Uma An officers’ elite

hierarchies and political uses of the Guarda Nacional on the meridional border of the Imperial Brazil (Jaguarão, 1860-1889)

Abstract

The goal of the present work is to analyze the “Guarda Nacional” as a key institution to sustain the hierarchic process that took place in the Brazilian society in the XIX century. We focus our investigation on quantitative and qualitative aspects of the Guarda Nacional of Jaguarão Municipality, placed at the southwestern border of São Pedro province, Rio Grande do Sul State, between 1860 and 1889. We present the Guarda Nacional profile, showing the distance between officers and other military members, which both reflect and reinforce the hierarchic structure of the society. Besides, through the analyses of specific cases, we demonstrate how the organizational structure of the Guarda was politically used by officers and by others influential local citizens to keep the status quo and to perpetuate in an elite position.