D. McCann, Jr., “Origins of the ‘New Professionalism’…”.

³ See Burns, Bradford, A History of Brazil (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), pp. 178–180.Google Scholar

⁴ McCann, , “Origins of…”, p. 508.Google Scholar

⁵ In the 1760s an administrative reform of the Portuguese regular military was carried out which resulted in a merit system and professional training (rather than seniority) becoming the basis for promotion. In Brazil, local militia were under direct control of a colonel of a regular army unit and thus subjected to professional standards. These points are made by Kennedy, John N. in his excellent article, “Bahia Elites: 1750–1822,” in Hispanic American Historical Review (hereafter HAHR), 53, 3 (1973), 415–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Although elsewhere in Latin America colonial military reforms (especially the familiar Bourbon reforms) did not necessarily result in professionalized forces, the case of Cuba is distinctive since on that island, apparently, the creation of a local militia in cooperation with the elite society proved effective enough to allow regular forces to leave Cuba on other missions. Cf. Kuethe, Allan J., “The Development of the Cuban Military as a Sociopolitical Elite, 1763–83,” HAHR, 61, 4, 1981, pp. 695–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ I have discussed the role of the military engineers in the opening of the Brazilian backlands in my book New Towns for Colonial Brazil. Dellplain Latin American Studies, 2, University Microfilms, Inc. for the Department of Geography, Syracuse University, 1979. For a discussion of some of the early engineers see Smith, Robert C., “Jesuit Buildings in Brazil” in Art Bulletin, (30, 3) (1948), 207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cf. appendix 1 “Portuguese Military Engineers in Brazil.” See also Silva-Negra, Clemente Maria da, “Francisco de Frias da Mesquita, Engenheiro-mor do Brasil” in Revista do Serviço do Patrimònio Histórico e Artístico Nacional 9 (1945), 9–84.Google Scholar

⁷ It was not until the eighteenth century that the definitive reason for fortification was stated. Philippe Maigret pointed out in his 1727 treatise on fortresses that proper fortified defenses enabled smaller forces to hold their own against forces that were larger and consequently stronger. The significance for the small nation of Portugal was obvious. See Duffy, Christopher, Fire and Stone: The Science of Fortress Warfare 1660–1860 (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1975), p. 19.Google Scholar

⁸ Castramentation is discussed in the classic work by Mumford, Lewis, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations and Its Prospects (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World), 1961, p. 207.Google Scholar The Roman system expanded to civilian settlements would have a profound impact on the Spanish for whom it formed the basis of the town building laws for the New World. Cf. Stanislawski, Dan, “Early Spanish Town Planning in the New World,” Geographical Review, 37: 1 1947, 94–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹ Pimental, Luis Serrâo, “Tratado da Castramentaçâo ou alojamento dos exercitos,” 1650(?).Google Scholar This book is manuscript No. 1648 of the Biblioteca Nacional of Lisbon.

¹⁰ Cortesão, Jaime, Alexandre de Gusmão e o Tratado de Madrid, (Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Rio Branco, 1951), Part I, pp. 320–321.Google Scholar Azevedo Fortes, Manuel de outlined his profession in O Engenheiro Português, 2 vols., Lisbon: 1728–1729.Google Scholar

¹¹ I have drawn upon the following sources for this discussion of military academies: Smith, “Jesuit Buildings…”; De Lyra Tavares, General Aurélio, A Engenheria militar Portugesa na construção do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Secção de Publicações do Estado-Maior do Exército, 1965);Google Scholar Pirassinunga, Adailton Sampaio, O Ensino militar no Brasil: Período colonial (Rio de Janeiro: Biblioteca do Exército 1958);Google Scholar Magalhães Sepúlveda, Cristovão Ayres, Història orgánica e política do Exército Portugûes, 5, (Lisbon: Imprensa nacional, 1910);Google Scholar and de Sousa Viterbo, Francisco Marques, Expedições Científicos-Militares enviadas ao Brasil, 2, (Lisbon: Ediçôes Panorama, 1964).Google Scholar Military academies were not only begun in Brazil but also extended within Portugal to Alentejo, Beira and Minho as well as Goa and Angola. Cf. Smith, , “Jesuit Buildings…”, p. 209.Google Scholar The exact number of engineers who worked in Brazil is difficult to determine because of differing estimates by the leading sources. Aurelio de Lyra Tavares, op cit., lists at least two-hundred thirty-eight engineers who served in Brazil over the course of the colonial period; cf. his appendix, “Engenheiros que Portugal destacou para o Brasil no período colonial”, pp. 105–179. Robert Smith’s figure for the same time period is a more conservative estimate of “over a hundred Portuguese officers”; cf. “Jesuit Buildings…”, p. 208. de Sousa Viterbo’s, Francisco Marques Diccionário histórico e documental dos architectos, engenheiros e constructores portuguezes ou a serviço de Portugal, 3 vols., Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1922,Google Scholar contains numerous entries of individuals not cited by Aurelio de Lyra Tavares. Moreover, it is unclear from both sources whether the individuals who received training in Brazil were necessarily born there. What is clear from both listings, however, is that several dozen engineers who worked for the Portuguese in Brazil in the eighteenth century came from Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere.

¹² Pirrassinunga, , O Ensino militar…, p. 4.Google Scholar

¹³ Ibid., p. 13. Smith, , “Jesuit Buildings …”, p. 209 Google Scholar suggests that the Bahia aula is first mentioned in a document confirming the appointment of Antonio Rodrigues Ribeiro not only as sargento-mor engenheiro of the city, but as instructor in the Aula, in addition.

¹⁴ Smith, “Jesuit Buildings…”. In 1700, Antônio Rodrigues Ribeiro was appointed sargento-mor engenheiro of the city and made responsible for teaching his profession.

¹⁵ Ibid., p. 208. See also Malheiro do Vale, Contra-Almirante A.J., ed., Nau de Pedra (Lisbon: Ediçâo da Revista da Armada, 1988).Google Scholar

¹⁶ Tavares, Lyra, A Engenharia militar…, p. 41.Google Scholar

¹⁷ A very early thesis presented to Pimentel is reproduced in part in Ibid., pp. 47–48. The uniforms are illustrated in the alphabetical index of engineers in this same text. This recommendation is contained in “Estatutos da Real Academia de Artilharia, Fortificação e Desenho da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro,” December 17, 1792, signed Conde de Resende. Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (hereafter cited as BNRJ), 1–32–13–27. See Delson, op cit., p. 157.

¹⁸ Cf. Pirassinunga, , O Ensino militar… p. 21–22.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Duffy, Christopher, Fire and Stone…, p. 139.Google Scholar

²⁰ Ibid., pp. 78–79.

²¹ Vauban is discussed in Ibid., pp. 11–12, 47–48 et passim. Vaubanesque fortresses are seen in São José de Macapá, Amapá, the fortress of Iguatemy which resembles Vauban’s Neuf-Brisach, and the basic outlines of the defense works of Principe do Beira (although the gate is more like Bellidor’s models, see above) on the Guaporé River in Mato Grosso. See also Croix, Horst de la, Military Considerations in City Planning: Fortifications (New York: George Braziller, 1972)Google Scholar for illustrations of Vauban’s work in Europe.

²² Antônio Carlos Andrada e Silva published Tratado do melhoramento da navegação por canaes in Lisbon: Officina da Casa Litteraria do arco de Cego, 1800. Fulton’s, book, A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation: Exhibiting the numerous advantages to be derived from small canals was published in (London: I. and J. Taylor, 1796)Google Scholar

²³ Letter of Manuel Cardoso de Saldanha to da Costa, Tomé J., Bahia, , July 19, 1759, in Inventário dos Documentos Relativos ao Brasil existentes no archivo de marinha e ultramar, Annaes da Biblioteca Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (hereafter cited as Annaes), vol. 31, 1913, p. 353.Google Scholar The famous José Antônio Caldas was appointed his successor as the Director of the Military School (aula) of Fortification and Geometry of Bahia. Cf. Lyra Tavares, Aurélio de, A Engenharia militar…, p. 154,Google Scholar and appendix 2 :“José Antônio Caldas” in Smith, “Jesuit Buildings…”

²⁴ The recommendation for Barreto's promotion to engineer of Bahia is contained in Sousa Viterbo, Diccionário histórico…, vol. I, no. 62.

²⁵ There are many works which consider the extension of Portuguese boundaries well beyond the initial grant of the 1494 Treaty of Tordesilhas. Among the best treatments are David Davidson’s dissertation, “Rivers and Empire: The Madeira Route and the Incorporation of the Brazilian Far West, 1737–1808.” Yale University, 1970 and Filho, Virgílio Corrêa, História de Mato Grosso (Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, 1969).Google Scholar See also Delson, New Towns…

²⁶ Engineers in the Rio academy learned not only to plot the angles of artillery fire but also how to use the cordel for surveying purposes. This data is contained in the instruction manual prepared by the director of the Rio academy of fortification and engineering, Pinto Alpoim, José Fernando, Exame de artilheiros que comprehende arithmetica, geometria e artilharia (Lisbon: 1744).Google Scholar

²⁷ Wilford, John Noble, The Mapmakers: the story of the great pioneers in cartography-from antiquity to the space age (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981) p. 97.Google Scholar See also discussion in Guye, Samuel and Michel, Henri, Time and Space: measuring instruments from the 15th to the 19th century (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971) pp. 270–283.Google Scholar A most interesting study of contemporaneous surveying techniques in the Americas is provided in Higman, Barry W., Jamaica Surveyed: plantation maps and plans of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Kingston, Jamaica: Institute of Jamaica Publications Limited, 1988).Google Scholar

²⁸ As cited in Lyra Tavares, op cit., pp. 38–39. The director arrived in Rio de Janeiro in September 1774.

²⁹ These illustrations are located in the Oliveira Lima Library of Catholic University, Washington D.C. An early discussion of the illustrations is found in Robert Smith, C., “Requena and the Japura: Some eighteenth-century watercolors of the Amazon and other rivers” in The Americas, 3 1 1946 31–65.Google Scholar

³⁰ Smith, op cit., recounts Requena’s concern with the lack of qualified Spanish “astronomos,” pp. 36 (fn.14) and 39. The proficiency of the Portuguese in astronomical navigation at sea as early as the fifteenth century is discussed in Albuquerque, Luis de, Astronomical Navigation, Lisbon: Comissão nacional para as Comemoraçães dos descobrimentos Portugueses, 1988.Google Scholar

³¹ Mumford, , The City in History…, p. 387.Google Scholar

³² Delson, , New Towns…, pp. 77–83.Google Scholar

³³ Silva Pontes’ career is discussed in Viterbo, Sousa, Diccionário…, 3: 933.Google Scholar Like other commissioned officers of the regular army he received his patent from the King. For a discussion of the different military units in colonial Brazil, i.e., the line (paid) army, the militia and the ordenanças (reserves, although at some points this term is confusingly synonymous with the militia) see Hayes, Robert A., “The Formation of the Brazilian Army and the Military Class Mystique, 1500–1853,” in Keith, Henry H. and Hayes, Robert A., Perspectives on Armed Politics in Brazil (Tempe, AZ: Center for Latin American Studies, Arizona State University, 1976).Google Scholar See also Sodré, Nelson Werneck, História Militar do Brasil, (Rio de Janeiro: Editôra Civilização Brasileira, 1965)Google Scholar and General Aurélio de Tavares, Lyra, Nosso Exército: Essa Grande Escola (Rio de Janeiro: Biblioteca do Exercito Editôra, 1985).Google Scholar

³⁴ In New Towns for Colonial Brazil, I explore the rationale behind the town planning schemes of the eighteenth century. São José de Macapá is discussed on pages 103–107.

³⁵ The desire to create towns which appeared polished is best expressed by Governor Luís da Cunha Meneses of Goiás who in 1778 ordered the realignment of the provincial capital of Vila Boa so that it might share the “system practiced in all the most polished nations of Europe.” Letter of Governor Luís da Cunha Menezes to Ouvidor Antonio José Cabrai de Almeyda, Vila Boa, December 28, 1778. BNRJ, IV–13–10, Document 17. In this instance, the armador (surveyor) arrived with a master plan of platted streets and uniform façades; cf. Delson, , New Towns…, p. 149–150.Google Scholar I have estimated (Delson, op cit., p. 112) that between 1750 and 1777 at least thirty-five towns and villages were laid out (usually by engineers) according to this formulaic approach. Thus the military engineers who did the drafting (if not the actual surveying) were imposing their regulated views on the Brazilian interior.

³⁶ See footnote 23.

³⁷ The sad fate of sargento-mor engenheiro Tomás Rodrigues da Costa is recounted in the letter of Tomé Joaquim da Costa to Manuel Bernardo de Mello de Castro, Pará, January 30, 1760. Annaes da Bibliotheca e Archivo Público do Pará, Segunda Serie, 1759–1761, 8, 1913, pp. 125–130.

³⁸ Letter of Brigadier José Custódio de Sá e Faria to Captain-General Martim Lopes Lobo de Saldanha, São Paulo, 22 February, 1776. Arquivo Histórico de Itamaratí, Lata 267, Maço 6, Pasta 17.

³⁹ By the end of the eighteenth century, the Corps of Engineers contained eighty-six officers: nine Colonels, eleven Lieutenant-Colonels; twenty-one Majors, twenty-one Captains, eleven First-Lieutenants and fifteen Second-Lieutenants. Cf. General Tavares, Aurelio de Lyra, A Engenharia militar…, p. 53.Google Scholar