Sepoys from India or African soldiers? Dilemmas in the naturalization of the Portuguese colonial army in Mozambique in the 18th century

Abstract

During the 18th century, the Portuguese meted increasing difficulties to complete the Mozambique infantry regiment. Not only the Brazil attracted whoever left Portugal, but the high mortality occurred in the oriental African coast contradicted any attempt to fulfil the army with Europeans. Developing a discourse about the inadaptation of the European soldiers to the Mozambican habitat, the Portuguese administration tried to find alternatives in the Indian context. During the second half of the century, the debate and the attempted solutions centred in the use of the sepoys imported from India or the African soldiers. These were recruited among the mestizo persons of the Rios de Sena, called patrícios, and the Makua and Swahili of the litoral of the Mozambique Island. This process will run to a project, born in the colony and developed at Lisbon, of the naturalization of the Mozambique regiment, reserving the official’s dignity to the Europeans. However, the various obstacles emerged to the local recruitment will prevent the establishment of a regiment fully composed with the people of the colony.