Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to demonstrate that the Independence of Brazil from Portugal on September 7, 1822 was deplorable. In many countries, the commemorative dates of independence, such as that of the United States in 1776, and of social revolutions, such as the French one in 1789, are reasons for pride because they were events that took place thanks to the decisive participation of the people in their realization. This was not the case of Brazil, whose independence from Portugal took place on September 7, 1822, differing from the experience of other countries in the Americas because it did not present the characteristics of a typical national-liberation revolutionary process under the influence of the ideals of liberalism and the great revolutions of the late 18th century. The Independence of Brazil on September 7, 1822 was deplorable because it was not conquered by the struggle of the Brazilian people and also because it was accomplished with the payment of a heavy indemnity to Portugal. Until this event, Brazil was the scene of numerous struggles of the Brazilian people to get rid of its exploitation by the Portuguese metropolis throughout the 18th century when uprisings of the nativist type and the separatist type arose.
The nativist revolts were motivated by discontent in relation to some specific aspects of colonial exploitation, not even proposing a break with Portugal, unlike the separatist revolts, which widely contested the colonial system and proposed a break with the metropolis. Only separatist-type revolts preached independence from Portugal. Among the most important nativist revolts are: Beckman’s Revolt of 1684 in Maranhão, War of the Emboabas between 1708 and 1709 in Minas Gerais, War of the Mascates between 1710 and 1711 in Pernambuco and the Filipe dos Santos Revolt of 1720 in Vila Rica. Separatist revolts include the Inconfidência Mineira in 1789 to make Minas Gerais independent from Portugal, the Conjuração Baiana in 1798 in Bahia that intended to separate Brazil from Portugal and the Pernambuco Revolution in 1817 which expressed local dissatisfaction with Portugal’s control over the region and with existing social inequalities.
Several factors contributed to the Independence of Brazil from Portugal, such as the Enlightenment ideas and the independences that took place in English America (American Revolution or the United States War of Independence) and in Spanish America (Simon Bolívar led a military campaign in Venezuela, in Colombia and Ecuador, while San Martín led the uprising in Argentina and Peru until the Spanish surrender. In 1822, Bolívar and Martín met in Guayaquil, Ecuador, when Martín handed over command of the liberation army to Bolívar) which served as a reference for many emancipatory movements that took place at the time.. However, what effectively triggered the Independence of Brazil from Portugal were events that took place in Portugal and Brazil from 1807 to 1822. In 1807, with the invasion of Napoleon’s armies in Portugal, the Prince Regent of Portugal, D. João, fled to Brazil with its Court so as not to lose its crown. This situation provoked a political inversion because Brazil, which was a colony of Portugal, became the seat of the Portuguese government. In 1815, Brazil was elevated to the category of United Kingdom to Portugal and Algarves. With this, Brazil ceases to be a colony to acquire the same legal status as Portugal. This change made Brazil the center of the Portuguese empire, provoking discontent in Portugal, as it revealed that D. João intended to settle in Brazil.
In 1816, with the death of Queen D. Maria, D. João became king, being acclaimed D. João VI, remaining in Brazil. In 1820, the Liberal Revolution of Porto in Portugal that threatened the Portuguese monarchy made D. João VI return to Portugal when he transferred the regency of Brazil to D. Pedro, his son. Then, various measures from Portugal put pressure on the government of D. Pedro, in an attempt to nullify his political, administrative, military and judicial powers and force him to return to Portugal and keep Brazil as a colony of Portugal. The news reverberated like a declaration of war, causing riots and expressions of displeasure in Brazil. D. Pedro was invited to stay, as his departure would represent the crumbling of Brazil. The Dia do Fico (1822) by D. Pedro was another step towards the definitive break between Brazil and Portugal. The events triggered a crisis in the government and the ministers faithful to the Portuguese Cortes resigned. Prince Regent D. Pedro formed a new ministry under the leadership of José Bonifácio, one of the main supporters of Brazilian political emancipation. It was established that any determination coming from Portugal should only be complied with with the decision of D. Pedro. The latter then heads to the province of São Paulo in search of support for his cause. Upon returning from Santos to the capital of São Paulo, he receives a mail from Portugal demanding his immediate return to Lisbon.
D. Pedro also receives two letters, one from José Bonifácio and another from Empress Leopoldina advising him not to accept the order from Portugal. Dom Pedro heeded the advice and cut the remaining political ties of submission with Portugal. The Cry for the Independence of Brazil on the banks of the Ipiranga stream resulted from this process. With independence, Brazil ceased to be a Portuguese colony, taking a decisive step towards the beginning of the organization of the Brazilian state, maintaining the territorial unity of Brazil and avoiding its fractionation as occurred in the Spanish colonies. D. Pedro maintained the unity of the territory of Brazil, pleasing the interests of the economic groups that dominated the colony. There were, however, three deplorable facts concerning the Independence of Brazil: 1) it did not result from the struggle of the Brazilian people for its liberation, but from the will of the Prince Regent D. Pedro; 2) Brazil compensated Portugal in 2 million pounds sterling for this country to accept the Independence of the Country; and, 3) Brazil maintains large estates and intensifies slavery.
The Independence of Brazil therefore differed from the experience of other countries in the Americas because it did not present the characteristics of a typical national-liberating revolutionary process. Revolutionary nativism, under the influence of the ideals of liberalism and the great revolutions of the late 18th century, gave way in Brazil to the logic of change while preserving the privileges that prevail until today. The Independence of Brazil was, therefore, an “independence without revolution” because there were no changes in the economic base of the nation. The State that was born from the Independence of Brazil maintains the execrable latifundium and intensifies the no less execrable slavery, making this the support of the restoration that it carries out regarding the economic structures inherited from the Colony. Of all the deplorable facts, the fact that the Independence of Brazil was not conquered by the struggle of the Brazilian people stands out, and also that it was accomplished with the payment of a heavy indemnity to Portugal.
For Brazil to be able to establish itself as an autonomous and sovereign state, it was essential that other important nations recognize its independence. Brazil would have to make Portugal, as an old colonial metropolis, recognize the emergence of the new nation. At that moment, England, which was the hegemonic power in the world, appeared as a diplomatic intermediary that enabled the signing of an agreement between Portugal and Brazil. On August 29, 1825, the Treaty of Peace and Alliance officially recognized Portugal’s independence from Brazil. Based on this treaty, the Brazilian government had to pay an indemnity of two million pounds sterling in order for Portugal to accept the independence of Brazil. In this treaty, Dom João VI, King of Portugal, would still preserve the title of Emperor of Brazil. This last demand, in fact, manifested the interest that the Portuguese monarch had in reuniting the two countries in a single crown. The British took the opportunity to earn money by lending to Brazil the resources that ensured the payment of this amount. Brazil was born as an extremely indebted nation with England as its creditor.
After Portuguese recognition, several other nations in Europe and America made the same political gesture. With that, Brazil could establish business with other nations of the world with the signing of agreements and the establishment of trade treaties. In this regard, England soon urged the Brazilian government to maintain the customs fees of the 1810 treaties that benefited it by making the Brazilian domestic market captive of British products. The vassalage of Brazil in relation to Portugal was transferred to England. England politically pressured Brazil to have the slave trade expressly prohibited until 1830 to increase the Brazilian market for its products. However, due to the interest of the large landowners, Dom Pedro was not willing to resolve this issue. In the end, the issue of slavery dragged on until the end of the 19th century, when Princess Isabel finally approved the abolition of slavery that lasted more than 300 years in Brazil.
At the moment D. Pedro declared Brazil’s independence, the governments and troops of some provinces were led to express their unconditional allegiance to the Portuguese government. In Bahia, a violent conflict took place between September 7, 1822 and July 2, 1823. July 2, 1823 is a great milestone in the struggle of the Bahian people for the Independence of Brazil because it consolidated the country’s liberation from domination by the Portuguese colonizer by expelling from our territory the last Portuguese troops who did not accept the emancipation of Brazil. The 2nd of July 1823 consolidated the Independence of Brazil, proclaimed on the 7th of September 1822 by D. Pedro I, thanks to the struggle of the Bahian people who, in arms, defeated militarily and expelled the Portuguese troops from our territory. The struggle of the Bahian people in 1823 represents the continuity of the struggles carried out by the Brazilian people in Bahia, such as the Conjuração Baiana or Revolta dos Alfaiates, which took place in Salvador in 1798, which aimed to separate Brazil from Portugal, abolish slavery and meet the demands of the layers poor of the population.
The Conjuração Baiana was composed, for the most part, by slaves, free blacks, poor whites and mestizos, who exercised the most different professions, such as shoemakers, bricklayers, soldiers, etc. The Conjuração Baiana was influenced by the French Revolution of 1789, which was one of the greatest events in the history of humanity whose revolutionary process was inspired by the Enlightenment ideals against the absolutist monarchy and also by the Haitian Revolution of 1791, which was a great rebellion of slaves and freed blacks motivated by the great exploitation and violence of the French colonial slave system in that region that led the French colony of São Domingos from 1791 to independence. Therefore, the Independence of Brazil from Portugal was proclaimed on September 7, 1822 in São Paulo and was consolidated on July 2, 1823 in Bahia, without which Brazil would not maintain its territorial unity, given that the purpose of the Portuguese Courts was the to maintain its domination in the North and Northeast of Brazil since the rest of the country was controlled by D. Pedro I.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from 1500 to 1822 and was a vassal of England from 1822 to 1930. From 1930 to 1945 and also from 1950 to 1954, Brazil became an independent country during the governments of Getúlio Vargas. From 1955 to 1980, Brazil became a vassal of the United States and, from 1990 to the present, it became a vassal of globalized international capital led by the United States. The true independence of Brazil is yet to be realized by future generations. However, the achievement of true independence depends on the ability of the exploited peoples of the world to unite in the struggle for their liberation from the yoke of the forces that command globalized capitalism led by the great capitalist powers.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019) and A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021) .
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