Between the colonial regime and the establishment of empire in Brazil

Brazil’s independence did not come about overnight, based on the individual wishes of the Prince Regent, but was in fact the result of a political, economic and cultural process involving a series of circumstances and interests.

After reading this chapter you will be able to

• Identify the main features of the last period of Brazilian colonial history;
• Relate the emancipation movements in Brazil to the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution;
• Identify certain social, political, economic and cultural changes as a result of the relocation of the Portuguese Court to Rio de Janeiro;
• understand the proclamation of Brazilian independence as the result of a process and not as an isolated event.

The periods have been divided into temporal phases

• the protest movements
• the transfer of the court
• the portuguese empire in the tropics
• Breaking colonial ties

Protest movements

1. introduction

We are about to begin a study of the process of independence of Portuguese America, commonly known as Brazil.

This process, in turn, can be seen as the final phase of the Brazilian colonial period, or as a period of transition between the colonial regime and the establishment of the empire.

Our history begins in the 18th century.

The 18th century, also known as the Age of Enlightenment, was a time of intense change in Western Europe.

You’ll remember that the word ‘light’ is a metaphor for ‘reason’.

At that time, the Enlightenment and scientific knowledge were emphasised.

The 18th century is therefore a new historical period characterised by the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

Enlightenment: An 18th-century intellectual movement characterised by the centrality of science and critical rationality in philosophical inquiry, and implying a rejection of all forms of dogmatism, especially that of traditional political and religious doctrines.

Synonyms, by extension of meaning: Enlightenment, Enlightenment, Enlightenment, Enlightenment Century (HOUAISS, 2001, 1572).

In this sense, the Enlightenment movement had a significant influence on Brazil’s emancipation process.

In addition, the revolutionary events of the late 17th and 18th centuries also serve as a backdrop for understanding our country’s independence.

Let’s look at the main events.

At the end of the 17th century, the absolutist monarchy in England suffered its first major defeat with the Glorious Revolution (1688).

In North America, the Thirteen Colonies declared their independence in 1776, breaking away from English rule.

In 1789, the French Revolution sealed a new political phase with the republican regime.

At the same time, the capitalist economic system was taking hold following the industrial revolution and the exploitation of wage labour.

In the midst of these revolutionary movements of the bourgeoisie (liberal revolutions), the struggle against the slave trade took place at the same time.

The first nation to abolish slavery was England in 1807.

In the Americas, Haiti declared its independence in 1791 under the influence of the French ideals of “liberty, equality and fraternity”.

In fact, these events prepared the ground for the end of colonial rule in Brazil.

According to Mary Del Priore (2001, p. 174)

The economic and political situation on this side of the Atlantic worsened as the transition began from a regime of monopolies to one of free competition, and from slave labour to wage labour.

Free trade, civil equality, free labour, freedom and property were seen as natural rights of the individual.

These facts are generally presented as a break with the Ancien Régime in Western Europe (the period known as the Modern Age), which was characterised by absolutist politics (absolutism) and a protectionist market economy.

Absolutism: A political system of government in which the leaders assume absolute powers, without limitations or restrictions, and exercise, de facto and de jure, all the attributes of sovereignty (HOUAISS, 2001, p. 30).In this first theme, we will study the main events that marked Brazil’s independence process.

We will begin our journey into the colonial past of Portuguese America in the last decades of the 18th century, in the region of Minas Gerais.

But we will also travel to other times and places to better understand the reasons that led Dom Pedro I, with the support of Brazil’s colonial elite, to declare a break with Portugal.

1.

2. The process of emancipation from colonial Brazil

On 7 September 1822, Prince Dom Pedro I proclaimed Brazil’s independence in the Ipiranga region of São Paulo.

Brazil’s independence was a symbolic act of political autonomy for the country, which was no longer a Portuguese colony but an autonomous state.

However, Brazil’s emancipation did not happen overnight, based on the individual desire of the Prince Regent, but was in fact the result of a political, economic and cultural process involving a series of circumstances and interests.

Let’s take a look at some of the main conflicts that marked Brazil’s emancipation process.

2.1 Inconfidência Mineira

Inconfidência Mineira (inconfidência means disloyalty, betrayal of a sovereign) was one of the main movements for the liberation of the colony.

Liberal ideas, coming from overseas and determined by internal economic reasons, are fundamental factors in explaining this revolt that took place in the Minas Gerais captaincy.

The history of mining in Brazil began with the Paulistas (bandeirantes), who in 1695, on their expeditions through the interior of Brazil, fulfilled an old wish of the Portuguese crown: they discovered the first gold deposits.

It was in the Rio das Velhas, in Minas Gerais, near the present-day city of Sabará.

From then on there was a growing movement of immigration into Brazil, with foreigners and settlers flocking to the south-eastern region, marking a new political, economic and cultural phase in colonial Brazil.

According to Boris Fausto (2007, p. 98), in the first sixty years of the eighteenth century, “[…] about 600,000 people arrived from Portugal and the Atlantic islands, an average of 8,000 to 10,000 per year, people from the most diverse backgrounds, from small landowners, priests, merchants to prostitutes and adventurers”.

The immigration of Portuguese was so great that the government began to control and prohibit them from leaving for Brazil.

In March 1720, the Crown issued a decree restricting immigration; from that date, a special passport was required to embark.

Mining led to a rapid increase in the colonial population.

At the end of the first century of the colonial period, Portuguese America had around 100,000 inhabitants; at the end of the 17th century, the population was around 300,000 people; at the end of the 18th century, the colony had around 3.3 million inhabitants.

The consequences of this growth were significant: the value of land fell as the price of gold rose, and urban centres developed.

Towns and cities sprang up where the hinterland had been: Sabará, São João del-Rei, Tiradentes, Diamantina and Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto).

Indeed, mining provided the colony with the great transformations that preceded the phase of political autonomy.

The most important of these were undoubtedly the demographic upsurge that took place at the time, with the displacement of part of the colonial population and the luxury of migration; the opening up of a new and vast area for settlement; the extensive knowledge of the country, with the penetration that almost completely devoured Brazil […]; the internal connections and land circulation that corresponded to the routes that had been established…….]; the internal connections and the circulation of the country, which corresponded to the routes from the mining region to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Goiás, Mato Grosso, not to mention the long route to the Platin zone; the creation of new captaincies, those of Minas Gerais (1720) and Goiás and Mato Grosso (1749); the transfer of the colonial headquarters from the city of Salvador to Rio de Janeiro (1763); the enormous growth of the administrative apparatus, especially in the fiscal, military and judicial sectors […]….]…].

The discovery of gold came at a time when the price of sugar was falling due to competition from the United States, and it became an important source of income for the Portuguese metropolis.

The creation of the aforementioned captaincies was the result of Portugal’s concern to control the mining regions administratively and militarily.

The “Intendência das Minas” (created in 1702) was the controlling body for these areas and had the functions of: administering the auriferous territory, judging mining issues and collecting taxes – in this case, the Crown kept one fifth of the metals extracted.

The abusive collection of taxes, combined with the influence of the ideals of freedom, culminated in the Inconidência Mineira.

In the last decades of the 18th century, the mines showed signs of exhaustion and the miners, who were the elite of society, were unable to pay their debts to the government.

Pressure from the Crown led to the ‘derrama’ (forced collection of taxes – in the form of arrobas of gold), which in turn led to demonstrations against the Portuguese government.

Members of the mining elite who led the rebel movement, such as João Joaquim da Maia and José Álvares Maciel, had studied at European universities, while others formed the ‘new’ urban middle class.

Tiradentes, José Joaquim da Silva Xavier, was an exception to this group. He came from a poor family and worked as a military officer and dentist in his spare time.

The heroic image of Tiradentes as a martyr is a historical construct, which gained prominence at the end of the 19th century with the proclamation of the Republic.

According to Boris Fausto (2007, p. 118):

The proclamation of the Republic favoured the projection of the movement and the transformation of the figure of Tiradentes into a republican martyr. There was a real basis for this.

There are indications that the great spectacle created by the Portuguese Crown to intimidate the colonial population had the opposite effect, keeping the memory of the event alive and maintaining sympathy for the inconfidentes.

The attitude of Tiradentes, who took full responsibility for the conspiracy at a certain point in the process, and his final sacrifice facilitated the mythologisation of his figure soon after the proclamation of the Republic.

The aim of the inconfidentes was to free Brazil from Lusitanian colonial control and to proclaim a republic based on the constitution of the United States of America.

It’s interesting to note that the liberation of the slaves was a point of contention among the rebels, some of whom were slave owners themselves.

2.2 Conjuration Fluminense or Conjuration Carioca

Liberal ideas crossed the Atlantic, were appropriated by various groups of elite intellectuals and served as the ideological basis for Brazil’s emancipation movements.

Among these was the Conjuration Fluminense, which criticised the monarchical government and took place in the city of Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the colony, in 1794.

The conjurers formed the Literary Society, an association of intellectuals (writers and poets) who generally discussed the works of Enlightenment philosophers.

Topics of discussion included politics, philosophy and science.

Mariano José Pereira da Fonseca, for example, was accused of having a work by Rousseau in his house.

Like other liberal movements, the members of the Carioca Conjuration were denounced, but in this episode those involved were released after a short period of detention.

We are interested, however, in the fact that liberal ideas were debated and conquered bodies and minds in various Brazilian cities.

With liberal-democratic ideals, conjurers defended rationalism and freedom of thought.

2.3 The Bahia conjuration

In 1798 there was another movement against the Portuguese colonial regime.

In Bahia, the Knights of Light were founded in a Masonic lodge.

As the name suggests, the ideals of the French Revolution were discussed at meetings of this society.

However, unlike what happened in Minas and Rio de Janeiro, the Conjuração Baiana, or Tailors’ Conjuration (the tailors were prominent in the conspiracy), was a liberation movement that included the participation of humbler groups.

Freemasonry: Freemasonry played a very important role in Brazil’s independence.

A secret society, its origins go back to the medieval brotherhoods that guarded the secrets of church building.

In the 18th century, the Freemasons (“Masons”) gave a political meaning to their grouping into clubs (or lodges) organised around certain principles.

Their main banner was the struggle against the power of absolute monarchy.

The main centres for the dissemination of these ideas were the universities. […] At the time of independence, within the “Grand Orient”, the main Brazilian Masonic lodge, two tendencies clashed: the so-called “red” Freemasonry, of the radical liberals, and the “blue” monarchy, of the followers of José Bonifácio (BARROS, 1994, p. 7).

According to the historian Boris Fausto (2007, p. 119): “The lack of food and the famine led to several riots in the city between 1797 and 1798”.

According to the same author, “the conspirators were in favour of the proclamation of the Republic, the end of slavery, free trade, especially with France, an increase in military salaries and the punishment of priests who opposed liberty”.

In the words of the historian Mary Del Priore (2001, p. 185): “[…] artisans, soldiers, salaried teachers, mostly mulattoes, people who resented Portuguese domination and the wealth of Brazilians”, they formed a body to fight against privilege and social inequality.

The ideal of the insurrectionary movement was “the construction of an egalitarian and democratic society in which racial differences would not hinder job opportunities or social mobility” (PRIORE, 2001, p. 185).

It is important to note that the protest movement in Bahia differed from the Inconfidência Mineira and the Conjuração Fluminense in that it defended the liberation of slaves and, following bourgeois-liberal thinking, acted in favour of opening the port of the city of Salvador to maritime trade with other nationalities.

I invite you to read the following revolutionary pamphlet.

It was posted in various places in Salvador on the morning of 12 August 1798.

Did you notice which country the magician used as a reference?

How many times does the word “freedom” appear in the text?

I suggest you go back through the text and mark this word. This is a good exercise in text analysis! The repetition of certain terms emphasises certain ideas and points to the main desires.

For a merchant, to be free was to be able to buy and sell without the intervention of the state; for a slave, to be free was to have the right to come and go, to raise a family and to be treated with dignity.

2.4 The Suassunas conspiracy

The Suassunas conspiracy was a movement that took place in Pernambuco in the early years of the 19th century.

Freemasonry played an important role in this episode of rebellion.

The Aerópago de Itambé was founded in 1798 and the Academia de Suassuna in 1802, places where French revolutionary ideas were disseminated.

According to Maximiliano Machado (apud HOLANDA, 2003, p. 228), the Aerópago was

A secret political society, deliberately placed on the border between the provinces of Pernambuco and Paraíba, frequented by prominent people from both parts, and from which the doctrines taught came out as if from a centre to the periphery, without bounce or noise.

Its purpose was to make known the general state of Europe, the tremors and wreckage of absolute governments, under the influx of democratic ideas.

It was a kind of teaching that instructed and aroused enthusiasm for the Republic, which was more in harmony with the nature and dignity of man, while inspiring hatred for the tyranny of kings.

It was the indoctrinated revolution that would eventually bring independence and republican government to Pernambuco.

The rebels were accused of trying to establish a republic under the protection of Napoleon.

The Pernambucans, like the other conjuration movements, fought against Portuguese rule in Brazil.

Above all, they wanted to make the settlers aware that they were being exploited by an absolutist government.

In the words of José Honório Rodrigues, the Suassunas conspiracy “did not go beyond the level of ideas, it did not materialise as an act of rebellion”.

In fact, it was “a thought without action and, as such, belongs to the history of ideas that formed the national conscience against colonial rule”.

3. In this chapter you have learned that

• Enlightenment ideals played a fundamental role in the emancipation movements in Portuguese America.
• The discovery of gold in Minas Gerais led to a series of political, economic and cultural changes in the colony.
• At the end of the 18th century and in the first year of the 19th century, the most important rebellions that demanded the autonomy of Brazil were: the Inconfidência Mineira, the Conjuração Fluminense, the Conjuração Baiana and the Conspiração dos Suassunas.
• The Conjuração Baiana was an emancipation movement, advocating the liberation of slaves and involving the most humble members of the population.

See the following periods in the history of colonial Brazil

1. 1. Brazilian independence – Breakdown of colonial ties in Brazil
   2. Portuguese Empire in Brazil – Portuguese Royal Family in Brazil
   3. Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil
   4. Foundation of the city of São Paulo and the Bandeirantes
   5. The transition from colonial to imperial Brazil
   6. Colonial sugar mills in Brazil
   7. Monoculture, slave labour and latifundia in colonial Brazil
   8. The establishment of the General Government in Brazil and the founding of Salvador
   9. Portuguese maritime expansion and the conquest of Brazil
   10. Occupation of the African coast, the Atlantic islands and the voyage of Vasco da Gama
   11. Pedro Álvares Cabral’s expedition and the conquest of Brazil
   12. Pre-colonial Brazil – The forgotten years
   13. Foundation of the Portuguese colony in Brazil
   14. Periods in the history of colonial Brazil
   15. Periods in the History of Brazil

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