The history of the Brazilian republic is also the story of the development of the army as a national institution.

The elimination of the monarchy had reduced the number of national institutions to one, the army.

Although the Roman Catholic Church continues its presence throughout the country, it is not national but rather international in its personnel, doctrine, liturgy, and purposes.

By the time of the 1964 coup, the political parties will not be national parties; they will be oriented more along regional, personalist, and special-interest lines.

Only in the struggle to reestablish civilian rule in the 1980s will a fitful process of creating national parties take shape.

Thus, the army is the core of the developing Brazilian state, a marked change from the marginal role that it had played during the empire.

The army assumes this new position almost haphazardly, filling part of the vacuum left by the col- lapse of the monarchy and gradually acquiring a doctrine and vision to support its de facto role.

Although it has more units and men in Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul than elsewhere, its presence is felt throughout the country.

Its personnel, its interests, its ideology, and its commitments are national in scope.