Independence and the Empire of Brazil
Prince Pedro declares Brazil independent from Portugal and becomes its emperor; for nearly seventy years Brazil is a stable constitutional monarchy, and the largest slave society in the world.
- Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825–91 — Roderick J. Barman, Stanford University Press (1999)
- Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
- A Concise History of Brazil — Boris Fausto and Sergio Fausto, Cambridge University Press (2014)
- Brazil: Five Centuries of Change — Thomas E. Skidmore, Oxford University Press (2010)
When the Portuguese parliament tried to reduce Brazil to colonial status again and ordered Prince Pedro home, Brazilian elites rallied around him. On 7 September 1822, by the Ipiranga stream near São Paulo, Pedro is said to have drawn his sword and cried “Independence or death!” He was acclaimed Emperor Pedro I that October. Unlike Spanish America, Brazil won independence with relatively little fighting, mostly in Bahia, where Portuguese troops held out until 2 July 1823, still Bahia’s great civic holiday. Portugal recognised the new state in 1825.
- Brazil: A Biography — Lilia M. Schwarcz and Heloisa M. Starling, Allen Lane (2018)
- A Concise History of Brazil — Boris Fausto and Sergio Fausto, Cambridge University Press (2014)
Pedro I ruled impulsively and abdicated in 1831 in favour of his five-year-old son. After a turbulent regency, marked by regional revolts that threatened to break the country apart, Pedro II was declared of age in 1840, at fourteen, and reigned for nearly half a century. Bearded, bookish and fascinated by science and photography, he presided over a parliamentary monarchy with regular elections, though only a small minority could vote.
- Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825–91 — Roderick J. Barman, Stanford University Press (1999)
- Brazil: Five Centuries of Change — Thomas E. Skidmore, Oxford University Press (2010)
The empire’s bloodiest moment was the Paraguayan War (1864–70), fought with Argentina and Uruguay against Paraguay, which was devastated. Brazil’s army, which included many enslaved men freed to fight, came home with new prestige and political ambitions.
- A Concise History of Brazil — Boris Fausto and Sergio Fausto, Cambridge University Press (2014)
- Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825–91 — Roderick J. Barman, Stanford University Press (1999)
Why it matters today
7 September is Independence Day, and the empire explains why Brazil is one vast Portuguese-speaking country. Many Brazilians remember Pedro II fondly as a learned, honest ruler; others point out that the empire's famous stability rested on keeping slavery alive longer than anywhere else in the Americas.