In Spite of Tyrants: A Brazilian AAR

rorlegion: Glad to have you on board.

SotV: Well at this stage my economy was quite delicate so I was trying to avoid a war until a could build up a bit. But yes Argentina laying prostrate can only be a good thing for Brazil.

1anrs: True but I'm trying to play somewhat historically, resource poverty might change my priorities as industrialisation begins however.

earthInvader: Cheers

Tommy4ever: I know. Maybe it was fear of slipping into caudillo rule like their neighbours but opinion of the Emperor in these early years was borderline messianic. Even if he irritated politicians he was still seen as the lynchpin of the nation. His stock seems to have been highest in the period he was least active in politics, all things to all men and what not. And I corrected the population, I was just using the POP numbers, grand total at this time is 7 million.

1anrs (2): Very true. Even by the 1850s my immigration numbers surprised me. Nothing to match U.S. levels but a solid influx nonetheless.

GreatUberGeek: Here's hoping!

DensleyBlair: Thanks, GIMP insisted on crashing every two minutes while I was making that map (never done it before) leading me to impotent rage as I saved, crashed, reloaded over the course of an hour. I've been fooling around with some other simple graphic gimmicks to make this my sexiest AAR yet. Which isn't hard.

On the historical accuracy, its mixed. All the characters save generals generated by the game are real, though I might have to create some as time goes on. The Regency was all true though streamlined as it was incredibly complex. I'm now combining game events with the general flow of Brazilian history. The other thing is prime ministerial tenure, in reality the PM seat seems to have been mostly honourary and switched frequently even if governments stayed in power for decades (I think the longest term was 5 years!). I've taken a 'stylistic' decision and made it more permanent along British lines so I have time to develop characters and not baffle everyone one with rotating PMs.

I'm by no means an expert, I usually get a book or two on the area I'm covering but I'm skint right now and decent, low priced English language books on Imperial Brazilian history are few so I'm relying heavily on Wikipedia and Google Books. So a bit of bending the facts is a must.

Dr. Gonzo: I think everything you need to know about the Caudillo's reaction can be seen in that ominous portrait at the end of Part II.

Sandino: Thank you. Yes Rosas is no peacemaker. Reading his bio he sounds more like a Mongolian warlord than a Latin American dictator..

El Pip: And there the fun resides.

mrlifeless: Cheers!

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Update basically written up just need to do pictures, I'll post tomorrow.

By 1845 there was a growing tension across South America and internally within Brazil itself. At home it had seemed Dom Caravelas’ government was overseeing a stable period of increased immigration and economic growth. The general election in August 1844 was uneventful, with both the Liberals and Anti-Lima Conservatives making steady gains (as often through Ordero defection as victory at the ballot box). Dom Maude’s laissez-faire approach at the Finance Ministry had seen exports explode, with coffee, sugar and tropical wood dominating. This in turn had allowed Maude to slash taxes even further and invest in the Jesuit school system, hoping to create the educated workforce needed for his long-sought industrial revolution. The opening up of the Amazon to private enterprise had seen a growth in settlements and farms, often worked by Amerindian slaves captured by the advancing explorers. Vasconcelos’ active diplomacy saw the Empire return to the international stage and gain friends in Chile, Paraguay and Peru. As the Peruvian War dragged on, Brazilian munitions began crossing the border in an effort to turn the tide for the separatists. In Uruguay too, growing Brazilian influence had seen the pro-Argentine Blanco regime fall and return ostensibly to a democracy, dominated by the pro-Brazilian Colorado Party.

The nation’s sense of strength was shattered however by a barrage of crises. In October outbreaks of bovine fever swept the pastures, leading to countless cattle being culled across the country, hurting the general economy and putting thousands of ranchers out of work. A Cholera epidemic in Palmas shortly followed. Pedro II ordered a strict quarantine of the area and insisted on traveling to nearby hospitals to inspect the situation personally, much to the annoyance of his close advisor Dom Sepetiba. In January 1845 as opposition Assemblymen chided the government for its supposedly slow response to the diseases, news arrived of mutiny in Rio Grande. The occupation by General Dutra of the province had been ongoing for eight years. In that time Dutra and his subordinates had turned Rio Grande into their personal fief, extracting tithes and land seizures to enrich themselves. This clique had also become an incubator for reactionary politics with Dutra himself having close links to the Caramura. The far right had been increasingly upset by what they saw as the side-lining of the Emperor by his ministers, leading some to demand direct intervention. On 21st January, Nilo Bittencourt, a colonel serving in Pelotas, raised his regiment in rebellion against the Caravelas government.


Nearby garrisons quickly joined in, while others were notable by their inaction. Dutra is particular failed to move against Bittencourt, claiming he lacked proof of the mutiny and remained in his base of Porto Alegre. The rising was not universally accepted by the occupying forces however. Isaias Wandenkolk, a brigadier of Dutch ancestry, quickly organised a local response. Loyalist troops were soon joined by citizen militias, as were the rebels, many on both sides being veterans of the 1836 republican revolt. When the armies met near Pelotas on 3rd February, the commanders were nervous the soldiers would refuse to fire on their comrades. It proved a brief battle with the rebels retreating into the interior after suffering heavy casualties. Removed from his centre of power Bittencourt’s mutiny began to crumble and on 18th February was defeated near Santa Maria. Wandenkolk was promoted to general and given command of the Rio Grande occupation, while Dutra was dismissed from the military and a purge of reactionary officers begun under the overview of Dom Sepetiba. The Justice Minister’s actions greatly angered conservatives as draconian. Right-wing Senators made it clear to the Emperor they would block the ennoblement of Wandenkolk proposed by Sepetiba, forcing the government to relent.


A secondary cause for the mutiny had been matters of pay. The expanding state budget had seen little improvement in Army wages thanks to the continuing ‘War of the Forts’. In 1842 President Lopez had begun erecting dozens of redoubts along the Paraguayan border in reaction to the Formosa War, hoping to make up for his nation’s small population in any future conflict. In turn Rosas had begun a similar programme, extending forts through the River Plate region along the Brazilian and Uruguayan, as well as Paraguayan border. The General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro reacted in late 1843 by demanding Brazilian emplacements and soon all three countries were in an escalating cold war of masonry. The projects proved costly as engineers on all sides transported heavy materials into the isolated expanses of the Plate. In the Empire it was compounded by the cost of improvements being made to the shipyards of Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Belem, pushing government budgets to the limit. The War of the Forts had also done nothing for regional relations. The dozens of military expeditions into the ill-defined boundaries of the region led to numerous border disputes. The worst were to prove to be between Paraguay and Argentina over the much contested Formosa province.


President Lopez had never recognised Buenos Aires’ control over Formosa and ordered his expeditions deep into territory claimed by Rosas. Amidst the marshland and forests of the area, soldiers had little contact with the capital and several fire fights had punctuated the border dispute, their isolation the only thing avoiding full-blown hostilities. In the summer of 1845 Paraguayan troops constructed a wooden fort on the northern bank of the Bermejo River, the extent of Asuncion’s pre-war frontier. Dubbed the Villa Francia, local Argentine troops were soon mustered and sent to the area, placing the fort under a state of siege. Before either government knew it, they stood on the brink of war. Neither Rosas nor Lopez proved willing to blink as both sides mobilised their armies. At the same time, Argentina had been reasserting her influence in Uruguay much to Rio de Janeiro’s ire. In September the Blancos had kicked out the Colorado government in dubious elections. Rumours were spreading that they intended to allow Argentine soldiers into the country to dissuade Brazil from intervention into the Villa Francia crisis. Many Assemblymen were certainly unconvinced that the Empire should go to war to defend Lopez’s “castelo pantano”, castle in the swamp. Sepetiba proved hawkish and demanded full support for Paraguay and the Colorados to crush Argentine expansionism.

His only supporter in the Cabinet was Vasconcelos who noted that with the Chilean invasion of Bolivia, Rosas could concentrate solely on Brazil and aim to break her resolve. Caravelas and the other ministers were unconvinced with the Prime Minister pushing for the abandonment of Paraguay and a treaty to divide influence in Uruguay. Sepetiba would not relent and used his access to the Imperial court to woo the Emperor, to convince him of the need for military action. News arrived in early October that Argentine troops under the command of General Urquiza, had stormed the Villa Francia, prompting a declaration of war from Lopez. As Paraguayan diplomats flooded the Brazilians with requests for intervention, Pedro II addressed the General Assembly and called for war. The previously divided legislature united behind their monarch and the next day, October 13th 1845, the Assembly confirmed their commitments to Asuncion. Plans had already been put in place for a Plantine campaign and within a matter of days General Wandenkolk was leading 28,000 men west into the Argentine provinces of Misiones. A smaller force under the command of General Tancredo Bernardo marched south into Uruguay to support a Colorado coup in Montevideo. Despite the dubious reasons for hostilities, war fever rapidly swept the Empire as volunteers signed up in their thousands. Prime Minister Caravelas, outmanoeuvred and unwilling to take the nation to war, resigned soon after, to be replaced by Sepetiba.

metalinvader665: I hear that! I've played as Ecuador and still faced the sky blue menace.

earthInvader: Here's hoping!

DensleyBlair: Thank you, I actually nicked the border from the Vicky 1 graphics folder.

Sandino: Gavrilo Princip I'm looking at you!

Dr. Gonzo: We'll see...

GreatUberGeek: Well true :laugh: . Well thank you, after the war we'll be getting back to domestic stuff.

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I've finished writing up the war but its come in at 2300 words and I'm intending to make it graphic heavy. Would people like a jumbo update covering the war in one go or smaller 1100 word-ish chapters? Personally I like big updates but I don't want to put people off with an essay's worth of information.

I probably won't post until Saturday so please let me know your thoughts.