2 - Independence and abolition, 1822–1826

Summary

The independence of Brazil was essentially the result of a hopeless attempt by Portugal during the years 1821–2, following Dom João's return to Lisbon after an absence of thirteen years, to put back the clock and reduce Brazil, politically and economically, to its former colonial status. Brazil had progressed too far since the flight of the Portuguese court to Rio de Janeiro in 1807–8 for anything less than complete political and economic equality with the mother country to be any longer acceptable: Brazilian ports had been open to world, and especially British, trade, and the influx of ‘new people, new capital, new ideas’ had stimulated economic development and modernisation; Brazil had been governed from Rio de Janeiro, not Lisbon—indeed since December 1815 its status had been that of a kingdom equal with Portugal; the development of Brazilian self-consciousness had been considerably accelerated. When, therefore, Portugal proved intransigent in her demand for Brazil's capitulation to Portuguese rule, many Brazilians—and some Portuguese whose roots and interests were now in Brazil—saw no alternative to secession from the Portuguese empire. Left behind in Rio de Janeiro as Prince Regent, Dom João's eldest son, the twenty-four-year-old Dom Pedro, choosing to lead rather than be overwhelmed by the growing movement for independence, threw in his lot with the Brazilians and, when ordered to do so, refused to return to Portugal.