Brazil Becomes Independent – 2

The manners of the people also experienced a corresponding change.

Continuing Brazil Becomes Independent,
our selection from Daniel P. Kidder. The selection is presented in three easy 5 minute installments.

Previously in Brazil Becomes Independent.

Time: 1808-1822
Place: Sao Paulo

The manners of the people also experienced a corresponding change. The fashions of Europe were introduced. From the seclusion and restraints of non-intercourse the people emerged into the festive ceremonies of a court, whose levees and gala days drew together multitudes from all directions. In the mingled society which the capital now offered, the dust of retirement was brushed off, antiquated customs gave way, new ideas and modes of life were adopted, and these spread from circle to circle and from town to town.

Business assumed an aspect equally changed. Foreign commercial houses were opened, and foreign artisans established themselves in Rio and other cities.

This country could no longer remain a colony. A decree was promulgated in December, 1815, declaring it elevated to the dignity of a kingdom, and hereafter to form an integral part of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Algarves, and Brazil. It is scarcely possible to imagine the enthusiasm awakened by this unlooked-for change throughout the vast extent of Portuguese America. Messengers were dispatched to bear the news, which was hailed with spontaneous illuminations from the La Plata to the Amazon. Scarcely was this event consummated when the Queen, Donna Maria I, died.

She was mother to the Prince Regent and had been for years in a state of mental imbecility, so that her death had no influence upon political affairs. Her funeral obsequies were performed with great splendor; and her son, in respect for her memory, delayed the acclamation of his succession to the throne for a year. He was at length-_crowned with the title of Dom John VI. The ceremonies of the coronation were celebrated with suitable magnificence in the palace square, on February 5, 1818. Amid all the advantages attendant upon the new state of things in Brazil there were many circumstances calculated to provoke political dis content. Mr. Armitage has very appropriately summed up the political condition of Brazil at this period in the following terms:

A swarm of needy and unprincipled adventurers came over with the royal family, for whom the Government felt constrained to find places. These men took but little interest in the welfare of the country and were far more eager to enrich themselves than to administer justice or to benefit the public. The rivalry, which had always prevailed between the native Brazilians and the Portuguese, found, in this state of things, a new cause of excitement. Dom John, from his naturally obliging disposition, de lighted in rewarding every service rendered to him or to the State; but being straitened for funds, he adopted the cheaper custom of bestowing titulary honors upon those who had merited his favor. To such an extent did he carry this species of liberality that during the period of his administration he distributed more honorary insignia than had been conferred by all the pre ceding monarchs of the house of Braganza.

Those merchants and landed proprietors, who, on the arrival of the royal cortege, had given up their houses and advanced their money to do honor to their guests, were decorated with the various honorary orders, originally instituted during the days of chivalry. Individuals were dubbed knights who had never buckled on a spur; and commendadores of the Order of Christ were created in the persons of those who were by no means learned in the elementary doctrines of their missals.

The excitement resulting from such a distribution of honors, in a country where titulary distinctions were hitherto almost unknown and where the veneration for sounding titles and antiquated institutions was as profound as it was unenlightened, could not but be great. These, being now brought apparently within the reach of all, became the great objects of competition to the aspiring; and there was soon no species of petty tyranny which was not put in force, nor any degradation which was not cheerfully submitted to, when these manifestations of royal favor were the objects in view. Success was generally attended with an instantaneous change in the style of living. Knights could no longer descend to the drudgeries of commercial life, but were compelled to live either on resources already acquired or, in default of resources, to solicit employment under the Government.

Here, however, the difficulties were greater than in the first instance — competition being increased by the numerous emigrants from the mother-country. Even when obtained, the emoluments attached to public offices were too limited to admit of much extravagance on the part of the holders. Opportunities were nevertheless frequently occurring for the sale of favors and exemptions, and the venality of the Brazilians in office became ere long equal to that of their Portuguese colleagues. These things, together with the wretched state of morals that prevailed at court, were calculated to foment those jealousies of foreign dominion which could hardly fail to arise in view of the independence recently achieved by the English colonies of North America, and of the revolutionary struggle in which the neighboring colonies of Spain were already engaged.

A consciousness of this increasing discontent, and a fear that Brazil would by and by follow the example of her Spanish neighbors, doubtless had a powerful influence in causing the country to be politically elevated to the rank of a kingdom.

Quietness prevailed for several years; but discontent became gradually disseminated and was often promoted by the very means used for its suppression. Murmurs, too, were ex cited, but as yet they found no echo; the only printing- press in the country being under the immediate direction of the royal authorities. Through its medium the public was duly and faithfully informed concerning the health of all the princes in Europe. Official edicts, birthday odes, and panegyrics on the reigning family from time to time illumined its pages, which were unsullied either by the ebullitions of democracy or the exposure of grievances. To have judged of the country by the tone of its only journal, it must have been pronounced a terrestrial paradise, where no word of complaint had ever yet found utterance.”

Continued.

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