This chapter offers an overview of the Luso-Brazilian World in the Age of Revolutions. It surveys key episodes culminating in the independence of Brazil, including the transfer of the Portuguese Court from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal and its long-term political implications, the creation of a Reino Unido (United Kingdom) from 1815 and the resistance that this reconfiguration of the Portuguese empire provoked. The chapter then traces the impact of the 1820 liberal revolution in Portugal, which sought not only to establish a constitutional monarchy, but to return the seat of the monarchy to the Peninsula. This effort to return to the status quo ex ante was rejected in Brazil and precipitated independence. Far from a denouement, however, Portugal and Brazil continued to influence each other’s political evolution in the aftermath of formal empire.

This chapter reconstructs Vicente Nogueira’s Inquisitorial trial, recovering the many political and religious motivations which lay behind it. Inquisitorial sources provide an opportunity to reflect on the interplay between Nogueira’s religious and sexual identities. Tried by the Inquisition for sodomy, Nogueira conceived his trial and subsequent exile as opportunities to reflect on his social statuses as someone who belonged to diverse intellectual, ecclesiastical, political and emotional communities. Despite the personal challenges posed by the trial and forced migration, these experiences ultimately provided Nogueira with more resources and greater public exposure as a mercenary of knowledge. Between his cell in Lisbon and the sugar mills of northern Brazil, Nogueira witnessed a set of conflicts that gave him access to the most unexpected spaces of the Republic of Letters.

Chapter 1 recovers the history of an Iberian family involved in royal service across Portugal and Spain during the first decades of the Iberian Union (1580–1640). It shows how family memory and political loyalty became professional assets for young, university-trained jurists. By moving back and forth between courtly and university stages across the two monarchies, some of these young letrados came to think of themselves as political polymaths. Ultimately, they found opportunities to reach out and receive support from transnational networks of neo-stoic thinkers and practitioners which was fundamental for articulating the composite social and political life of the Iberian monarchies within and beyond the Iberian Peninsula.

From the time of their premieres, Carmen was an immediate success both in Portugal (Lisbon, 1885, in Italian) and, before this, in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, 1881, in French). By 1915, thanks to travelling companies, principally Italian and French, the opera was widely known and popular throughout both countries, reaching not only principal cities on the coast or up river, but also in the interior, accessible through the increasing railway networks, particularly striking in the hinterland of São Paulo. Performance conditions were very variable, with difficulties often experienced in relation to the orchestra and choruses. Audiences in Lisbon had very high expectations, which were rarely met, while in Brazil reception was much more spontaneous and appreciative. Parodies of Carmen, imported and locally produced, were a feature in both countries. In 1911 a travelling children’s company in Rio, São Paulo and the south of Brazil raised questions in the local press about working conditions and particularly child labour.