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Jape

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In Spite of Tyrants
A Brazilian AAR


I. Regency
II. New Era
III. Villa Francia Crisis
IV. Platine War
V. Fall of the Courtiers
VI. "Warm Bodies"
VII. Telegrafo Affair
VIII. Law of the Circles
 
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Subscribed
 
Ready for this.
 
Hey guys thanks for all the support as this gets underway. To answer your question MarkBrandenburg yes this is using the POP Demand Mod for Hearts of Darkness.

Right, since its too small for two updates you're getting a bumper book mega prologue-early years post charting 1831-1840. I warn you in advance there's ALOT of names and factions in this part though a real party system will form as the AAR goes on and become much easier to follow.

I'll have the update up in the next hour or so.
 
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I. Regency

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Rio de Janeiro, Capital of the Empire circa 1835

On 23rd July 1840, in Rio de Janeiro, something incredible happened. The political cliques of the young Brazilian Empire, the liberals and conservatives, courtiers and slavers, monarchist and republicans, came together to renounce their power. For nine years since the founder of their nation Dom Pedro I had left to defend his daughter’s throne across the ocean, a regency had overseen the rule of his successor Pedro II, a five year old boy. Despite the best efforts of the child’s father the semi-absolutist constitution of the Empire relied on a unifying figure to function. The first regent, appointed by Pedro I prior to his abdication in 1831, was Jose Bonifacio de Andrada. A scholar and advisor during the tumultuous War of Independence, Andrada was highly respected in Rio, but he was no politician. Unlike the Emperor the position of Regent was answerable to the General Assembly, split between the elected Chamber of Deputies and noble Senate. It wasn’t long before the vested interests of the nation manoeuvred to depose Andrada. Spuriously accused of treason by the Assembly in 1833, Andrada was sent into exile to be replaced by Diogo Antonio Feijo.

Feijo was a lay priest and leader of the Nativist faction, a collection of liberal Deputies united solely through their opposition to what they saw as the authoritarian power of the monarchy. Containing a strong republican faction, the Nativists and Feijo quickly set about attempting to alter the constitution to reduce Imperial power and more importantly entrench themselves as the leading force in Brazilian politics. In the former they found allies in the Coimbra Bloc [1], consisting of aristocratic and landowner interests who sort to decentralise power to this respective regions. Led by Pedro de Araujo Lima, the Coimbra Bloc controlled the Senate and together with the Nativist Deputies created a tentative coalition known as the Moderate Party, giving them a majority in both Houses. Opposed to the Moderates was the third force in the Assembly, collectively known as the Caramura [2]. A group of reactionary intellectuals, nobles and military officers, they sort the restoration of Pedro I and the establishment of an autocratic government. United by ideology rather than self-interest the Caramura, despite making up no more than ten percent of the Assembly, were a formidable and cohesive faction.

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Regent Jose Andrada and his usurper, Diogo Feijo

The low voting threshold for the Chamber of Deputies quickly saw the Nativists and the populist Feijo come to dominate the Assembly and by extension the Regency [3]. In 1834 the Moderate alliance passed the Additional Act, which altered the constitution, federalising the Empire to popular acclaim. The effects of the Act however proved disastrous for commoners. With political power in the provinces greatly increased, the local cliques effectively created one-party states, shutting out opponents from government, administration and commerce. The Assembly lacked the power to directly intervene and many simply had no reason to. Members of the Coimbra Bloc profited greatly from the new local situation while Feijo was interested solely in controlling the capital and the young Emperor’s court. This dereliction of duty led to an explosion of violence, corruption and even outright revolt in the provinces. In Maranhao and Grao-Para in the north, ranchers, peasants and slaves united in uprisings against white landowners throughout the 1830s leading to sporadic, unenthusiastic Army expeditions to put them down. A similar revolt also broke out amongst the gauchos of Rio Grande do Sul on the border with Uruguay. Government lethargy to these Farrapos [4] would prove a grave mistake.

By 1835 the pact between Feijo and Lima was wearing thin. With the passing of the Additional Act the Coimbra Bloc had little to gain from the coalition while Feijo’s increasingly dictatorial stance hardly endeared them to the Regent. As early as 1833 the Nativists had attempted what amounted to a constitutional coup, putting a motion through the Assembly to abolish the Senate and the Council of State, the cabinet of the Regent and only direct check on his powers. A joint effort by the Coimbra Bloc and Caramura had halted the effort with the help of veiled threats of military intervention but Feijo’s power base meant he suffered only a temporary loss of control. Since then the Regent had moved slowly, expelling or bribing Council members who opposed to him, until he held absolute control over the executive. In April 1835 Feijo managed to squeak through an election to continue as Regent. This would prove the apex of his reign. In September 1834 news had reached Rio de Janeiro of Pedro I’s death, removing the central restorantionist tenet of the Caramura. Rather than dissolve, the reactionary party turned their ire directly on Feijo and his liberal, republican leanings.

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Leaders of the Coimbra Bloc: Pedro Lima and Carneiro Leao

Lima's protege, Carneiro Leao, soon approached the Caramura leadership with suggestions of a conservative alliance. The re-election of Feijo cast away any misgivings the reactionaries might have had and the Regent’s grip on the Assembly began to dissolve. Feijo’s decline was greatly helped along by the Rio Grande revolt. Initially just another social uprising in a poor region of the Empire, by 1836 it had escalated into a full blown secessionist revolution. Feeling ignored by the capital and isolated from the slaver-planter elite that dominated the Empire, the Farrapos led by Bento Goncalves [5] had declared independence for the Riograndese Republic. Supported with arms and funds from the Rosas regime in Argentina it wasn’t long before the entire province had fallen to the rebels. As usual Feijo reacted slowly, sending regiments piecemeal, expecting the gauchos to flee before Imperial troops. Goncalves, a professional soldier and Independence War veteran, had raised a formidable army 20,000 strong and smashed each government force in turn. By April, surprised by the timid response, the rebels marched north along the coast intent on capturing Rio de Janeiro to force Brazilian recognition of the Republic.

It was only now after the string of government defeats that Feijo, under intense pressure from all factions including his own, called a general mobilisation to crush the revolution and save the capital. A hastily gathered army led by General Antonio Dutra marched south to confront Goncalves, meeting him near Curitiba on 3rd May. Though matched in numbers, the ill-prepared Brazilian conscripts proved no match for the battle-hardened rebels. A people used to hunting and riding, the Farrapo riflemen proved their marksmanship while gaucho cavalry tore through the government lines. Dutra retreated to Rio de Janeiro, prompting mass panic as civilians fled in anticipation of the invading army. The defeat doomed Feijo. Though he could not be legally removed as Regent until the Assembly voted in 1838, the Deputies and Senators rounded on him. The Nativists, hardly a coherent party beforehand defected in droves to Lima’s coalition. His base now gone, Feijo accepted Coimbra and Caramura members into the Council of State, making Lima de facto ruler of the Empire. He quickly organised reinforcements to be ferried from the north, consisting of veterans of the Grao-Para uprisings. Crucially at this moment Goncalves halted to rest the men and await his own reinforcements.

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1st Battle of Caritiba, 3rd May 1836 | Government Forces muster near Rio de Janeiro

As such General Dutra met the rebels once more outside Curitiba on 18th June, this time with experienced troops and an almost 2-to-1 numerical advantage. The rebels were beaten, losing thousands of irreplaceable soldiers in the process. Dutra pressed the advantage, harrying Goncalves towards Porto Alegre, the Riograndese capital. Over the coming months the two commanders had several battles through the province. Every time the Brazilians suffered the lion’s share of casualties yet forced the Farrapos from the field, driving inexorably into rebel territory. While government forces only increased, the all-volunteer Riograndese army disintegrated as thousands of soldiers lost hope in the cause and returned home. The last major confrontation of the war, the Battle of Santa Maria near the Argentine border, saw the rebels smashed. Hungry, tired and dejected, the Farrapos fought for several hours before Goncalves surrendered to Dutra. As acting president of the Republic, Goncalves issued a decree across the region for his men to stand down. Many did not listen however and it would not be until November 1837 that the last organised rebels under Antonio Neto agreed to government amnesty. A large garrison would nonetheless remain in the region for almost a decade to ensure no future revolts.

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Battle of Santa Maria, 12th December 1836 | Last Stand of the Farrapos

Back in Rio de Janeiro the new government breathed a sigh of relief. With small-scale revolts still on-going across Brazil and the Coimbra Bloc not interested in reversing the decentralisation of power wholesale, they passed an amendment to the Additional Act granting the central government power over provincial law enforcement, in order to intervene directly in future unrest. After the violence of recent years, the measure angered many as a poor compromise. Former Nativists led by the Viscount of Caravelas quickly broke with Lima over the issue. Even moderate Coimbra Deputies like Zacarias Vasconcelos made their displeasure known but with Feijo’s clique gone, there was simply no organised opposition to Lima’s new conservative alliance. No organised opposition in the Assembly at least. By April 1838 and Lima’s official election as Regent, a group known as the Courtier’s Faction had made themselves known. Made up of advisors and high-ranking servants to Pedro II in the Imperial Palace, they had first coalesced as supporters of Andrada. Under the autocratic Feijo they had little input but with Lima dependent on the support of the ultra-royalist Caramura, they began to make headway.

Led by Aureliano Coutinho they quickly became a nuisance, using their influence in the Senate to block Lima’s appointments to the Council of State. The Courtiers looked to the displaced liberals as allies of convenience as well. Having shed the legacy of Feijo, Senators like Dom Caravelas and Deputies like Francisco de Paula were desperate to regain influence. Egged on by Coutinho they began lobbying for the end of the Regency, for the Emperor to be declared of age. With Pedro only twelve years-old at the time it was a clear effort to depose Lima and replace him with Pedro as a puppet. Despite this many within the Caramura were supportive. Supporters of Andrada as well, a ‘purist’ minority led by the first regent's brother, Antonio Carlos, sided with the opposition. By 1839, Lima’s coalition was starting to break apart. Ironically he had quickly come to enjoy the power of the Regency and with his loyalists began acting in much the same manner as Feijo, ejecting critics from the Council of State and using their majority in the Senate to ignore the growing opposition.

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The Chamber of Deputies: Centre of the mounting anti-Lima coalition in 1839

Lima’s rump was based heavily around the coffee plantation owners of the south and this period was a massive boom time for coffee exports as duties were slashed and rivals muscled out of the market. This favouritism angered many. Due to the corrupt nature of the boom the state collected little revenue and in order to balance the budget Lima proposed new taxes. Such a move required a vote in the Assembly and it was now his disparate opponents united. Rebel Coimbra member Zacarias Vasconcelos was the figurehead, splitting the Bloc as he demanded a compromise in exchange for the legislation. The opposition wanted the Regent-appointed Council of State abolished and replaced with a cabinet drawn directly from the Assembly. Hoping to avoid a total loss of power, Lima accepted and much to his annoyance Vasconcelos was chosen as chief of the cabinet, making him de facto prime minister. For obvious reasons the two struggled to work together. Lima was used to complete control, while Vasconcelos did his level best to break up the Regency cabal. Finally in December Lima could take no more and removed Vasconcelos.

The dismissal caused outrage in the Assembly as the opposition denounced Lima as a tyrant and the entire cabinet resigned. Lima struggled for months attempting to cobble together a new government but beyond opportunists and non-entities he found few supporters. Deciding to avoid a putsch like his predecessor suffered, Lima proposed a constitutional amendment that would see Pedro II brought into government slowly until his official coronation in 1842 when the Regent would stand down. It was too little too late. With an early majority now favoured by all the opposition wanted Lima gone and gone quick. The opposition, a ragged band of republicans, liberals, absolutists and rebel conservatives, also had no interest in seeing one faction gain total dominance. Many, having seen the chaos and back-stabbing of the Regency simply wanted it to be at an end. It was decided unanimously by a vote in the Assembly on 23rd July 1840 that Pedro II would be given his majority effective immediately. And that is how a legislature of cutthroat politicians gave executive control of the largest nation in the Western Hemisphere to a fourteen year old boy.

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Coronation of His Imperial Majesty Dom Pedro II [6]

[1] So-called because all of its leaders had graduated from Coimbra University.
[2] Named after Diogo Alvares Correia, a 16th century Portuguese explorer known to the Tupi natives as Caramuru. He is seen as something of a founding father of colonial Brazil.
[3] Brazil had a franchise based on wealth but was low enough that practically everyone bar Indians, slaves and tenant farmers (plus women of course) could vote. Post-Reform Act Britain’s electorate for instance was a fifth that of contemporary Brazil by percentage.
[4] Disdainful term for ranchers and gauchos that translates literally as ‘tatters’ referring to their weathered clothes but is commonly translated to ragamuffin.
[5] Though a staunch monarchist Goncalves was that fed up with Feijo he gave in to radical pleas and became the one and only president of Rio Grande.
[6] Despite looking pretty 'mature' for a fourteen year old, this is the real painting of the coronation, guessing its just artistic license.
 
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Awesome! That was a hefty heap of political skulduggery, really great. A question, have the politicians totally given up power to a spotty teen?

Oh and I'm sure not much has happened in four game years in South America but can we have a map please?
 
Nice introduction, looking forward to this starting in earnest.
 
SotV: I think world domination will have to wait for a while. My goals are industrialisation, GP status and geopolitical dominance of South America. Oh and try to keep the monarchy afloat.

Sandino: No, no, no. Brazil's constitution is basically Prussian as opposed to British figurehead monarchs or Russian absolutism. The Emperor is the active executive of the state but his power is limited by the legislature and its Cabinet. And on a map certainly, I've managed to make one not entirely produced in MS Paint!

Dr. Gonzo: We shall see. And geopolitics coming right up!

Tommy4ever: Glad to have you on board Tommy, will get going very soon.

metalinvader665: Aye, the rebellions can be a pain but Brazil if played right is a sleeping giant. The Sabinada event did happen but frankly nothing came off it, so I haven't made a direct allusion to it in the AAR.

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Update in a bit, just sorting the pictures.
 
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II. New Era

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The end of the anarchic Regency saw jubilation reign throughout the Empire. Across all sections of society the coming of the Emperor’s majority was hailed as the start of a new age. In many ways it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The social revolts that plagued Brazil in the 1830s had been heavily monarchist in tone and targeted at the inept rule of Feijo and Lima. The battle cry of Bento Goncalves, the erstwhile president of the Riograndese Republic, had been “For Dom Pedro”. As news of the ascension travelled unrest plummeted with it. Merchants and farmers who had failed to court the favour of the old regime were hopeful the Emperor would end the corruption and nepotism. The abolition of the all-powerful title of Regent greatly helped towards this in of itself. In the General Assembly, politicians drained by a decade of constitutional conflict looked to Pedro for authority to end the chaos, which in turn led to greater cooperation in the legislature. All in all it was a heavy burden for a fourteen year-old. Pedro II was an awkward, shy boy who had grown up with books instead of friends. In his first meetings with the provisional Cabinet he irritated many by being uncommunicative and immature.

The fall of Lima and the Regency had precipitated a general election. Though the coming of Pedro had created an ‘era of good feeling’ it could not make Latin American politics genteel. The new situation and the discrediting of the Nativists and Coimbra Bloc bore witness to a major realignment of factions all desperately seeking a majority to work with, and manipulate, the Emperor. It was a campaign of violence and fraud, known to Brazilians as the “Eleicoes do cecete”, the Bludgeon Election. Four groups coalesced in the new Assembly. The Party of Order, effectively Lima’s loyalist coalition of Caramura and Coimbra Bloc members organised into a distinct conservative group and the Empire’s first true political party. The rump Caramura who had opposed the Regent, led by Antonio Andrada, dedicated to royal authority and nationalism. The Anti-Lima Conservatives who refused to join the ‘Orderos’, led by Zacarias Vasconcelos, positioning themselves as a moderate, centrist force. The final and largest group were the Liberals, a broad alliance of Nativists, republicans, conservatives and even former Caramura members, united purely to deny Lima power. They promoted commerce and parliamentary government. If the Liberals could be said to have leadership it was Dom Caravelas [1], a Nativist Senator who had opposed Feijo’s radicals.

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For all the chaos of the 1840 election, no party managed an absolute majority. In the Chamber of Deputies the Liberals and Anti-Lima Conservatives formed a coalition. In the Senate, composed of life peers, allegiances were harder to define. All parties courted the large Independent group, which despite its name was made up primarily of Courtier Faction members ennobled on the Emperor’s ascension. The Courtiers were not only valuable to gain a majority in the Senate but due to their closeness to the Emperor. Pedro’s anti-social manner meant he deferred in these early years to the people who had raised him in the Imperial Palace. Aureliano Coutinho, now Dom Sepetiba, had been Pedro’s chief tutor and was now his right-hand man in government. Having been instrumental in Lima’s fall, he allied with the disparate Liberals. Dom Caravelas became the Empire’s first official Prime Minister, but Sepetiba, officially only Minister of Justice, proved the real power in the Cabinet through his genuine political acumen (certainly in comparison to the passive Caravelas) and his influence over the Emperor. Other notables in the government were Dom Maude, the Liberal Finance Minister, and Vasconcelos who took the Foreign Ministry.

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Leaders of the Liberal-Anti-Lima Government: Dom Caravelas, Dom Maude, Dom Sepetiba, Zacarias Vasconcelos


Across all sections of government, the Caravelas Ministry had plenty of work to do. The misrule of the Regents had seen high taxes, corruption and Brazil’s retreat into isolationism. The Empire despite its size was a minnow in the grand scheme of things. It had not changed at all since independence, an agrarian colony that only held international attention for its coffee and sugar exports. Rio de Janeiro was Brazil’s only true city, its inhabitants numbering 150,000 and the centre of the nation’s small industries, composed entirely of guild artisans specialising in textiles. Beyond were Sao Paulo, a large town but one that amounted to little more than a dock for coffee exports, and Belem in the far north, effectively a colonial fort which oversaw the administration of the vast Amazonas province. Slaves and tenant farmers working in peonage made up 80% of the 7 million citizens of the Empire, while literacy stood at 7.5%, the only public education being provided by the Jesuits. The standing army numbering 24,000 was respectable by the standards of the continent, led by veterans of the War of Independence and composed of soldiers blooded in the revolts of the 1830s. The navy, the Imperial Armada, on the other hand existed only on paper, her once impressive battle line either taken by Pedro I to fight in Europe [2] or sold off by the Regency.

Dom Maude, educated abroad in the Whig tradition, set about slashing taxes and tariffs hoping to encourage commerce and industry. The rich forests of the Amazon, once a preserve of the state were ‘privatised’, allowing logging companies and others to explore and exploit the untouched region. The economy certainly experienced an upswing but it was entirely agricultural in nature as global coffee prices boomed in the early 1840s. The simple fact was that Brazil had no discernable middle-class. Only the landowner elite could afford to invest in modern industry and they were quite comfortable with the centuries-old system of latifundios [3]. The growing surplus was nonetheless put to good use. The resurrection of the Armada begin in late 1841, at the insistence of Sepetiba who decried the lack of a fleet as just one more reason that the Empire was looked down upon in Europe. The rudimentary shipyards of Rio de Janeiro struggled with supplies and skilled craftsmen, causing constant delays before British advisors were brought in at great cost. By 1843 a respectable squadron had been formed, consisting of three frigates and the man-o-war Constituicao along smaller support craft.

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Demographics of Brazil, 1840 | Growing relations with Chile

On paper at least the Imperial Armada equalled that of Argentina, the premier naval power of the continent. This as much as international prestige was the reason for the naval build-up. Buenos Aires under dictatorial rule of General Rosas had taken full advantage of Brazil’s problems to expand its influence across the region. Rosas dreamed of reuniting the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata under his control. Following Uruguay’s secession from Brazil in 1828, the Argentines had poured funds into the Blanco Party in Montevideo, creating a one-party puppet state. A brief war in 1839 against Paraguay had seen Rosas seize the valuable Formosa province. Beyond this he had provided the Riograndese rebels with arms and was heavily involved in the Peruvian Civil War, hoping to destabilise the region so that he might annex the Bolivian provinces of the former Viceroyalty. Such belligerence worried Rio de Janeiro and in this they found a natural ally in Chile. Though protected by the Andes she was an obvious target for Argentina to gain a Pacific port. The Chileans were also the only other South American nation to establish a functioning democracy, providing ideological reasons for friendship beyond the looming threat of Rosas.

In November 1841, Foreign Minister Vasconcelos travelled to Santiago and met with President Bulnes. The discussions proved positive, though mainly theoretical. Both men talked of their worry of Argentine aggression but Bulnes felt a formal alliance would be too provocative at this stage. Nonetheless the Chileans were clear; a united diplomatic front would have to be presented to halt Rosas’ adventurism. Possibilities of trade agreements were also talked over, with Chile’s impressive industrial base and Brazil’s vast resources offering up obvious possibilities. Vasconcelos then travelled to Lima, capital of North Peru currently rebelling against the Bolivian dominated Confederation government. Though unwilling to recognise the Peruvians officially, Vasconcelos explained Brazil’s disinterest in a united Andean state ruled from La Paz and offered the Emperor’s assurance that any Peruvian armies using Brazilian territory to outflank the Bolivians would do so unmolested. The final stage of the Foreign Minister’s grand tour was Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. Formerly the hermit kingdom of South America under the rule of the austere Jose de Francia, her new leader President Carlos Lopez had begun opening up the nation, particularly after the disastrous Formosa War. Lopez, a bombastic ultra-nationalist had little love for Brazil but he knew a counter-weight was needed against Argentina. In March 1842, the two nations signed a formal alliance, to the horror of Buenos Aires. Rosas was growing increasingly agitated by Brazil’s return to the international stage.


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Juan Manuel de Rosas, Caudillo of Argentina

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[1] Just to be clear, the Senate is composed of life peers appointed by the Emperor with the Cabinet getting a word in. The peers have three ranks in ascending order, Marquis, Viscount and Duke. I will refer to Senators by their title, so Manual Alvares Branco, Viscount of Caravelas is simply Dom Caravelas (Dom being the equivalent of Lord in British politics) and so on.
[2] Pedro I didn’t steal the ships as he owned many of them personally. Still a bit of a dick move.
[3] AKA slave plantations and peonage. The Confederados came to Brazil for a very good reason.
 
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