ABSTRACT

The integration of colonial elites in key imperial institutions of the Atlantic empires was a sensitive subject for suspicious metropolitan governments. Madrid and London, for example, favoured European-born men to fill top-ranking positions in their overseas administration structures; thus provoking the discontent of the colonies leading members, who wanted preferential access to these positions. The same thing seems to have happened in Brazil, where, despite the identity ambiguities, the birthplace and a more general identification with the colony eventually became common features in the discourse of chroniclers, colonial administrators and subjects on both sides of the Atlantic. In this article we discuss the political importance of the geographical origin when selecting the men entrusted with the defence of the Portuguese Atlantic World. We will try to understand if that was something that could be directly discriminated against or if it tended to get diluted by the impersonal imperial bureaucracy or by other considerations (e.g. social status, martial experience and service to the monarchy). In addition to examining the officers recruitment criteria within what was essentially a negotiated empire, the text will also address the identity composition of the military contingents in Brazil, comparing them with the British and Spanish examples.

appointments; colonial elites; regular army