History of Portugal: Difference between revisions
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The area that is now Portugal was ruled successively by the Celts, Romans, Goths, and Arabs until the independent [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Portugal County of Portugal] was established in 1096 during the Reconquista. [[Spain]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Zamora recognized Portugal's sovereignty in 1143] and the [[Catholic Church|Church]] in 1179. Portugal, under the Burgundy dynasty, conquered the Algarve in 1249, establishing the final form of its continental European territory. |
The area that is now Portugal was ruled successively by the Celts, Romans, Goths, and Arabs until the independent [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_of_Portugal County of Portugal] was established in 1096 during the Reconquista. [[Spain]] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Zamora recognized Portugal's sovereignty in 1143] and the [[Catholic Church|Church]] in 1179. Portugal, under the Burgundy dynasty, conquered the Algarve in 1249, establishing the final form of its continental European territory. |
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The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Windsor_(1386) Treaty of Windsor] in 1386 formed a strong alliance with [[United Kingdom|England]]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_I_of_Portugal King John I] established the Portuguese empire in 1415 with the invasion of [[Morocco]] and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_conquest_of_Ceuta capture of Ceuta]. In the 15th century, the Portuguese reached India, [[Cape Republic|the Cape]], [[Kongo]], western Africa, and eventually the Americas. After the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas Treaty of Tordesillas] in 1494, explorer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_%C3%81lvares_Cabral Pedro Cabral] arrived in |
The [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Windsor_(1386) Treaty of Windsor] in 1386 formed a strong alliance with [[United Kingdom|England]]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_I_of_Portugal King John I] established the Portuguese empire in 1415 with the invasion of [[Morocco]] and the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_conquest_of_Ceuta capture of Ceuta]. In the 15th century, the Portuguese reached India, [[Cape Republic|the Cape]], [[Kongo]], western Africa, and eventually the Americas. After the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas Treaty of Tordesillas] in 1494, explorer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_%C3%81lvares_Cabral Pedro Cabral] arrived in Brazil in 1500. |
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==Gilded Century (1656-1754)== |
==Gilded Century (1656-1754)== |
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* Limitations on the role of the [[Catholic Church]] in society and government |
* Limitations on the role of the [[Catholic Church]] in society and government |
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====Collapse of colonial Brazil==== |
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After decades of revolts and tensions, the colony of Brazil began to fall apart. In 1845, [[Bahia]] gained independence, shortly followed by the [[Riograndense Republic]] in 1846. When Portugal abolished slavery in 1874, the plantation owners of [[Equador]] declared their sovereignty and achieved it in 1877. |
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====Independence of Bahia and the Riograndense Republic==== |
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The Bahia Republic and the Riograndense Republic, respectively, gained independence from Portugal in 1845 and 1846. The two nations were the first to break from the colony of Brazil during the ramifications of the Spring of Nations in Latin America. |
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====Independence of Equador==== |
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In 1877, Equador was recognized as independent by Portugal after a war started by large landowners. Three years prior, in 1874, Portugal abolished slavery in all of its territory. The economy of Equador, at the time, was sole based on plantations and slave labor, thus the end of slavery was seen as threat to profit by the large plantation owners. After many disagreements with the crown, the rural elite of the colony rebelled. |
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====Creation of the Autonomous Territory of Brazil==== |
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| ⚫ | By the late 19th century, only the southeast region encompassing Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, parts of Mato Grosso and Paraná were still under Portuguese colonial rule. In 1878, after the failure to end the revolt in [[Equador]], Portugal feared that their last bit of Brazil would revolt as well. They elevated Brazil to the status of autonomous territory, granting it a legislature, a constitution, and local elections. The Governor of Brazil, the head of state and the most powerful office, was directly appointed by the Portuguese monarch. |
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During the period as an autonomous territory, Brazil, for the first time, could hold elections and had a constitution mirroring the Portuguese one. Brazilians could now vote for the Brazilian parliament in Rio de Janeiro, province presidents and for the public offices of their municipalities. The only exception was the Governor of Brazil title, which was directly appointed by the crown. The Governor also had the power to dissolve the parliament if this decision was seen as necessary. |
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===Mid to late-19th century=== |
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====Coffee empire==== |
====Coffee empire==== |
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Coffee was first brought to Brazil in the early 18th century |
Coffee was first brought to Brazil in the early 18th century yet was not largely cultivated until the early 19th century. As the gold and mining industires had declined, Portugal sought to monopolize the importation of coffee beans into Europe by establishing coffee plantations throughout the colony. However, the coffee industry sharply declined in the late 19th century, leading to the rise of Brazilian nationalism and industrialisation. |
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====Coimbra insurrection of 1875==== |
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In the 1870s, Europe was shaken by a wave of egalitarian revolutions. Revolutions [[History of Europe#Second French Revolution|in France]] and [[History of Europe#Communard occupation of Madrid|in Spain]] inspired the formation of the Communard Party of Portugal (Portuguese: ''Sociedade Comunarde de Portugal'') in Coimbra. The communard revolutionaries despised the agrarian policies of the conservative Portuguese monarchy and strove to propagate Enlightenment values and industrialisation in Portugal with the establishment of a republic. |
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The government swiftly censored the media and suppressed public demonstrations. Several leading members of the Party, today known as the Coimbra 28, were arrested and persecuted. By the new year, the communards of Portugal were successfully extinguished. |
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The coffee economic boom fit like a glove for the Portuguese economy and the landowners in Brazil. Since the late 18th century, the gold exports, Brazil’s main source of income, have gone down due to the end of the mineral in more superficial deposits. During the gold rush, many plantations were closed and their owners shifted to exploration of mines, then when mining ceased, the colony and, therefore Portugal, suffered from a heavy economic crisis. So when coffee became a highly demanded drink in other continents, Portugal saw this as an opportunity to recover from this decades-long crisis. |
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[[Carolina]]'s achievement of home rule in 1914 and the [[European Economic Crisis]] of the 1920s stirred up republican sentiment in Brazil. Brazilian industries, most notably coffee, suffered overproduction and devaluation. Unemployment and civil unrest plagued the country, often being blamed on Lisbon's disproportionate and unjust political power over Brazilian affairs. In the second half of 1922, large scale riots and demonstrations began en masse. |
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On the second of November, 1922, the Governor of São Paulo declared a revolt. The province of Minas Gerais followed shortly, forcing the militarily weak Lisbon to accept the prospect of negotiations with the autonomous territory of Brazil. |
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For about a century, this region became the core of Brazil and the Portuguese colonial empire, but when foreign nations' demand for coffee decreased in the late 19th century, once again, the single activity based economy entered a recession. The end of the coffee based economy also opened the opportunity to Brazilian industrialization and rise of nationalism. |
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====Failed Communard Revolution==== |
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In the 1870s, Europe was shaken once again by a wave of revolutions, The Communard Revolutions. Although France and Spain were the two that most suffered the effects of such unrest, Central Europe, Italy and Portugal had their own attempts of revolutionary take over. In 1875, the Sociedade Comunarde de Portugal (Communard Society of Portugal) was formed in the city of Coimbra, and started to plan a coup to end the Portuguese Monarchy. |
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On December 4th, the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro established a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_union real union] between Portugal and Brazil called the United Kingdom of Portugal-Brazil. |
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Communardism had arrived in Portugal already in the mid-19th century, and was popular among part of the academic community in Coimbra and Lisbon. At that time, Europe was facing a rapid process of economic growth and industrialization, but this reality didn’t arrive in Portugal with the same strength as it did in other western nations, so the country kept focused on an agrarian based economy, especially focused on coffee exportation. The communards saw this situation as a result of the conservative Portuguese government, which still had some characteristics of the old absolutist regime. According to many publications, the only way for Portugal to rise as a power again, was to end the monarchy once and for all. |
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Differently from the cases in France and Spain, the Communard Society of Portugal didn’t last long. After the revolutions beginning in the neighboring nations, Portuguese parliament quickly approved the instaurantion of censorship over communard papers and the prohibition of public demonstrations. The citizens were also advised to tell authorities any suspicion of revolutionary activities. Soon later, the members of the Communard Society of Portugal got arrested for the crime of conspiracy and rebellion. The imprisonment of the group was seen by sympathizers as an atrocious action, soon riots started to happen first in Coimbra and days later in Lisbon. Both were unsuccessful. |
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====Portuguese imperialism in the 19th century==== |
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In 1900, the Portuguese colonial holdings consisted of large chunks of land in continental Africa and city ports across the Gulf of Guinea, islands in North Atlantic, Madagasikara, India and the Canton coast. |
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*A common Ministry of Foreign Affairs and united diplomatic and foreign policies. |
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=====Portuguese Southern Africa===== |
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=====Gulf of Guinea===== |
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=====Portuguese India===== |
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=====Portuguese on the Far-East===== |
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===United kingdom with Brazil=== |
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The end of the colonial rule in Carolina sparked once again the feeling of nationalism and independence in Brazil, many republican authors, republican associations and communard societies across Brazil started to advocate for the end of Portuguese rule in the continent. These ideals gained more force after Brazil got hit directly by the economic crisis in Europe during most of the 1920s. |
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The economic crisis hit Brazil severely, coffee customers across the world, Brazil’s most important economic partners, started to reduce the purchase of the product, thus the many coffee plantations started to suffer from overproduction and devaluation of the prices. Many businesses closed and unemployment skyrocketed. In this context, opposition to the semi-colonial government of Brazil started to gain force. Many saw the problem as consequences of the crown heavily influencing the political and economic decisions, and from August 1922 to November of the same year, protests demanding more political freedoms, and in the most radical cases, total independence, started to happen. |
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On November the 2nd, 1922, in a radio broadcast, the province president of São Paulo declared revolt. The province of Minas Gerais followed the same strategy soon later in the same day. The presidents of the two provinces had been in secret talks since September of 1922, the plan was to send an ultimatum to the crown. To prevent a bloody conflict in the continent, the rebel provinces stated openage to dialogue with the crown. |
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Portugal wasn’t in shape to fight a war thousands of kilometers away, and in telegram, agreed to discuss terms with the new Brazilian Government, which already comprised four of the six provinces of Brazil. On November 25th, Portuguese envoys and the Brazilian Independent Government gathered in Rio de Janeiro to solve the situation diplomatically. |
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On December 4th, the Luso-Brazilian Compromise, or Treaty of Rio, established the dual monarchy of Portugal and Brazil. The main terms of the treaty were: |
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*Establishment of a single citizenship. Luso-Brazilian; |
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*A common Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for diplomacy and foreign policy, comprised from both Portuguese and Brazilian integrants; |
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*Brazil would engage in every conflict which Portugal is involved; |
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Revision as of 13:11, 3 June 2022
Premodern history
The area that is now Portugal was ruled successively by the Celts, Romans, Goths, and Arabs until the independent County of Portugal was established in 1096 during the Reconquista. Spain recognized Portugal's sovereignty in 1143 and the Church in 1179. Portugal, under the Burgundy dynasty, conquered the Algarve in 1249, establishing the final form of its continental European territory.
The Treaty of Windsor in 1386 formed a strong alliance with England. King John I established the Portuguese empire in 1415 with the invasion of Morocco and the capture of Ceuta. In the 15th century, the Portuguese reached India, the Cape, Kongo, western Africa, and eventually the Americas. After the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, explorer Pedro Cabral arrived in Brazil in 1500.
Gilded Century (1656-1754)
Three Tragedies period (1755-1834)
Portugal in the Great Silesian War
During the Great Silesian War, Portugal took on a passive, supportive role, diplomatically supporting her longstanding ally, Britain.
Portugal during the French Revolution and Augustine Wars
The reign of Augustine Spiga threatened the stability of the Portuguese monarchy, leading to the country adopting more absolutist and defensive positions. Small Portuguese regiments and flotillas accompanied the Royal British Navy as well. In 1807, several counselors under King Afonso VII put forth a proposal to relocate the empire's capital to Rio de Janeiro in the event of a French invasion. However, this plan was never put into action.
Os Oitenta-Oito (1834-1922)
Constitutional Revolution
In the early 1830s, bourgeoisie and martial radicals inspired by the French Revolution and political turmoil in Spain began resisting absolutist rule in Portugal. The wealthy members of the bourgeoisie had monetary power and the soldiers possessed military power but lacked political representation, leading to the two groups forming an alliance in order to dismantle the status quo. In 1834, riots took place in several Portuguese cities. Several thousand soldiers disobeyed orders to suppress the rioters, leading to the monarchy fearing a civil war. In May, the royal court agreed to begin drafting a constitution.
By 1835, the new constitution was completed. It included the following terms;
- The Chancellor becomes the head of government, sharing executive powers with the monarch
- The independence of the judiciary and legislature and the legal codification of all Portuguese laws
- Suffrage granted to all literate males over 20 years old
- Limitations on the role of the Catholic Church in society and government
Collapse of colonial Brazil
After decades of revolts and tensions, the colony of Brazil began to fall apart. In 1845, Bahia gained independence, shortly followed by the Riograndense Republic in 1846. When Portugal abolished slavery in 1874, the plantation owners of Equador declared their sovereignty and achieved it in 1877.
By the late 19th century, only the southeast region encompassing Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, parts of Mato Grosso and Paraná were still under Portuguese colonial rule. In 1878, after the failure to end the revolt in Equador, Portugal feared that their last bit of Brazil would revolt as well. They elevated Brazil to the status of autonomous territory, granting it a legislature, a constitution, and local elections. The Governor of Brazil, the head of state and the most powerful office, was directly appointed by the Portuguese monarch.
Coffee empire
Coffee was first brought to Brazil in the early 18th century yet was not largely cultivated until the early 19th century. As the gold and mining industires had declined, Portugal sought to monopolize the importation of coffee beans into Europe by establishing coffee plantations throughout the colony. However, the coffee industry sharply declined in the late 19th century, leading to the rise of Brazilian nationalism and industrialisation.
Coimbra insurrection of 1875
In the 1870s, Europe was shaken by a wave of egalitarian revolutions. Revolutions in France and in Spain inspired the formation of the Communard Party of Portugal (Portuguese: Sociedade Comunarde de Portugal) in Coimbra. The communard revolutionaries despised the agrarian policies of the conservative Portuguese monarchy and strove to propagate Enlightenment values and industrialisation in Portugal with the establishment of a republic.
The government swiftly censored the media and suppressed public demonstrations. Several leading members of the Party, today known as the Coimbra 28, were arrested and persecuted. By the new year, the communards of Portugal were successfully extinguished.
The Luso-Brazilian Compromise
Carolina's achievement of home rule in 1914 and the European Economic Crisis of the 1920s stirred up republican sentiment in Brazil. Brazilian industries, most notably coffee, suffered overproduction and devaluation. Unemployment and civil unrest plagued the country, often being blamed on Lisbon's disproportionate and unjust political power over Brazilian affairs. In the second half of 1922, large scale riots and demonstrations began en masse.
On the second of November, 1922, the Governor of São Paulo declared a revolt. The province of Minas Gerais followed shortly, forcing the militarily weak Lisbon to accept the prospect of negotiations with the autonomous territory of Brazil.
On December 4th, the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro established a real union between Portugal and Brazil called the United Kingdom of Portugal-Brazil.
- The creation of a new, more progressive Brazilian constitution;
- The Kingdom of Brazil would encompass every Portuguese territory in the Americas;
- Disestablishment of the office of Governor of Brazil and the creation of the Chancellor of Brazil;
- Brazilians could be elected to all political offices within the empire;
- A common Ministry of Foreign Affairs and united diplomatic and foreign policies.
