"As a group, the military in the 1870s-80s was alienated from traditional elites by the corruption of the Paraguayan War and by slave-catching demands. But the military's political efforts after 1889 were disastrous, prompting a withdrawal into military professionalism in the second half of 1890s. Includes a statistical appendix on the makeup of the officer class"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.