Abstract

ARAUJO, Johny Santana de. The “Brazilian Military Mission to France” in the Battles of the Western Front (1918). Secuencia [online]. 2022, n.112, e1908.  Epub Mar 07, 2022. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i112.1908.

In October 1917, after the sinking of the Brazilian cargo ship Macau, president Wenceslau Braz declared war against Germany; unable to stage a large war action to Europe, among other things, Braz opted to send a Brazilian Commission for Studies, War Operation and Purchase of Material. This essay intends to focus on the antecedents of the formation of the commission, on the role of France in the co-optation of Brazil to the war, on the formation of the commission and its mission, and finally on how the commission’s officials acted in the French and Belgian front during the hundred day campaign in 1918. It was possible to ascertain that the performance of the military contributed to their acquisition of considerable experience, and it caused the adoption of a military pattern that would be enlarged after the hiring of a French Military Mission in 1919. This mission would reform the Brazilian Army during twenty years.

Keywords : military history; history of international relations; old republic; Brazilian arm; first world war.