“WHAT MAKES BRAZIL DIFFERENT?”:

AN ANALYSIS ON THE POST PARAGUAYAN WAR CONTEXT AND THE BRAZILIAN DETACHMENT LEGACY

Abstract

The current article has as its purpose to indi- cate and analyze the international outlook in which Latin   America and, especially, Brazil inserted itself after the Paraguayan War. During the dispute, being the economically and militarily strongest country in the region, Brazil played the role of the intervening power, inserting itself intensely in the platina politics. As the war neared its end, however, the Empire resumed its policy of distancing itself from the South American republics, prioritizing relations with the United States of America and Europe, reinforcing an anta- gonistic vision in which the Empire represents order and civilization, while the republican countries are analogous to disorder and barbarism. Thus, the objective is to investigate Brazilian diplomat’s travel narratives and how they, added to society, understood neighboring countries as distant and inferior according to their monarchist and anti-republican ideology.