Italy Community

✅ What Did the Azorean Military Recruits for Brazil Consist of in the 18th Century?

During the period in which it remained under Portuguese rule, the "jewel of the Crown"—Brazil—lacked a systematic and permanent defense due to the interest it aroused among European colonial powers (Spain, the Netherlands, and France). This led to the regular recruitment of soldiers from the Kingdom, who were usually sent to the most sensitive and problematic areas of the colony.

However, these recruitments soon extended to the island populations, as the Portuguese mainland was not abundant in manpower, and the Azores had been experiencing some demographic surplus. Since these recruitments were in the Crown's best interest, they found some receptivity among local authorities, who were responsible for implementing them.

It was especially in the second half of the 18th century that these military movements gained greater scope. For example, in 1766, 200 recruits from São Miguel Island were sent to Rio de Janeiro. By 1774, the archipelago had contributed another 600 recruits, assigned to garrison various captaincies in Brazil. Just two years later, 890 recruits from the different Azorean islands were dispatched to the Brazilian capital, with São Miguel—the most populous island—providing half of that contingent.

In theory, recruitment was aimed at volunteers, who would be paid and committed for renewable periods of eight years. In practice, however, many of these recruitments were coercive.

Interestingly, local authorities themselves were often in favor of these recruitments, as they saw them as a way to alleviate the poverty of the population and even restore a certain public order. In 1753, the Sergeant Major of São Miguel, tasked with recruiting soldiers for the Santa Catarina garrison campaigns, emphasized the opportunity of such recruitment, arguing that the island was "full of useless and ill-behaved people, who, for the service of God and the peace of the Republic, could be taken away—people of no status, with no home or income, surviving only on meager provisions, which not all of them even have."

By 1766, the Captain-General of the Azores, faced with the nearly herculean task of recruiting over 1,000 men from the islands, advocated the use of coercive measures. According to him, the islands had a large number of young single men, particularly second sons of noble families, who lived in idleness and parasitism, many of them "vagrants and scandalous troublemakers."

I am sharing photos of landscapes, moments and experiences. Nature and sea are the most visited themes in my photo collection, but any attention-grabbing aspect can be photographed. Hope you enjoy it...