| Summary: | The dominant narrative on civil-military relations in mid-19th century Brazil is based on the idea that civil elites were hostile to the military, which would have resulted in the control of the Army and its weakening in state affairs. This process, which began with the abdication of the first emperor Dom Pedro I (1831), would have continued until the Paraguayan War (1864-1870). The objective of this article is to demonstrate, on the contrary, that the reorganization of the Army, implemented at the end of the Regency (1831-1840) and the beginning of the Second Reign, was integrated into a State project, carried out by the Conservative Party and which aimed to: create a violent system of repression to the numerous internal revolts, to impose social and racial hierarchies and to provide labor for agriculture. The Brazilian Army, contrary to what happened in Europe, was not born in the fight against the foreign enemy. It was built in the midst of civil war, in conflicts that went down in history as rebellions, while its repression was designated by the term "pacification", a concept so powerful that it is still widely used in Brazil today.
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