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Empire of Brazil: A Visual History

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Visual history of an empire

The only lasting monarchy in the Americas: a Portuguese prince declared Brazil independent and his son ruled it for 58 years.

Existed
1822 to 1889
Duration
67 years
Existed
1822 to 1889
Area
About 8.3 million km2
Population
About 14 million (1889)
Capital
Rio de Janeiro
Emperors
Pedro I (1822-1831), Pedro II (1831-1889)

The Empire of Brazil (1822-1889) was created when Prince Pedro, regent for his father the King of Portugal, declared independence and was crowned emperor. His son Pedro II reigned from 1831 to 1889 over a stable, expanding, slave-based state that fought the Paraguayan War and became the world's largest coffee producer. The abolition of slavery in 1888 cost the monarchy the support of planters, and a military coup proclaimed a republic in 1889.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Empire of Brazil. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

1400150016001700180019002000Empire of Brazil (1822 to 1889)Open: Spanish EmpireSpanish Empire (1492 to 1976)Open: Dutch EmpireDutch Empire (1602 to 1975)Open: Second Portuguese EmpireSecond Portuguese Empire (1663 to 1822)Open: Rebellion of Tupac Amaru IIRebellion of Tupac Amaru II (1780 to 1783)Open: Colombian War of IndependenceColombian War of Independence (1810 to 1825)Open: Third Portuguese EmpireThird Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)Open: Federal War (Venezuela)Federal War (Venezuela) (1859 to 1863)Open: Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance)Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance) (1864 to 1870)Open: Thousand Days' WarThousand Days' War (1899 to 1902)Open: Chaco WarChaco War (1932 to 1935)

Population of Brazil

Census and estimates.

03.757.511.25151822: 4.51850: 7.21872: 10.11889: 141830184018501860187018801889millions

Timeline of the Empire of Brazil

  1. 1822
    Cry of Ipiranga7 September; Pedro I crowned in December.
  2. 1824
    Constitution
  3. 1831
    Pedro I abdicatesA five-year-old becomes Pedro II.
  4. 1840
    Pedro II declared of ageAt 14.
  5. 1850
    Slave trade endsEusebio de Queiros Law.
  6. 1864
    Paraguayan War beginsEnds 1870.
  7. 1888
    Golden LawSlavery abolished.
  8. 1889
    Republic proclaimed15 November.

Independence by a prince

The Portuguese court had fled Napoleon to Rio in 1808, making Brazil the seat of the empire. When King Joao VI returned to Lisbon in 1821 and the Cortes tried to reduce Brazil to colonial status, his son Pedro refused to leave and on 7 September 1822 proclaimed independence on the banks of the Ipiranga. Independence was won with little bloodshed; Portugal recognised it in 1825. Pedro I abdicated in 1831 after quarrels over the constitution and returned to fight for his daughter's throne in Portugal.

Pedro II

A regency ruled through provincial revolts until Pedro II was declared of age at 14 in 1840. Scholarly and cautious, he presided over parliamentary politics, railway building, immigration and the coffee boom. Brazil fought Argentina's Rosas (1852) and led the Triple Alliance that destroyed Paraguay (1864-1870), a war that cost Brazil 50,000 dead and swelled the army's political ambitions.

Abolition and the fall

Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery. The slave trade ended in 1850, children of slaves were freed in 1871, and Princess Isabel signed the Golden Law abolishing slavery outright on 13 May 1888 while her father was in Europe. Planters, deprived of compensation, abandoned the crown; the army, restless since Paraguay, joined republican officers under Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca in a bloodless coup on 15 November 1889. Pedro II was exiled and died in Paris in 1891.

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

Wars of the same era and region

8 surprising things about the Empire of Brazil

  1. Brazil was the seat of the Portuguese Empire from 1808 to 1821, the only time a European colony hosted its mother country's court.
  2. Pedro II was declared of age at 14 through a parliamentary manoeuvre to end an unpopular regency.
  3. Brazil imported around 4 million enslaved Africans, more than any other country.
  4. Pedro II spoke about a dozen languages and translated Hebrew and Sanskrit texts.
  5. The imperial flag's green and yellow came from the House of Braganza and the House of Habsburg (Pedro I's wife); the republic kept the colours.
  6. The Paraguayan War killed a majority of Paraguay's adult male population.
  7. Pedro II was in Europe when slavery was abolished; his daughter Isabel signed the law and lost the throne 18 months later.
  8. The emperor's exile ship left in the middle of the night; the republican government did not want crowds to see him off.

Sources

  • Empire of Brazil Wikipedia
  • Pedro II Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Brazil: The empire Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Roderick J. Barman, Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil (1999) Stanford University Press

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