Prologue
King Joao VI (1816-1826)
At the turn of the 19th century, Portugal had long since passed its golden age. The days of Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama, when Lisbon’s fleets had opened up the world to medieval Europe, were long gone. After losing its dominion over the Indies to the Dutch, it was to lose its independence to Hapsburg Spain soon after in 1580. Although in law only a dynastic union, the once mighty kingdom was treated as little more than a province of the empire. Portugal was to only regain its freedom in 1665 after twenty-five devastating years of warfare. In 1755, as the country continued to rebuild its standing on the back of South American gold, a catastrophe even greater than that of foreign armies hit the capital: the Great Lisbon Earthquake. The ancient city was laid waste by fire and tsunami and Portugal left destitute. Although much was done under the ‘enlightened despot’ Pombal to once more restore Lisbon and the country, when the spectre of Napoleon stretched across Europe, Portugal was ill-suited to resist. The Portuguese attempted to retain neutrality, remaining friendly with their old English allies but refusing to antagonise the French. The soon-to-be Emperor and his Spanish allies however, were not satisfied. In 1801, the War of the Oranges, Portugal was swiftly bullied into giving up ties with London and bowing to Bonaparte’s might. Then in 1807, at Fontainebleau, Napoleon and Carlos of Spain signed a treaty dividing all Portuguese territory between them. Soon their vast armies marched on the small kingdom.
Looking to Britain once more, General Arthur Wellesley arrived in Lisbon with an expedition, beginning the Peninsular Wars. As the Franco-Spanish forces advances on Lisbon in early 1808, Wellesley convinced Joao, the prince regent, and his court to flee to the safety of the Brazilian colonies, while a military junta oversaw the homeland for the remainder of the war. The royal family’s exile in Brazil had a profound effect on the colony’s relationship with the motherland. The new cortés in Rio de Janeiro saw a mingling of elites from both sides of the Atlantic unheard of, while retention of central government (in comparison to Spanish America’s slip into local caudillo rule) ensured stability and the flourishing of Brazilian culture and development. Rio, at the centre of it all, sprouted from a mining port into the beginnings of an Iberian metropolis
*. In 1815, on the death of insane Queen Maria, her son took to the throne as King Joao VI. Much has been said about his first act as monarch, that of raising Brazil to the stature of kingdom. Whether driven by love of the country his royal forebears had never set eyes upon, pressured by Brazilian elites and the revolutionary fervours gripping Latin America, or a pedantic wish not to be crowned on mere colonial soil (although, there is varying evidence for all three), it has never been truly ascertained. Regardless, at Joao’s coronation in 1816 in Rio de Janeiro, he was proclaimed the first sovereign of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves. The people of the new kingdom cheered King Joao through the streets and the cortés were hopeful they could avoid the chaos gripping the Spanish Empire, however back in Lisbon there were grumbles of discontent. Portugal had effectively been under martial law since the now-Duke of Wellington’s arrival. Dissenters were treated harshly, corruption was rampant amongst the ruling oligarchy of British officers and merchants and the country had effectively become a supply depot for Westminster’s war effort. With the Napoleonic threat having ended a year previous, the Portuguese were keen to return to native, civilian rule. The King was somewhat reluctant to return, having grown accustomed to life in Rio and paranoid of a nationalist revolution. Finally in February 1817, after the sudden death of his wife, Queen Carlota, Joao relented and along with his two sons, Princes Pedro and Miguel, set sail for home
**.
When the King and cortés arrived back in Lisbon, they found a country difficult to recognise. The scars of the Peninsular War still remained on the landscape, while the to and fro of armies had seen massive changes both socially and politically. The main cities of Lisbon and Oporto had swelled with an influx of peasants, many having seen their communal farms destroyed or seized by aristocratic landowners aided by British indifference. Meanwhile the King’s exile and the spread of radical ideas via the French armies had seen the feudal deference of pre-1808 severely knocked. Although republicans were few in number, amongst the urban classes of merchants, artisans and the new industrialists, calls for reform were particularly vocal. Ironically, although junta-rule had seen severe repression of crime and anti-British or pro-French sentiment, beyond this the Portuguese had gained new freedoms. The new liberal press for instance had become an epicentre of dissenting thought, while middle-class Societies and Clubs had begun to form based on politics, science and philosophy. With the return of King Joao VI, few intended to stop such activity. Once more, whether by accident or design, the King acted the neutral arbiter, allowing the new urban liberalism to continue, though unwilling to reform government. Although this avoided a violent confrontation that many believed was coming in 1817, it did little to answer the demands of the people. Alongside calls for reform there were suspicions over Brazil’s station. From reactionaries angry at the ‘loss’ of the colonial empire to radical liberals angry that Sao Paulo plantation owners had more say than Lisbon’s middle-class, a growing consensus viewed Joao’s treatment of Brazil with contempt. Finally in November 1822, as the King left for a six-month stay in Rio, protests filled the streets of the capitol. Prince Pedro, left to rule as regent, had long been keen to change the political landscape to ensure stability and now with his intractable father gone, intended to do so. Based on ideas he had acquired from Britain, the USA, France, and his own Iberian absolutist streak, the 1823 Constitutional Charter
*** garnered a mixed reaction. It uniquely split power into four institutions: the legislature of the cortés, the executive of the King’s ministers, and the judiciary of the courts, all overseen by the crown, the moderating power. The cortés was to split between a traditional House of Peers and an elected Chamber of Deputies which represented the entire United Kingdom, with wealth-based suffrage. Alongside a large Brazilian bloc, representatives from the Azores, Macau, Angola and elsewhere were designated
****. The Charter pleased many moderates, however left-wing riots in Oporto broke out soon after, while from the right, a threat far closer to home appeared.
Punch caricuture depicting the international connections of the 'War of the Two Brothers'
Prince Miguel, an arch-conservative and Germanophile, was appalled at his older brother’s actions which he saw as pandering to republicans and British liberalism. On King Joao’s return to Portugal he had hoped the Charter would be undone however the monarch proved as placid as ever to events beyond his palace walls. When the king passed away in 1826, tensions that had been building for years were suddenly unleashed. Miguel, with much support from senior army officers, landowners and the clergy raised an army at Vila Franca on March 3rd 1827, declaring Pedro unfit to rule and the nation at the mercy of Bonapartists and radicals. Pedro meanwhile was reliant on the navy and urban militias for support, and sent word to Brazil. Thus the Portuguese Civil War began. The war lasted four years before Spain and France withdrew financial support for Miguel and the new Whig government in Britain finally intervened on the side of Pedro, ensuring a swift conclusion. Beyond several abortive sieges of Lisbon, and Oporto changing hands several time there were few large-scale battles. What is of note however is how the nature of the conflict helped shape Portugal for decades to come. The mass support for Miguel within the Portuguese Army, particularly amongst the higher echelons saw an already noticeable shift towards the navy as the primary military arm, while the exile of many generals also saw a younger and more ‘colonial’ officer corps rise to fill the vacuum. Chief amongst these was Joao Saldanha, a veteran of the French Wars, he had gone with the royal family to Rio and become a colonel, only to return in 1828 as leader of a pro-Pedro expedition. Although it would be easy to, as state propaganda tried many times, to show this as the moment Brazil showed its power and care for the motherland, it certainly managed, if only by seeing its strongest critics fleeing or dead, to cement the Union somewhat. Similarly the massive financial aid of businesses and industry that fuelled Pedro’s war effort soon saw the beginning of the slow shift from agriculture to commerce as the power source of Portuguese politics (but not that of Brazil it should be said).
Sadly for King Pedro IV, his newfound peace would be short-lived. In January 1834, the young king died suddenly, leaving the throne to his eight year old son, the now King Pedro V. An extremely intelligent child, Pedro would reign for much of the century, however his early years were to be dogged by problems his father had ignored, and a series of self-interested regents…
*At this time Rio had a population of 150,000. By comparison New York had only 125,000.
**This is the POD. In OTL King Joao didn’t return to Portugal until 1821, and then only due to mass revolts against his absence and junta rule. The reason for his long self-imposed exile seem to be: 1) He was infamously lazy and pleasure-seeking, Joao seems to have been content to live an extended tropical holiday, far from war-ravaged Portugal, while as mentioned there was fear if he left all the royal good will developed would dry up, 2) Queen Carlota: She held massive influence over the King, and as sister of King Ferdinand of Spain, she used her time in Brazil to develop conspiracies and coups in the hope of gaining control of as much of the fragmenting Spanish Empire as possible. Ostensibly, this was to secure them for Madrid but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest she was looking towards carving out a kingdom of her own. Without her around, Joao is more free and willing to return home, while I think her death would knock him out of his idyllic bliss.
***This is a cross between OTL’s 1820 radical constitution, the 1822 Brazilian constitution and the 1826 compromise charter, the last two having been written under Pedro’s supervision. I think historian Marshall Eakin put the Prince’s approach to government best as “liberal in heart, authoritarian in mind”.
****This might seem odd and unrealistic but it was how Portuguese politics and colonialism worked. The idea, or rather ideal, of Ultramar, the Portuguese universalism is a very unique approach to empire and by the 19th century was very much cemented into society. It can be seen in the formation of the United Kingdom in the positive and Salazar’s bitter colonial wars in the negative. The idea that wherever the flag flew was truly Portugal and at least superficially equal to it is one of the fascinating things about this country’s history.