Independence for Brazil: 1807-40

Portugal's royal family debarked on a fleet of ships in late November 1807, barely escaping from Napoleon Bonaparte's grasp, taking with them their royal carriages, the crown jewels and much other baggage. Portugal's queen, Maria, was incapacitated with fears. She heard voices and saw demons, and her thirty-nine year-old son, João, was prince regent, ruling in her name. Queen Maria had to be taken aboard against her will.

The royal party sailed across the Atlantic and reached Brazil four months later. The people of Rio de Janeiro escorted João and his party across flower-strewn streets. The queen, Maria, arrived three days later, to a welcome of respectful quiet.

Rio de Janeiro became the defacto capital of Portugal's empire. In addition to the good cheer, the royals found black slaves working the docks and black slaves in fine dress but barefeet tending the carriages of Brazil's Criollo elite. They found white ladies wearing Paris fashions more than twenty years out of date, including the monstrous wigs.

Cheered by his reception, and allied with Britain against Napoleon, João decreed a number of reforms, including opening Brazil's trade with all friendly nations and abolishing the commercial monopoly that the mother country had held over its colony. Preferential tariffs were granted to Britain as reward for British help against Napoleon. And João opened Brazil to visitations by foreign scholars and to immigration.

In 1815, João raised Brazil to the status of a kingdom united with Portugal. In March 1816, with the death of Queen Maria, João became King João VI. In 1817 unrest appeared in Brazil. There was economic deprivation. Some were hurting from the freer trade, and there was discontent among liberals over repressions such as censorship. Discontent in the Pernambuco area (1000 miles north of Rio de Janiero) turned into rebellion, which João's military repressed.

Following the withdrawal of Napoleon's forces from Portugal, the British had set up a regency there, and they asked João to return, but he declined. Then, in 1820, liberals took power in Portugal -- alongside the takeover by liberals in Spain. Like Spain, Portugal acquired a liberal constitution. In Brazil, news of the revolution in Portugal created celebrations. In 1821 the British finally persuaded João to return, João accepting his role as a constitutional monarch and leaving his elder son, Pedro, on the throne in Brazil.

The regime in Portugal attempted to reinstate economic favoritism for Portugal and economic restrictions for Brazil, which sparked resistance among those who would have been hurt by such restrictions. Brazil's ruler, Pedro, disliked Portugal's attempt at impositions, and the regime in Portugal labeled him a rebel. Pedro heard that Portugal was sending troops to arrest him. He had enough military support to prohibit the landing of the troops from Portugal, and Portugal's squadron of ships returned to Portugal without Pedro. Celebrating his triumph, Pedro, on September 7, 1822, on his balcony at his royal palace at Ipiranga, drew his sword and declared "Independence or death!" On October 12, at the age of 24, he was proclaimed Emperor of Brazil.

Brazil's independence was not accepted by Portugal's liberal regime -- one of history's odd developments. Then Britain's foreign minister, George Canning, announced that Britain would not tolerate any European intervention in the Western Hemisphere, a position echoed by the Monroe Doctrine, aimed at Portugal as well as Spain.

Independence did not bring to Brazil much lasting happiness. Many remained at odds with Pedro's policies on human rights, his authoritarian rule, governmental control over ideas, education still dominated by the Church, and land dominated by a few. And there was agitation for an end to slavery. Pedro bent to liberal pressures, and in 1824, a constitution was granted the Brazilians, derived in part from words used in France's Declaration of the Rights of Men. But it was in good measure a conservative document. Slavery was not mentioned. There was to be a parliament and Pedro was to be a constitutional monarch, but he was to retain considerable power, including the ability to bypass parliament, the judiciary and local authorities. He was to have a veto over legislation. He was to be able to appoint senators for life, and parliament's Chamber of Deputies and local councils were to be elected by very limited suffrage.

In 1825, in exchange for international recognition, Emperor Pedro agreed to settle Brazil's debts with Britain, and he agreed to end the importation of slaves by 1830. Planters in Brazil were upset by Pedro's agreement regarding slaves. And more trouble came for Pedro following the death of his father, João, in 1826. The idea of Pedro becoming king of Portugal as well as Brazil, ending Brazil's independence, produced a storm of discontent in Brazil. To preserve his position in Brazil, Pedro abdicated the throne in Portugal in favor of his seven-year-old daughter, who became Maria II, and his brother, Dom Miguel, became Maria's regent.

Dom Miguel had the support of upper-clergy, the judiciary, nobles and other conservatives in Portugal, and in 1828 he engineered a coup d'etat against the liberal regime and proclaimed himself king. Maria II and a few around her found refuge in Britain, as a bloodbath unfolded in Portugal.

Pedro abdicated his throne in Brazil in favor of his five-year-old son, who was put under a regency, and Pedro went to Europe in hope of putting his daughter Maria II back on her throne. He won the support of France's new liberal monarch, Louis-Phillipe, and a force under Pedro's command landed in Portugal in 1833. Later that year, Maria was restored to her throne. Then in 1834, at the age of thirty-six, Pedro died from tuberculosis.

Unrest continued in Brazil, and it was splintered by provincial rebellions, but Pedro's son was popular. He was one of those rare royals who by accident was also highly intelligent. At the age of six he was reading and writing both Portuguese and English and studying French. He was tutored in science, and, in the year 1840, at the age of fifteen, liberals of influence had him declared of age, and he was crowned king: Pedro II.