The Brazilian officer corps is split into…

The Brazilian officer corps is split into three generations.

The oldest group had helped suppress the regional revolts of the 1830s and 1840s, had fought in Argentina in 1852, and had survived the Paraguayan War.

The numerous mid-level officers are better schooled than their seniors and had been tested in combat in Paraguay.

The junior officers had missed the war but have the most education of the three groups and have experienced the empire only when its defects have become clearly apparent.

They are the least attached to the old regime and the most frustrated by the lack of advancement in a peacetime army cluttered with veterans of the great war.