Independence of Brazil

The independence of Brazil was the process by which Brazil broke away from Portugal between 1821 and 1825. It is dated to 7 September 1822, when the prince regent Pedro, eldest son of the Portuguese king, declared independence beside the Ipiranga brook near São Paulo. Brazil became independent as a monarchy, the Empire of Brazil, under a member of the old ruling dynasty.

In 1807 French forces invaded Portugal, which had refused to join Napoleon's blockade of Britain. With the help of the British navy, the royal family and government sailed to Brazil, and Rio de Janeiro became the effective capital of the Portuguese Empire. The presence of the court brought new institutions, and Brazil was opened to trade with other nations. In December 1815 the prince regent, later King John VI, raised Brazil from a colony to a kingdom of equal rank within a new United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.

In 1820 a liberal revolution in Portugal summoned a parliament, the Cortes, which demanded the king's return. John VI sailed for Lisbon in April 1821, leaving his son Pedro to govern Brazil as regent. The Cortes then moved to place the Brazilian provinces directly under Lisbon, abolish courts set up in Rio and recall Pedro to Europe. Many in Brazil, whether born there or in Portugal, saw these measures as an attempt to return the country to colonial status.

Encouraged by his wife, Maria Leopoldina, and by Brazilian politicians, Pedro announced on 9 January 1822 that he would remain. When Portuguese troops under General Jorge Avilez rioted in Rio, they were surrounded by a much larger force of armed Brazilians and shipped across the bay to await transport home. Pedro appointed the statesman José Bonifácio de Andrada as a leading minister and, in June, called elections for a Brazilian constituent assembly.

On 7 September 1822, while travelling near São Paulo, Pedro received letters reporting that the Cortes had stripped him of his remaining powers and ordered him home. He declared that ties with Portugal were broken, a moment remembered as the Cry of Ipiranga. He was acclaimed emperor in Rio de Janeiro on 12 October and crowned on 1 December 1822.

At first the new government controlled only Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and nearby provinces, while Portuguese garrisons held key ports, including Salvador, São Luís, Belém and Montevideo. Brazil assembled an army and a navy, recruiting officers and sailors in Britain under the command of Thomas Cochrane. Blockaded by sea and besieged on land, the Portuguese left Bahia on 2 July 1823, and the northern provinces and the Cisplatine province in present-day Uruguay followed by the end of the year. Reliable casualty figures do not exist; combat deaths for the two sides together are estimated at roughly 5,700 to 6,200.

According to the Brazilian government, the first states to recognise the new empire were the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1823 and the United States in 1824, though the historian Toby Green argues that the West African states of Dahomey and Onim did so earlier. Portugal accepted Brazilian independence in a treaty signed on 29 August 1825. In return, Brazil agreed to pay Portugal compensation and signed treaties with Britain promising to end the Atlantic slave trade and granting tariff advantages to British goods. The transition preserved much of the colonial social order, including monarchy, large estates and slavery.

Our 1815 map shows colonial Brazil still under Portugal, and our 1878 map shows the independent Empire of Brazil that emerged from the break.