BRAZIL AT THE TIME OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Brazil's history as a Portuguese colony was not unlike that of much of Latin America subject to Spanish rule. As the Portuguese gained control over the vast territory that comprised Brazil, much of Brazil's indigenous population died from diseases brought by the Europeans while still others fled to the interior to escape Portuguese rule. Thus, to transform the rich soil of Bahia into sugar plantations, the Portuguese began to import large numbers of African slaves. Sugar remained the most important export of Brazil until the eighteenth century, when gold and diamonds were discovered in an area much further south, which soon became called Minas Gerais (or the region of general mines). Facing severe competition in the sugar industry from France, Great Britain, and the Dutch, all of whom had sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Brazil began to depend more heavily on its mineral wealth, and thousands of colonists moved south to make their fortunes. By this time, many of the wealthiest colonists had come to depend upon slavery, and slaves were used extensively as labor in the mines.

The Portuguese government, like other European powers, heavily regulated the trade, manufacturing, and commerce of its most important colony. The Crown also taxed mineral resources, commerce, and luxury goods. Like the French monarchy, it also awarded contracts to tax farmers to collect as much as they could in return for a fixed payment to the Crown. To insure that the colonists concentrated on producing mineral wealth and sugar that would benefit Portugal, the monarchy refused to allow any manufacturing in Brazil.

Ultimately, all of these factors led planters, merchants, and clergymen from the city of Ouro Preto (Vila Rica) in Minais Gerais to organize a movement designed to win Brazilian independence. But the governor of the province discovered the plot and quickly killed the movement's leader, José da Silva Xavier, more commonly known as Tiradentes, or "the Toothpuller." Other insurrections broke out in Rio de Janeiro in 1794, in Bahia in 1798, and in Pernambuco in 1801. But like what has been called the Inconfidência Mineira, all of these rebellions were repressed before they could seriously threaten the monarchy.

Everything changed when Napoleon invaded Portugal. In November 1807, the Braganzas, the Portuguese royal family, with its court and bureaucracy sailed with British naval escort from Portugal to Brazil. With the seat of the Portuguese government in Rio de Janeiro, many of the old restrictions on trade and commerce disappeared. Most important, the government opened Brazil's ports to British trade and merchants, manufacturing was encouraged, schools and institutions of higher education were constructed, and a new army was formed. Everything changed again when Napoleon was defeated in 1815. Many Brazilian men and women were initially optimistic when Portugal granted Brazil coequal status as a kingdom in 1816, but Portuguese in Portugal gradually reconstructed their country and demanded that mercantilism be restored and that King João return to Portugal in 1821. Both João and his son, Pedro, recognized that too much had changed to return to the days when Brazil was a colony. Thus, as he left for Portugal, João advised his son to be ready to seize the crown of Brazil if demands for independence accelerated. Under pressure from the Portuguese Côrtes and Portuguese troops in Brazil, Pedro issued his "fico" or declaration that "I am staying" on January 9, 1822. He created a new government with some Brazilian advisors then announced "Independence or Death" on September 7, 1822. Three months later he was crowned Pedro I and became a more-or-less constitutional Emperor, who, nonetheless, had the power to dissolve the national assembly.

Indian Giving Crown In short, in spite of some French cultural influences, Brazilian independence had relatively little to do with the ideas of the French Revolution except insofar as the Portuguese monarchy moved to Brazil when Napoleon conquered Portugal. French ideas were far more significant in other Latin American independence movements. The earliest iconography of independence, in fact, emphasized the American nature of the independence movement as in this image of an Indian offering the crown to the new emperor. This iconography is reflective of the romantic Indianist movement that became important in the nineteenth century, when a romanticized version of the Indian came to symbolize what was truly Brazilian. Many men and women adopted Indian names and claimed they had royal Indian blood. But the Indian was little more than a stereotypical symbol of independence from Portugal, who was left out of the history and politics of the elites who formed the new independent government. The question is how did Tiradentes become the symbol of Brazilian Independence and a sign of the importance of the French Revolution in Brazil?

Amnesia

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