Pedro II of Brazil

Brazil's second and last emperor occupied the throne for almost six decades, from his father's abdication in 1831 to a military coup in 1889. Under Pedro II the young South American monarchy became a stable constitutional state with a free press, won a long war against Paraguay and finally abolished slavery, before its ruler was sent quietly into exile.

Pedro was born in the Palace of São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro on 2 December 1825, the son of Emperor Pedro I and the Austrian archduchess Maria Leopoldina, who died when he was a year old. In April 1831 his father abdicated and sailed for Europe, leaving the five-year-old boy as emperor. He grew up shy and bookish under guardians and tutors, with long hours of study and few companions. A regency governed in his name, but its years were marked by factional quarrels and provincial revolts, and in July 1840 parliament declared him of age at fourteen. He was crowned the following year.

At first a circle of courtiers steered the inexperienced ruler, but by the mid-1840s he had freed himself from their influence. In 1843 he married Teresa Cristina of the Two Sicilies; of their four children only two daughters, Isabel and Leopoldina, survived childhood. Between 1848 and 1852 his government ended the illegal import of enslaved Africans under heavy British pressure, put down a revolt in Pernambuco, and joined Uruguay and Argentine rebels to topple the Argentine ruler Juan Manuel de Rosas. Brazil emerged with a reputation abroad as an orderly parliamentary monarchy in a turbulent region. Pedro worked through elected ministers rather than ruling by decree, but his influence over appointments and policy was considerable.

When Paraguay's president Francisco Solano López invaded Brazilian territory in the mid-1860s, the emperor travelled to the southern front himself and was present when the besieged Paraguayan force at Uruguaiana surrendered. The Paraguayan War then dragged on for five years. Pedro refused any peace short of complete victory, which came only when López was killed in March 1870. The conflict strained politics at home and drew the monarchy deeper into party disputes.

Pedro described himself as born for culture and science. He studied many languages, took up photography in 1840, collected tens of thousands of books and corresponded with figures such as Louis Pasteur, Richard Wagner and Louis Agassiz. He founded schools and funded scholarships for Brazilians to study in Europe, and in 1875 the French Academy of Sciences elected him a member. He toured Europe and North Africa in 1871–72 and visited the United States for its centennial in 1876, travelling informally as "Pedro de Alcântara".

Pedro personally opposed slavery and pressed for its gradual end. A law of 1871 freed all children born to enslaved mothers from that date, and in May 1888, while he lay seriously ill in Milan, news reached him that slavery had been abolished altogether. Many planters then turned against the crown. Republican ideas had spread among army officers, and Pedro, ageing and doubtful that a woman could succeed him, did little to defend the regime. On 15 November 1889 officers proclaimed a republic, and two days later the imperial family was sent to Europe.

Teresa Cristina died three weeks after the exiles reached Europe. Pedro lived out his last years modestly in Cannes and Paris, refusing to back any plot for restoration, and died of pneumonia on 5 December 1891. France gave him a state funeral, and he was laid to rest in the Braganza family pantheon near Lisbon. In 1921 his remains were brought back to Brazil with national honours, and Brazilian historians have generally judged his reign very favourably.

Our 1878 and 1880 maps show the Empire of Brazil at the height of his reign, alongside neighbouring Argentina; by the 1900 map the republic of Brazil had replaced it.