It had different forms and origins, such as the social elite in the Milícias and Ordenanças, the Regular Regiment of Cavalry of Minas, with a police character, the peon militias on Brazil's southern borders and the Guarani and German Lancers.

As in some other countries, the change did not extinguish the cavalry branch: its armored vehicles have capabilities and roles similar to those of horses, while the traditions of the cavalrymen remain in part inherited from the horseback period.

A division-based organization lasted from the 1921 reform until the 1970s, when it gave way to the current brigades, each with, in addition to cavalry, artillery, engineering and logistics forces.

[4] Cavalry traditionally goes to the front, flank or rear of the main force, with missions such as security (e.g. avoiding ambushes), reconnaissance, connection, penetration, command recovery, withdrawal etc.

The "shock" power, characteristic of the heavy cavalry, exists today in the tanks[5][6] and is produced by the combination of mobility, armor and firepower.

At the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras (AMAN) the differentiation occurs when, still as cadets, they are called at the beginning of the 2nd year in order of school classification to choose which branch they will follow, then enrolling in their respective course, such as the Cavalry Course.

[13] The post-Restoration Portuguese Empire (1640) had an army divided between Regular Corps, professional and paid, and two categories of territorial and unpaid character, the Auxiliary Corps/Milícias and the Irregular Corps/Ordenanças.

Mobilized only for war or to fight indigenous peoples, the troops did not follow orthodox military discipline, increasing and decreasing with desertions and admissions.

[25] Then prince regent John of Portugal deemed cavalry necessary to ensure the country's military capabilities, and several regiments were created in the early 19th century.

The cavalry, following the experience and observing what happened in Europe, could have given equal preparation to shock action and dismounted combat, but this did not consolidate, returning to the mixed configuration.

Many soldiers were occupied with the creation, reproduction and treatment of horses to the detriment of instruction, making large exercises in the field extremely rare.

This required stud farms, remounts, breeding and veterinary supplies warehouses, a hospital, infirmaries, isolation rooms, pharmacies, blacksmiths, forage cultivation and animal purchases.

[46] After 1940, the branch faced extinction, but it had an alternative: to embrace mechanization, recognizing the tank as the horse's successor and continuing its former armor, shock and mobility capabilities.

[51] The next steps were the Moto-Mechanization Section of the General Staff of the Army and the creation of the Squadron of Auto-Machine Guns of Reconnaissance in 1938, equipped with the Italian Fiat Ansaldo L3/35 tankette and belonging to the cavalry.

[63] Until the 1960s, traditionalists argued on the basis of the inferior mobility and versatility of mechanized forces in difficult terrain and rainy weather, as well as the material infeasibility of sustaining them.

[54][64] The material argument was:[65] One day, the vertiginous progress of our country will lead us to carry out, with mechanized vehicles, the traditional missions that Osório and Andrade Neves did on horseback.

However, this will only be possible when the Brazilian panorama changes through the transformation of the physical environment by man, that is, when our engines, powered by our oil, travel along real roads to any point in the country.

[79] The local industry accumulated experience modernizing American vehicles and in 1979 it began the development of a national tank, the Tamoyo, in response to the Tanque Argentino Mediano.

[93] In the conflicts of the 2020s, such as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more modern tanks than the Brazilian Leopard 1, but used with tactical errors, suffered heavy casualties against anti-tank weapons and drones.

[95] There is the belief in the "nobility" of the Brazilian Cavalry, which brings it closer to the medieval one, however, defined not by the feudal elite character of its predecessor but by certain behavioral traits ("elegance, loyalty and audacity").

[21] An anthropological survey with AMAN cadets in the late 1980s identified as values attributed to cavalry "speed, combativeness, courage, flexibility, determination, detachment, willingness to overcome obstacles, 'no frills'".

[1] The patron, marshal Manuel Luís Osório, the Marquis of Herval (1808–1879), led the Allied forces to victory at the battle of Tuyutí on 24 May 1866 during the Paraguayan War.

[105] In the following decades he became a prestigious figure in the Army as a whole, receiving greater reverence than Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, the Duke of Caxias.

Tenentism and the repeated insurrections of the troops led the military leaders of the end of the Old Republic and the Vargas Era to promote Caxias' figure, associated with the struggles for national unity.

The need to disperse forces to minimize the damage of a tactical nuclear bombing led to a reorganization of the order of battle - in the American case, of the armored division - and an increase in the density of radios and message flow, both repeated in Brazil.

[157] Garrastazu doubted he could move his division,[163] but on the 2nd he was ordered to threaten Porto Alegre; the communication was made clear to be heard by loyalists still in control of the city.

SISFRON, as it is called, integrates sensors, cameras, vehicles, radars, meteorological stations and detects activities such as drug trafficking, mining, deforestation and forest burning.

[179] At the time of the 1964 coup, the Divisional Infantry was commanded by general Chrysantho de Miranda Figueiredo, a public supporter of Goulart's policies.

On vacation in Rio de Janeiro, he announced his return, but the coup plotters in Curitiba managed to conspire with the governor and the commander of the Air Base to divert the plane, which headed for Porto Alegre.

In the late 1990s, the formation of a "Mechanized Infantry Battalion of Marines”, with a structure similar to that of an Army Armored Cavalry Brigade, was discussed.