ABSTRACT
Brazil’s historical trajectory has been forcefully shaped by its military. Foreigners disembarking in Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s principal seaports in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, usually commented on the pervasiveness of slavery. The starting point for Brazil’s independence story is Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. Growing coffee production ensured foreign exchange during the 1850s. Bankers upgraded Brazil’s credit worthiness and the country enjoyed strong central leadership. Brazilian Communist Carlos Marighella published his Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla, which disputed Che Guevara’s thesis that rural zones were the natural habitat of revolutionary guerrillas. Economic growth from 1969 to 1973 averaged about 10 percent per year, something dubbed the “Brazilian Miracle.” The end of the “Brazilian Miracle” and growing civilian dissatisfaction pushed the regime to change policy. Beginning in 1974, Brazil’s General President, Ernesto Geisel, initiated a policy of abertura. Enlisted soldiers have also been at the center of great political and social changes.
