The Sortition Law (), officially Law No. 1,860 of 4 January 1908, introduced compulsory military service for the Brazilian Armed Forces. It was approved in 1906 but only de facto implemented in 1916, replacing forced recruitment - the antiquated "blood tax" - and allowing the formation of a reserve. Sortition or draft lottery was the mechanism used for recruiting soldiers from 1916 to 1945, when it was replaced by general class call, which is the mandatory military service system in 21st century-Brazil. An earlier law of 1874 had already introduced the lottery, but it was not applied due to popular resistance. Also controversial, the 1908 law was one of the major military reforms of the First Brazilian Republic and had lasting effects on the Brazilian Army's relationship with the country's politics and society. The arguments advanced by lottery advocates in 1908–1916 remain the official justifications for conscription a century later.
Recruitment reform had been advocated by military officers and politicians since the 19th century. The old system was violent, inefficient and out of the army's control. As it was characteristic of a weak central power, local oligarchs (coronéis) abused it. Since military service was seen as degrading, there were not enough volunteers to fill the ranks and the police arrested the "dregs of society" to serve. Reformists saw the military lottery as the most modern and rational form of recruitment. Their reference was Europe, where since the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) states had permanent officer corps (and some enlisted men) and variable enlisted personnel; young men served for short periods as soldiers and were sent into a growing reserve, which could be quickly mobilized during war. As in theory all classes should participate, armies would be the "nation in arms" and the "school of nationality", conferring national unity.
A 1906 proposal, drafted by deputy Alcindo Guanabara, was finally approved in 1908, with support among officers, the urban middle class and marshal Hermes da Fonseca's administration at the Ministry of War, during the presidency of Afonso Pena. For military officers who discussed reform of the army and its poor performance in campaigns, there were clear reasons for reform: to fill in the gaps in the number of troops, form reserves and not fall behind countries like Argentina and Chile, which had already implemented compulsory military service from 1900 onwards. Intellectuals such as Olavo Bilac were more ambitious, seeing in it social leveling and discipline and education of the masses, a "civilizing mission" to be carried out by the officers. The law was controversial and faced opposition from a varied range of ideological perspectives, such as anarchists, and both in large cities and in the countryside. The labor movement, in particular, made anti-militaristic opposition. Popular opposition, budget cuts and loss of interest from the civilian elite meant that the lottery was not applied immediately.
Only the impact of the First World War and a public relations campaign, with lectures by Olavo Bilac, breathed new life to the law, and the first lottery was held in December 1916. Its implementation was associated with the creation of the , which were an alternative to conventional military service, the reorganization of the order of battle, construction of barracks, softening of discipline, extinction of the National Guard, and other changes. In the following decades, the lottery suffered from administrative limitations and insubmission – thousands of men were drawn annually, but for years in a row the majority of those called for service did not comply. Insubmission was only solved with punitive measures requiring the . Contrary to what the law's defenders expected, there was no social leveling, and the lower military ranks continued to be occupied by the lower classes. Still, the lottery was successful in attracting recruits, their selection became more judicious and the reputation of soldiers slowly improved. The army's strength grew from 18,000 men in 1915 to 93,000 in 1940, gradually strengthening the central power against local oligarchies. The army reached out to all of society and had a greater capacity to spread its ideology. The Brazilian Navy and the Brazilian Air Force (created in 1941) took less advantage of the lottery.
Background Forced recruitment
The Brazilian Army traces the beginnings of the current compulsory military service to laws created in the hereditary captaincies in the 16th century, but what existed in Colonial Brazil was a mixture of impressment and the feudal militia system. In the beginning, in addition to troops coming from Portugal, settlers were expected to organize their own defenses. In addition to the first-line paid troops, in which Brazilians and Portuguese served, there was a second line of , armed on their own and summoned in certain situations, and a third line of ordenanças, with the rest of the inhabitants capable of wielding weapons. Milícias and ordenanças were replaced by the after Brazil's independence. Service in the National Guard was mandatory among citizens, that is, those who voted and had possessions, and it represented the upper class, unlike the army, where service was not mandatory.
Soldiers were incorporated by volunteering and, as it was insufficient to fill the ranks, by forced recruitment. The "human hunt" was a violent process, feared by the population, capable of putting workers on the run and damaging local economies; even so, it captured few recruits. The state had a weak bureaucracy and recruitment was under the influence of local elites, with little control by the army. In elections, recruitment was a tool against political opponents. Military service was considered a punishment, with harsh discipline and low pay, and soldiers were considered the "scum of society". Still, a precarious social balance kept recruitment under limits. Legal exemptions and a network of patronage protection isolated the so called "honorable poor", workers protected by local bosses. Service burden fell to the unproductive portion of society that "deserved punishment" in popular morality. As violent and inefficient as it was, the arrangement was accepted enough that the first attempt to replace it with conscription, in 1874, was defeated by popular resistance from the so-called "list rippers".
At the beginning of the First Brazilian Republic, the recruitment pattern of the Brazilian Empire remained. Every soldier was theoretically a "volunteer", but it was common for local state police to arrest the "scum of society" on the streets, who were then sent to the army and navy barracks. The punished "vagrancy", "capoeiragem" (the practice of capoeira) and "begging" with imprisonment for a few days, in which prisoners committed themselves to some occupation, such as a military career. In the Brazilian Navy, in addition to the forced recruitment and enlistment of volunteers, there were the Schools for Apprentice-Sailors. According to officer , in 1913 the army's main sources of recruitment were refugees from droughts in Northeastern Brazil, criminals and the unemployed or unfit for work, an "inverted selection". Soldiers were frowned upon, and violence and drunkenness were routine in the barracks. The treatment and hygiene were abysmal. Officers maintained discipline by corporal punishment. In the navy, this resulted in the Revolt of the Lash in 1910.
Model's exhaustion
The legal frameworks for recruitment were the Regime of Ordinances of 1570, the Royal Charter of 1764 and the Instructions of 10 July 1822. Officers had wanted recruitment reform since the 1840s, and legislators had rhetoric against the system, but there was no reform until the 1870s. A first lottery law proposal was introduced in 1827. In 1834–1835, the lottery proposal was amended to become just a set of bonuses for those who volunteered. Recruitment reform proposals were aborted in 1831, 1839, 1845, 1850, 1858, 1863, and 1866. Partial reforms took place in 1842, 1845, 1847, and 1850, without addressing forced recruitment.
Forced recruitment was far from the European ideal to which the Brazilian elites aspired. Mandatory military service had been a pillar of European armies since the French Revolution, and inspired by it, the 1824 Brazilian Constitution charged everyone with the defense of the state. After the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) European countries, with the exception of the United Kingdom, adopted the model of general conscription, service for 1–3 years and a reserve for wartime mobilization, inspired by Prussia, whose conscription system was considered essential to its victory. Nation-states carried out structural reforms, each increasingly controlling their populations. Their armies grew in the "armed peace" of the following decades, based on increasing literacy, industrialization and railroad networks. Mandatory military service would also be a way of instilling the idea of the nation, a "school of nationality" for men of all social backgrounds, making them docile and faithful citizens of the civic religion of patriotism.
Brazil, on the other hand, had a pre-industrial economy and society, with an almost non-existent state for the majority of the population, but the young officialdom demanded change. There was no reserve force, and it was difficult to quickly expand the army in time of need. Soldier shortages were a chronic problem, and officers wanted better-quality manpower. The Paraguayan War evidenced the exhaustion of the model. The much greater demand for soldiers during the war overwhelmed the social arrangement of recruitment, and the conduct of the war was delayed due to the inefficiency of mobilization.
1874 reform attempt Reform of the military service was discussed again from 1866 onwards. The consensus was to end forced recruitment. In its place, Europe offered three models: in the United Kingdom, volunteering for ten years, supplemented by militias, in Prussia, conscription of all eligible men for a short time, followed by enlistment in a reserve, and in France, the draft of some men for seven years of service. Parliamentarians did not accept what they called "conscription", the recruitment of entire classes, as in Prussia. Some in the Liberal Party defended volunteering, while others in the Conservative Party, associated with part of the high officialdom, wanted the French model. The lottery won and was made law in 1874. It was more reminiscent of the French laws of 1818 and 1832, with extensive exemptions, than the universal military service implemented in France after its defeat against Prussia.
The new legislation was Law No. 2,556 of 26 September 1874 and Decree 5,881 of 17 February 1875. It was one of several modernizing reforms passed by the . If volunteers were lacking, the first lottery would call up free men aged 19 to 30 for six years of service. Subsequent lotteries, held annually, would choose between 19-year-old men. The rich would have the personal or pecuniary substitution (in peacetime) and the exemptions as ways to avoid service. Still, the number of exemptions declined. To make service more attractive, discipline and hierarchical distinctions were softened. Seen by reformers as an institutional advance, the law was supposed to distribute the military burden more rationally and equitably through a blind lottery. It would end the abuses of forced recruitment, increase the quality of recruits, make military service an honorable duty, and implement a modern reserve system.