Brazilian Independence from Portugal
When Napoleon invaded Portugal in 1807, the Prince Regent Joao, ruling the country in the name of his mother Queen Maria I (whom had been found insane in 1792), fled with his court to the Portuguese colony of Brazil. When Joao arrived in Brazil he established his court in Salvador and immediately enacted a trade agreement opening Brazilian ports to Great Britain. Prior to this arrangement Brazilian trade had been exclusively with Portugal. After the defeat of Napoleon Joao established through the Congress of Vienna the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, which placed Brazil on an equal basis with Portugal.
In 1816 Joao acceded to the Portuguese throne as King Joao VI. He remained in Brazil, establishing an expanded commerce, education system, medical facilities, and the Bank of Brazil. He also established military academies, a gunpowder manufacturing facility in Rio de Janeiro, and a relatively free press. In 1821 he returned to Portugal facing financial difficulties and a revolt of the royal governors who had administered the country in his absence. One of the demands of their revolt was the king’s return to Lisbon. His heir, Prince Pedro, remained in Brazil. The royal governors also demanded the creation of a constitutional monarchy.
Brazil was by then the economic equal to Portugal, if not economically superior, and the new constitutional government demanded that Brazil be returned to its status of a colony, rather than the equal status granted by the Congress of Vienna. It also demanded that Prince Pedro return to Portugal. Pedro refused, and instead, with the support of the Municipal Senate of Rio de Janeiro, declared Brazil to be independent of Portugal and himself to be Emperor of Brazil, creating and assuming the throne as Dom Pedro I on September 7, 1822.
Portuguese garrisons remained in Brazil, and received the support of others who were unwilling to accept independence from Portugal. Emperor Pedro I took steps to create an army and navy, and ordered conscription of Amerindians, and forced enlistment of slaves, who were rewarded with their freedom. Brazilian ships began to interdict reinforcements from Portugal for the garrisons. The ships manned with volunteers from the British, recruited secretly by Brazilian agents in Liverpool, Bristol, Portsmouth, and other British ports. Many were veterans of the Napoleonic wars, beached on half-pay as the British Navy was reduced to peace time strength.
Ensuing naval victories led to the reduction of Portuguese garrisons and the cutting off of supplies, and the vast areas of Brazil were for the most part cleared of Portuguese troops and militant supporters by the end of 1823. Portugal recognized the Empire of Brazil as an independent nation in 1825. At the time Brazil included parts of today’s Uruguay (Montevideo) and other regions which later became separate nations in revolutions of their own. Although there were no official records kept which have survived to modern times, based on the size of the battles of the Brazilian War of Independence, estimates are that 5,000 – 7,000 casualties were incurred evicting the Kingdom of Portugal from the Americas.