Brazil Becomes Independent – 3

Today’s installment concludes Brazil Becomes Independent,
our selection by Daniel P. Kidder.

If you have journeyed through all of the installments of this series, just one more to go and you will have completed a selection from the great works of three thousand words. Congratulations!

Previously in Brazil Becomes Independent.

Time: 1808-1822
Place: Sao Paulo

The revolution which occurred in Portugal in 1821, in favor of a constitution, was immediately responded to by a similar one in Brazil. After much excitement and alarm from the tumultuous movements of the people, the King (Dom John VI) conferred upon his son Dom Pedro, Prince Royal, the office of regent and lieutenant to His Majesty in the kingdom of Brazil. He then hastened his departure for Portugal, accompanied by the remainder of his family and the principal nobility who had followed him. The disheartened monarch embarked on board a line-of-battle ship on April 24, 1821, leaving the widest and fairest portion of his dominions to an unlooked-for destiny.

Rapid as had been the political changes in Brazil during the last ten years, greater changes still were to transpire. Dom Pedro was at this period twenty-three years of age. He had left Portugal when a lad, and his warmest aspirations were associated with the land of his adoption. .In 1817 he was married to the Archduchess Leopoldina, of the house of Austria, sister to Maria Louisa, ex-Empress of France. The bride arrived at Rio de Janeiro in November of that year.

In the office of prince regent, Dom Pedro certainly found scope for his most ardent ambition; but he also discovered himself to be surrounded with numerous difficulties, political and financial. So embarrassing indeed was his situation that in the course of a few months he begged his father to allow him to resign his office and attributes. The Cortes of Portugal, about this time, becoming jealous of the position of the Prince in Brazil, passed a decree ordering him to return to Europe, and at the same time abolishing the royal tribunals at Rio. This decree was received with indignation by the Brazilians, who immediately rallied around Dom Pedro and persuaded him to remain among them. His consent to do so gave rise to the most enthusiastic demonstrations of joy among both patriots and loyalists. But the Portuguese military soon evinced symptoms of mutiny. The troops, to the number of two thousand men, left their quarters on the evening of January 11, 1822, and, providing themselves with artillery, marched to Castello Hill, which commanded the entire city. Intelligence of this movement was, during the night, made public; and ere the following day dawned the Campo de Santa Anna, a large square in sight of the station occupied by the Portuguese troops, was crowded with armed men.

A conflict seemed inevitable; but the Portuguese commander vacillated in view of such determined opposition and offered to capitulate on the condition of his soldiers retaining their arms. This was conceded, on their agreeing to retire to Praya Grande, a village on the opposite side of the bay, until transports could be provided for their embarkation to Lisbon, which was subsequently effected. The measure of the Cortes of Portugal, which continued to be arbitrary in the extreme toward Brazil, finally had the effect to hasten, in the latter country, a declaration of absolute independence. This measure had long been ardently desired by the more enlightened Brazilians, some of whom had already urged Dom Pedro to assume the title of emperor. Hitherto he had refused and reiterated his allegiance to Portugal. But he at length, while on a journey to the Province of Sao Paulo, received dispatches from the mother-country which had the effect to induce him instantly to resolve on independence.

His exclamation, “Independence or death,” was enthusiastic ally reiterated by those who surrounded him, and thenceforward became the watchword of the Brazilian revolution. This declaration was made on September 7th, and was repeated at Rio as soon as the Prince could hasten there by a rapid journey.

The municipality of the capital issued a proclamation on the 21st, declaring their intention to fulfil the manifest wishes of the people, by proclaiming Dom Pedro the constitutional emperor and perpetual defender of Brazil. This ceremony was per formed on October 12th following, in the Campo de Santa Anna, in the presence of the municipal authorities, the functionaries of the court, the troops, and an immense concourse of people. His Highness there publicly declared his acceptance of the title conferred on him, from the conviction that he was thus obeying the will of the people. The troops fired a salute, and the city was illuminated in the evening. Jozé Bonifacio de Andrada, prime minister of the Government, had in the meantime promulgated a decree requiring all the Portuguese who were disposed to embrace the popular cause, to manifest their sentiment by wearing the Emperor’s motto, “Independencia ou morte” upon their arm — ordering also that all dissentients should leave the country within a given period, and threatening the penalties imposed upon high treason against anyone who should thenceforward attack, by word or deed, the sacred cause of Brazil.

The Brazilian revolution was comparatively a bloodless one. The glory of Portugal was already waning; her resources were exhaustedand her energies crippled by internal dissensions. That nation made nothing like a systematic and persevering effort to maintain her ascendency over her long depressed but now rebellious colony. The insulting measures of the Cortes were consummated only in their vaporing decrees. The Portuguese dominion was maintained for some time in Bahia and other ports which had been occupied by military forces. But these forces were at length compelled to withdraw and leave Brazil to her own control.

So little contested, indeed, and so rapid was this revolution, that in less than three years from the time independence was declared on the plains of the Ypiranga, Brazil was acknowledged to be independent at the court of Lisbon. In the meantime the Emperor had been crowned as Dom Pedro I and an assembly of delegates from the provinces had been convoked. A constitution had been framed by this assembly and accepted by the Emperor, and on March 24, 1824, was sworn to throughout the empire.

This ends our series of passages on Brazil Becomes Independent by Daniel P. Kidder. This blog features short and lengthy pieces on all aspects of our shared past. Here are selections from the great historians who may be forgotten (and whose work have fallen into public domain) as well as links to the most up-to-date developments in the field of history and of course, original material from yours truly, Jack Le Moine. – A little bit of everything historical is here.

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