Brazilian Empire
Years: 1822 - 1889
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Brazil takes on its modern shape with the Treaties of 1750, 1761, and 1777.
The lines are drawn for the nineteenth-century struggles over the East Bank (Banda Oriental, or present-day Uruguay) of the Rio Uruguai and the Río de la Plata, the war with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (1825-28), and the Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70).
Thus, as a result of slave hunting, gold prospecting, and Portuguese royal policy, the Tordesillas Line becomes obsolete, and Portugal obtains more than half of South America.
When Brazil becomes independent in 1822, its huge territory is comparable in size with the Russian and Chinese empires.
The Portuguese Succession Crisis of 1826 – Pedro I’s Conditional Abdication
The death of King João VI in March 1826 created a succession crisis in Portugal, as the rightful heir to the throne was his eldest son, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. However, neither Portugal nor Brazil wanted a unified monarchy, leading to a complicated political arrangement to resolve the issue.
Pedro I’s Abdication in Favor of Maria da Glória
- Pedro I of Brazil (Pedro IV of Portugal) abdicated the Portuguese throne in April 1826 in favor of his seven-year-old daughter, Maria da Glória.
- To maintain dynastic unity and avoid further conflict, Pedro stipulated that Maria must marry his younger brother, Prince Miguel, upon coming of age.
The Constitutional Charter of 1826
- As part of the succession arrangement, Pedro granted a new constitution to Portugal, known as the Constitutional Charter of 1826.
- This moderate constitutional document balanced monarchical authority with liberal principles, offering:
- A bicameral legislature, with a House of Peers (appointed) and a House of Deputies (elected).
- A constitutional monarchy, granting the king executive power while maintaining representative governance.
- Civil liberties and legal protections without fully embracing democratic rule.
Miguel’s Role as Regent
- Since Maria da Glória was too young to rule, Pedro appointed Miguel as regent of Portugal, entrusting him to govern in her name.
- This arrangement was intended to reconcile the absolutist and liberal factions in Portugal, but it would soon collapse into open civil war as Miguel sought to claim the throne for himself.
Pedro Returns to Brazil – A Fragile Peace
- With the succession crisis seemingly resolved, Pedro returned to Brazil, leaving Maria as the designated queen and Miguel as her regent.
- However, this compromise would not last, as Miguel soon rebelled against the arrangement, proclaiming himself king and rejecting the Constitutional Charter, leading to the Portuguese Civil War (1828–1834).
Conclusion – A Temporary Settlement That Led to Civil War
The succession settlement of 1826, while attempting to balance absolutist and liberal forces, only delayed further conflict. Within two years, Miguel would seize power as an absolutist ruler, forcing Pedro to return from Brazil to fight for his daughter’s rights. This struggle culminated in the Portuguese Civil War, a defining conflict between monarchical absolutism and constitutional liberalism in Portugal.
Francia's greatest accomplishment—the preservation of Paraguayan independence—results directly from a noninterventionist foreign policy.
Deciding that Argentina is a potential threat to Paraguay, he shifts his foreign policy toward Brazil by quickly recognizing Brazilian independence in 1821.
This move, however, results in no special favors for the Brazilians from Francia, who is also on good, if limited, terms with Juan Manuel Rosas, the Argentine dictator.
Francia prevents civil war and secures his role as dictator when he cuts off his internal enemies from their friends in Buenos Aires.
Despite his "isolationist" policies, Francia conducts a profitable but closely supervised import-export trade with both countries to obtain key foreign goods, particularly armaments.
A more activist foreign policy than Francia's probably would have made Paraguay a battleground amid the swirl of revolution and war that sweep Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil in the decades following independence.
After nearly four more years of struggle, the Portuguese Kingdom of Brazil annexes the Banda Oriental as a province under the name of "Cisplatina".
The Brazilian Empire becomes independent of Portugal in 1822.
In response to the annexation, the Thirty-Three Orientals, led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja, declare independence on August 25, 1825, supported by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (present-day Argentina).
This leads to the five hundred-day-long Cisplatine War.
Neither side gains the upper hand and in 1828 the Treaty of Montevideo, fostered by the United Kingdom through the diplomatic efforts of Viscount John Ponsonby, will give birth to Uruguay as an independent state.
After nearly four more years of struggle, the Portuguese Kingdom of Brazil annexes the Banda Oriental as a province under the name of "Cisplatina".
The Brazilian Empire becomes independent of Portugal in 1822.
In response to the annexation, the Thirty-Three Orientals, led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja, declare independence on August 25, 1825, supported by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (present-day Argentina).
This leads to the five hundred-day-long Cisplatine War.
Neither side gains the upper hand and in 1828 the Treaty of Montevideo, fostered by the United Kingdom through the diplomatic efforts of Viscount John Ponsonby, will give birth to Uruguay as an independent state.
All of these political and economic developments put Paraguay on the path of independent nationhood, yet the country's undoubted progress during the years of the Franciata takes place because of complete popular abdication to Francia's will.
El Supremo personally controls every aspect of Paraguayan public life.
No decision at the state level, no matter how small, can be made without his approval.
All of Paraguay's accomplishments during this period, including its existence as a nation, are attributable almost entirely to Francia.
The common people see these accomplishments as Francia's gifts, but along with these gifts come political passivity and naïveté among most Paraguayans.
The Heroína, a privately owned frigate that is operated as a privateer under a license issued by the United Provinces of the River Plate, under the command of American Colonel David Jewett, in March 1820 sets sail looking to capture Spanish ships as prizes.
Most of her crew after seven months are incapacitated by scurvy and disease.
Jewett executes six of his crew for an attempted mutiny.
He is unable to find any Spanish prizes but does manage to capture a Portuguese ship named Carlota.
Jewett is considered to have committed piracy, as Argentina and Portugal are not at war.
A storm results in severe damage to the Heroína and sinks the prize Carlota, forcing Jewett to put into Puerto Soledad for repairs in October 1820.
Captain Jewett chooses to rest and recover in the islands, seeking assistance from the British explorer James Weddell.
Weddell reported only thirty seamen and forty soldiers fit for duty out of a crew of two hundred, and that Jewett slept with pistols over his head following the mutiny.
Jewett raises the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate (a predecessor of modern-day Argentina) on November 6, 1820, and claims possession of the islands.
Weddell does not believe that Jewett is acting with the interests of the United Provinces of the River Plate in mind; rather, Jewett had merely put into the harbor in order to obtain refreshments for his crew, and that the assumption of possession was chiefly intended for the purpose of securing an exclusive claim to the wreck of the French ship Uranie that had foundered at the entrance of Berkeley Sound a few months prior.
Weddell leaves the islands on November 20, 1820, noting that Jewett had not completed repairs to the Heroína.
Jewett finally seizes an American flagged ship named Rampart, committing piracy for a second time.
Jewett sends a long report to Buenos Aires dated February 1, 1821, in which he describes his journey.
He does not, however, make any mention of his claim over the Falklands.
News of Jewett's claim over the Falklands is reported first in the Salem Gazette, a Massachusetts news paper, and reprinted in the Times of London.
The Spanish newspaper Cadiz then reports the story and it is only when this report reaches Buenos Aires, as a foreign news story, that its is published in the Buenos Aires Argos on November 10, 1821, more than a year after the event.
The Argentine government itself makes no announcements.
This is probably because Jewett had made no report of his 'acquisition', so the authorities are completely unaware that it had taken place.
Jewett had departed from the Falkland Islands in April 1821, having spent no more than six months on the island, entirely at Puerto Soledad.
Jewett in 1822 is accused of piracy by a Portuguese court, but by this time he is in Brazil.
The Portuguese Crown Prince, sympathetic to the cause of independence, decides on January 9 to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese King João VI, beginning the Brazilian independence process.
He declares Brazil an independent Empire on September 7, 1822 and has himself crowned Emperor Pedro I; is declared the constitutional Emperor of Brazil, as Pedro the First, and has himself crowned on December 1.
Emperor Pedro I inaugurates Brazil's first Assembleia Geral, with fifty Senators and one hundred and two Deputies on May 5, 1823.
The “America to the Americans” policy expressed in the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 discourages Spain from reestablishing control of the former provinces, but the new states, unlike those of monolithic Brazil, squabble over land, minerals ,and access to the coasts.