Pedro II (Emperor of Brazil)

Birth name - Pedro de Alcantara Juan Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibian Francisco Xavier di Paula Leocadi Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga di Brassembran .

Pedro took the throne after the abdication of his father, Pedro I , when he was only five years old. Parliament established the regency, which lasted until 1840 . By nature, Pedro was a gentle man. He received an excellent education (his first guardian was the great Brazilian diplomat, scientist, philosopher and poet José Bonifaciu de Andrada and Silva ).

The long reign of Pedro II was accompanied by a succession of fierce and very heavy wars. The Paraguay War , which began in 1865, was particularly difficult. At this time, both the emperor himself and all his subjects acutely felt the backwardness and weakness of Brazil. The Brazilian army did not have enough money, weapons, ammunition, almost all of the free population was drafted into the army. For all advanced people, it became obvious that slavery had completely outlived itself.

Pedro himself, a man of liberal views and kind by nature, probably felt a sense of shame that in his state there was still trafficking in people. He sympathized with the idea of abolitionism , but he was afraid to restore slave-owners against himself by radical measures. Meanwhile, there was a conspiracy among Republican officers to establish a republic in Brazil and abolish slavery.

Centralization of the country

At the beginning of the reign of Pedro II in the 1840s , Brazil was united, the uprisings were suppressed, and many laws were rewritten. Legislation has become more conservative, electoral frauds organized by the government were used more often. For example, in 1842, Pedro II used his “deterrent power” to dissolve the newly elected liberal Chamber of Deputies and hold new elections, in which the conservatives won by filling ballot boxes with fake ballots.

The “retaining power”, given to the emperor by the constitution of 1824 to balance the traditional three branches of government, gave him the right to appoint senators, dissolve legislative bodies and transfer control from one party to another. It should be noted that the parties were more a group of parliamentarians than ideological movements, dependent on clear electorates . The state system had an artificial nature; not a single party openly related to the large landowners who ruled in the regions.

The end of the slave trade

In 1850, Britain, tired of Brazil’s constant delays in fulfilling the provision of the 1825 treaty banning the slave trade, authorized its navy to sink ships of slave traders even in Brazilian ports. To avoid an open war with Britain, the paralysis of trade and the risk of slave uprisings, the government banned the slave trade with Africa. It expelled the Portuguese slave traders and instructed the provincial authorities, the police and the army to prevent the landing of the slave traders. For five years, even on the black market, the import of slaves has stopped, despite the increase in the price of slaves. Although the British attributed merit to themselves, it should be noted that this was the first time that the Brazilian government was able to enforce the law throughout the coast. Internal support for the slave trade also weakened. Most of the slave importers were Portuguese, who sold Africans landowners at very high interest rates, which sometimes even caused bankruptcy and loss of property. Xenophobia and landowner debts contributed to supporting the law.

The termination of the slave trade had a number of consequences. First, as coffee exports grew and in accordance with the growing need for slaves in the southern areas where it was grown, the northeastern planters sold some of their slaves to the south. In addition, parliament approved laws that promoted immigration from Europe, as well as the Land Act of 1850. Secondly, the end of the slave trade freed up capital that could be used to invest in transport and industrial enterprises. Thirdly, Britain guaranteed non-interference in the Brazilian military operation to deprive President Juan Manuel de Rosas of Argentina .

Economic Development

Coffee occupied most of the exports in the second half of the XIX century, accounting for 50% of exports in 1841-1850 and 59.5% in 1871-1880. There was also an important export of sugar , cotton , tobacco , cocoa , rubber, and mate . The vast herds of cattle on the Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul plains by 1890 made Brazil the second largest meat exporter in the world. Salted meat plants (saladeiros) in Rio Grande do Sul shipped dried beef to coffee growing areas to feed slaves and civilian workers (colons). In addition to beef, Brazilians ate protein-rich beans , rice and corn , which were grown in Minas Gerais and the immigrant colonies of Rio Grande do Sul. Although interregional trade increased, local production was still the norm in most areas.

The expansion of coffee production in the 1850s and 1860s attracted British investment in the construction of railways to transport beans to the coast. The Santos - Sao Paulo Railway ( 1868 ) was the first main passage through the coastal ridge, which accelerated the development of the Southern Plateau. Also in the northeast, the railways began to go inland from the coast. The railways connected the port with export-oriented areas, creating a series of enclaves that were connected one to one port. Even in the 20th century, Brazil still felt the lack of railways and roads that would link the main cities and economic zones. The country was united by a tangled network of dirt roads through which mules transported goods and people. Although it seems curious, the mules played an important role in the formation of the Brazilian society, being an essential vehicle, indirectly taking part in the dissemination of a common language and culture.

The monetary unit of the empire was the Brazilian real ( port. Real , pl. H. Port. Réis - flight ).

War of the Triple Alliance

The empire lost the eastern coast of Rio da la Plata, on which the state of Uruguay arose in 1828 , but continued to interfere in the affairs of this republic. A wealthy Brazilian merchant, Irineu Evangelista di Souza , had such significant financial interests there that his company was in fact a state bank in Uruguay. Other Brazilians owned about 400 large estates (estancias), which occupied about a third of the country's territory. They protested against the taxes that the Uruguayans levied on cattle in and out of Rio Grande do Sul, supporting the parties in the constant struggle between the Uruguayan political factions of Colorado and Blanco. Many Gauchos of Rio Grande do Sul did not recognize the independence of Uruguay and constantly called for an invasion.

In the mid -1860s , the imperial government secretly agreed with the Argentine authorities to replace the Blanco regime in Uruguay with Colorado. Blanco turned to the Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano Lopez (1862–1870), who feared his big neighbors and saw the threat to Uruguay as a threat to himself. The small country of Paraguay, which had no access to the sea, had the largest army in the region: 64 thousand soldiers, compared with the Brazilian army of 18 thousand. In 1864, Brazil and Argentina agreed to act together in the event of war with Lopez and save the Blanco regime. In September 1864, without taking into account that Lopez could take such a step, Brazil sent troops to Uruguay. Both sides misjudged each other’s intentions and capabilities. Paraguay responded by seizing Brazilian ships on Rio Paraguay and attacked the province of Mato Grosso . Solano López had mistakenly expected help from the population opposed to Buenos Aires, sent considerable forces to Uruguay and Rio Grande do Sul, and pulled himself into confrontation with both Argentina and Brazil. In May 1865, these countries and Uruguay, led by Colorado, entered into an alliance that set a goal to divide the disputed territory of Paraguay between its neighbors, open Paraguayan rivers for international trade and remove Solano Lopez from the presidency. By September 1865, the Allies ousted Paraguayans from Rio Grande do Sul and moved the war to Paraguay.

In September 1866 , the Paraguayans defeated their allies in Kurupayte, defending their homeland. Argentine President Bertolome Miter (1861–1868) took most of his troops home to crush protests against his military policy, leaving the Brazilians alone. General Lima and Silva, Duke of Caxias, assumed command of the Allied forces and secured the fall of Asuncion in early 1869 . Solano Lopez was shot, while Paraguay remained occupied until 1878 .

The war was so protracted for several reasons. First, the Paraguayans were better prepared and carried out an effective offensive at the beginning of the war. Even later, when the war moved to their own land, they had the advantage of knowing the territory, preparing the defense and loyalty of the population. Secondly, the Brazilians needed a lot of time to gather forces, the provision of which was very expensive. Thirdly, Argentina, hoping to improve the post-war situation in comparison with Brazil, partially delayed hostilities to weaken the empire.

The war had important implications for Brazil and the Rio de la Plata region . The war left Brazil and Argentina one on one with Paraguay defeated and Uruguay dependent in a situation that soon turned into intense competition with repeated armed clashes. Paraguay suffered heavy losses from fighting and disease, it is estimated that they make up ^{7/8 of the} population, and economically the country was thrown far back. In Brazil, the war contributed to the growth of production, the professionalization of the armed forces and their concentration in Rio Grande do Sul, the construction of roads and the concentration of immigrants in the southern provinces, as well as strengthening the power of the central government. An important circumstance for the subsequent history of the country was that the war led the army to the political arena. The officers understood that the war revealed a lack of experience and organization in the army, of which they accused civilian officials. Over the next decades, reformist officers, seeking to modernize the army, moved to sharp criticism of the political structure of Brazil as an obstacle to modernization.

Republican Movement

The end of the war coincided with the rebirth of republicanism: at this time, the liberals found a new path to popularity. After the collapse of Maximilian’s short-lived Mexican monarchy in 1867 , Brazil remained the only Latin American monarchy. Argentina’s significant economic growth in the 1870s and 1880s served as an effective advertisement for a republican system of government. Republican propaganda unfolded in the provinces, especially Sao Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul , where people did not believe in the benefits of imperial politics. The Republican Manifesto of 1870 proclaimed: “We are in America and we want to be Americans. The monarchy is hostile to the interests of American states and will be a continuous source of conflict with its neighbors. ”

Republicans demanded the abolition of slavery in order to erase the spot from Brazil, which remained the only slave-owning country (except Spanish Cuba) in the hemisphere. Not that they considered slavery shameful from a moral point of view, but it made an unpleasant impression on Europeans. The abolition of slavery in 1888 did not mean that the liberals wanted deep social reform or wanted to create a democratic society. Their arguments against slavery were more effective than ethics. Having gained power, the Republicans introduced a strict system of social control over the labor force.

The Brazilian social system operated through an interwoven network of patronage , family relationships, and friendship. Government institutions, the capitalist economy, the church and the army developed in the “web of patronage”, contacts and protection, instead of human abilities, determined the success of virtually all positions; a person could not exist in Brazilian society without friends and family. Such a social system was very flexible in reforming itself.

Church Crisis

In the 1870s and 1880s, the crisis penetrated each of the three pillars of the imperial regime — the church, the army, and the slave-owning system. Together, these crises have shown the regime’s inability to adapt to changes in these fundamentals. In the 1870s, Rome began to put pressure on the Brazilian Catholic Church to agree with the conservative reforms of the First Vatican Council, which strengthened the authority of the pope, declaring him the highest authority in matters of faith and morality. These efforts of Rome to unite churches throughout the world contradicted the imperial control of the church in Brazil. The Crown inherited the "patronage", or the right of spiritual patronage, from its Portuguese predecessors. This right transferred to the state control over the church, which the imperial authorities regarded as part of the state. Although some clergymen had expressed republican sentiments before, a wide church-state crisis arose only in the mid-1870s due to the Roman efforts to Europeanize the church.

Army Crisis

The significance of the crisis in the army is obvious because the government has lost its support. After the Paraguayan War (1864–1870), the monarchy was indifferent to the army, which the civil elite did not see as a threat. The financial problems of the 1870s simplified career advancement, the salary was small, and officers even complained about the need to pay widows out of their paltry salaries. The soldiers were treated badly in society, the discipline was based on the battle, and the training seemed pointless. Political parties were just as indifferent to the army as the government was to questions of military reform, towards compulsory military service, better armament and raising salaries and status. Throughout the 1870s, discontent was restrained by the diminishing role of the National Guard, an unsuccessful but well-received attempt to improve the security system and, especially, service in the office of the military distinguished themselves in the battles, in particular the Duke Kashias as prime minister (1875-78) and marshal Manuel Luis Osirio , Marquis Erval as Minister of Defense (1878). But the latter died in 1879 , and Cashias a year later, after which officers who were less loyal to the throne became military leaders. The ranks of junior officers were filled with middle class representatives who joined the army to get an education and make a military career. They thought more than their predecessors about social changes that would open up more opportunities for the petty bourgeoisie.

The officer corps was not united in relation to the authorities, the oldest group that helped to curb the regional uprisings of the 1830s and 1840s and survived the War of the Tripartite Alliance was a fairly loyal to the existing system. The junior officers did not take part in the wars, but had the best education, they were not tied to the old regime and were dissatisfied with the lack of career growth and the state of the army in peacetime.

The Brazilian political tradition allowed the officers to hold public office, thus erasing the division into military and civilian. As members of parliament, officers actively criticized the government; in the 1880s, they participated in provincial politics, spoke in public, and participated in newspaper debates. In 1884, a civilian defense minister tried to ban public speaking by officers, but the punishment of officers who violated this rule led to a wave of protests led by Field Marshal Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca ( port. Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca ) and General José Antonio Correia di Camara ( port José Antônio Correia de Câmara ), who forced the minister to resign in February 1887 , and the fall of the cabinet in March 1888 .

Against the background of the church and military crisis, the problem of slavery significantly undermined the support of the elite. Members of the Liberal and Conservative parties came from the same social group, the owners of the plantations made up half of both parties, the rest were bureaucrats and persons of free professions. Ideological differences between the parties were minimal, but factional and personal competition within their borders made it harder for parties to adapt to changes in the social and economic situation. As a result, the last decade of the empire was marked by considerable political instability. Between 1880 and 1889 there were ten cabinets of ministers (seven in the first five years) and three times the parliamentary elections, the parliament was never able to work out its entire term. The frequent use of restraining power provoked protests, even among traditional monarchists.

Attitudes toward slavery gradually changed; Pedro II was already on the side of abolishing slavery; during the war of the Triple Alliance, the slaves who served in the army were freed. In 1871, the Rio Branco Cabinet passed a law exempting newborns, which required the owner to feed them up to the age of eight, when the government could release them for compensation, or the owner could use them as a labor force until the age of 21. In 1884, the law freed slaves over the age of sixty. By 1880, the geography of slavery also changed and the economy became less dependent on it. Due to the liberation (mostly with the condition of remaining on the plantations) and the frequent escapes of slaves, their total number in the country decreased from 1.24 million in 1884 to 723 thousand in 1887 , most of the slaves were now in the coffee producing south instead of producing sugar north. But even the planters in São Paulo, where the proportion of slaves in the population decreased from 28.2% in 1854 to 8.7% in 1886 , understood the need for a new system of labor organization. Provincial authorities have actively begun to subsidize and encourage immigrants. Between 1875 and 1887 about 156 thousand people arrived in Sao Paulo. Meanwhile, the demand for cheap workers in the sugar cane plantations in the northeast was met by residents of Sertan , who fled from the devastating drought of the 1870s.

The economic picture also changed — capital freed from slave investment was invested in railways, other transport, commerce and industry. To some extent, these investments provided protection against the instability of agriculture.

Meanwhile, the slaves left the plantations in large numbers and the active underground supported the fugitives. During the absence of the emperor, army officers petitioned Princess Regent Isabella to release them from the duty of prosecuting fugitive slaves. Field Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, commander in Rio Grande do Sul, announced in early 1887 that the army "must stand for the abolition of slavery." The São Paulo Assembly petitioned Parliament for the immediate abolition of slavery. Brazil was on the verge of a social revolution, even though the planters understood that the abolition of slavery was a way to avoid chaos.

Pedro's daughter, Princess Isabella , made the last attempt to save the monarchy - she abolished slavery in the country, but it was too late. On May 13, 1888, in the absence of the emperor, who was treated in Europe, his daughter, Regent Isabella, signed the law on the abolition of slavery, the Golden Bull , drafted by the Minister of Agriculture Antonio da Silva Praed. The economy quickly recovered after several lost harvests, and only a small number of planters ended up in bankruptcy. Slavery ended, but the plantations survived, as did the class society. Many of the former slaves remained on the plantations under the same conditions, receiving meager wages. Waves of immigrants joined them, who often found the conditions intolerable and moved to cities or returned to Europe. No organization was established that would improve the lives of former slaves; they were left at the bottom of the social structure, where their descendants remain in the 21st century . New prisons built after 1888 were soon filled with former slaves, as society began to use other forms of public control, in particular, by re-qualifying crimes.

Republican coup

But the abolition of slavery has not saved the monarchy. The empire fell because the elite no longer needed it to protect its interests, imperial centralization did not fulfill the requirements of local autonomy. Republicans attracted federalism , in which some saw the path of opposition to the oligarchs , who used patronage to stay in power. In the early republic, however, the oligarchs easily adapted and used the accumulated power and experience to control the new state system. Taking advantage of the government crises of 1888 and 1889 and dissatisfaction among army officers, the Republicans came out in favor of revolutionary changes instead of gradual ones, which field Marshal Fonsek advocated.

On November 15, 1889, the Republicans launched an uprising in Rio de Janeiro . An armed demonstration demanding a change of cabinet quickly turned into a coup that overthrew Emperor Pedro II when the Republicans announced the overthrow of Pedro. A very small number of individuals participated in this revolution, but they acted very decisively. November 16, Pedro II abdicated the throne. The change of order occurred without bloodshed. They treated the imperial family with due respect, but offered to leave the country. The very next day, the overthrown emperor sailed to Portugal .

December 5, 1891 Pedro died in Paris from pneumonia. In 1939, the remains of the emperor and his wives were reburied in Brazil.

The Emperor was the Grand Master of the Brazilian Orders:

• Order of Christ ^[1]
• Order of St. Benedict of Avisi ^[1]
• Order of Santiago and the Sword ^[1]
• Order of the Southern Cross ^[1]
• Order of Pedro I ^[1]
• Order of the Rose ^[1]

He was awarded a large number of awards from different countries:

• Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew Pervozvannogo , Order of St. Alexander Nevsky , Order of the White Eagle , Order of St. Anne I degree and Order of St. Stanislav I degree ^[2] .
• Grand Cross of the Royal Hungarian Order of St. Stephen ^[2] .
• The Grand Cross of the Belgian Order of Leopold I ^[2] .
• The Grand Cross of the Romanian Order of the Star of Romania ^[2] .
• Knight of the Danish Order of the Elephant ^[2] .
• Grand Cross of the Order of St. Januarius of the Kingdom of Both Sicilies ^[2] .
• The Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Ferdinand "For the Merits" of the Kingdom of Both Sicilies ^[2] .
• Grand Cross of the French Order of the Legion of Honor ^[2] .
• The Grand Cross of the Greek Order of the Savior ^[2] .
• Grand Cross of the Netherlands Order of the Netherlands Lion ^[2] .
• The Grand Cross of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece ^[2] .
• Knight of the British Order of the Garter ^[3] .
• Grand Cross of the Order of Malta ^[2] .
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher ^[2] .
• Grand Cross of the Konstantinovsky Order of St. George ^[2]
• The Grand Cross of the Portuguese Order of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary of Villa-Vicoza ^[2] .
• The Grand Cross of the Portuguese Order of the Tower and the Sword . ^[2]
• Grand Cross of the Prussian Order of the Black Eagle ^[2]
• Cavalier of the Italian Higher Order of the Holy Annunciation ^[2] .
• The Grand Cross of the Swedish Order of the Seraphim ^[2] .
• The Grand Cross of the Swedish Order of the Polar Star . ^[2]
• The Turkish Order of Medgidiy I class ^[2] .

In 1843 he married Teresa Cristina, princess of the Two Sicilies ( 1822 - 1889 ), the daughter of Francis I. They had two daughters and two sons:

• Afonso ( 1845 - 1847 )
• Isabella ( 1846 - 1921 ), crown princess , regent of Brazil. She married Prince Gaston of Orleans (1842–1922), Count d'E.
• Leopoldina ( 1847 - 1871 ), married the Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1842–1922), the now-living representatives of the Saxe-Coburg-Gothic dynasty are their descendants.
• Pedro ( 1848 - 1850 ).

• Profile of Emperor Pedro II d'Alcantar on the official website of the Russian Academy of Sciences