A The “almost war”

Brazilian mobilization to attack Paraguay in 1857-1858

  • Adler Homero Fonseca de Castro Historiador, mestre em História, pesquisador do IPHAN, do CEPHiMEx e da FUNCEB, sócio do IGHMB, autor de livros e artigos sobre história militar e preservação do patrimônio cultural.
Keywords: Diplomacy, armed forces mobilization, Paraguayan War

Abstract

One of the problems of the traditional history is to work with events that did not happen. This not in terms of counterfactual history, a virtual one, but one of real facts, for which there were preparations, but that didn’t have the expected results. This is the case of the war scares that were so common in the Brazilian History, with profound effects over society and the political situation, but that not resulted in armed conflict. One of the less known war scares was the preparations made in 1858 to force Paraguay to negotiate the opening of the Paraguay River to Brazilian shipping. Involving thousands of men and many warships, many of them bought specifically for the campaign, this actions, that almost resulted in an open war. However, their consequences were not emphasized, even at those times.

Published
2020-06-17
Issue
Vol 13 No 26 (2017): Revista Navigator - Dossiê História marítima, militar e naval do Brasil nos oitocentos: política, sociedade e historiografia
Section
Dossie