ABSTRACT
Underlying the history of Brazilian foreign relations has been an effort to use foreign policy to achieve recognition of national greatness. In the twentieth century, suspicion by the European monarchies and the American republics became paramount, while the powers tended to treat Brazil as an economic or political pawn that could be dealt with according to their needs. Brazil's colonial heritage included, in rough outline, the present national territory. Linked to the policy of secure frontiers was that of seeking to prevent Brazil's neighbors, especially in the Rio de la Plata, from forming a coalition against it. Diplomatic efforts in support of economic development are an element of continuity in Brazilian foreign policy. Though Brazil wished to be regarded as "the most powerful state in South America," the US military attachreported that "a war of aggression would not meet with popular favor, nor is the Brazilian army prepared to take the field against an organized force".
