“Involuntary volunteers”: recruitment for the Paraguayan War in the images of the 19th century Brazilian illustrated press

Abstract

This article analyzes caricatures about involuntary military recruitment in São Paulo and at the Court using the vast and yet unexplored Brazilian press coverage of the Paraguay War. The article seeks to explain the great interest that the military conflicts in the South aroused in different people. It discusses the hypothesis that the interest in this event encompasses far less obvious and much more diverse reasons and meanings than a quick look would be able to capture. In this sense, the involuntary recruitment and the way in which it was depicted by the press –especially in newspapers dedicated to caricature –provide an interesting way to deepen our understanding of involuntary military recruitment in that period as well as its relations to issues such as nationalism, race, the identity of workers (slaves, freed and free workers), and citizenship in Imperial Brazil.