The Armed Forces and Industrialists in Modern Brazil

The Drive for Military Autonomy (1889-1954)

Bibliographic Data

ID2840259
AuthorsStanley E Hilton (corresponding author)
Year1982
Volume62
Issue4
Pages629
Publication date1982-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2514570
OpenAlexW4252283582
LanguageEN
Citations received17

EFENSE analysts in the late 1970s were increasingly impressed by a surprising phenomenon in the international arms sector: the emergence of Brazil as not only the leading manufacturer of war materiel in the Third World, but a significant exporter of hardware as well. Clearly Brazil is rapidly joining the big league producers ..., one observer aptly commented.' The creation of a complex, one of the striking offshoots of Brazil's remarkable economic development in recent times, was not accidental. Financial considerations naturally were instrumental in the drive for general industrial self-sufficiency that has been a major component of Brazilian national strategy for fifty years, but that drive, along with its complementary campaign for arms autonomy, has deep roots in elite perceptions of national needs and in Brazil's experiences with arms dependence during the turbulent first half of the century. The Old Republic (1889-1930) was an important period in the evolution of Brazil's military-industrial sector primarily because of the formation then of a body of elite opinion that advocated reduced dependence in matters of national security. The real take-off, however, came during the Getu'lio Vargas era (1930-54) when modernization of the armed forces became one of the government's priority goals. Sharing fully the preoccupation of the generals and admirals with Brazil's vulnerabilities in a lawless world, Vargas and his civilian counselors, as well as military leaders, were keenly aware of the critical importance of enhancing national capacity to meet the ominous demands of the era-and the official consensus was that effective military strength required an industrial base that was as independent as possible

Aeronautics · Autonomy · Economic growth · Economic history · Economics · Elite · Government (linguistics) · League · Modernization theory · National security · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Brazilian History and Foreign Policy · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · Engineering · Law

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