History of Portugal

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 Brasil in 1500.

Three Tragedies period (1755-1834)

Portugal in the Great Silesian War

Main article: 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

Main article: 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
• 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;

End of the American colonial empire

Independence of Bahia and the Riograndense Republic

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.

Independence of Equador

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.

Creation of the Autonomous Territory of Brazil

By the late 19th century, only the region around Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, southern 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 break up as well very soon. To prevent this to happen, Brazil ceased to be a colony in this year, and was elevated to the title of Autonomous Territory of Brazil.

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.

Mid to late-19th century

Coffee empire

Coffee was first brought to Brazil in the early 18th century, not for large-scale cultivation and export, but only to be traded in the inner market of the colony. Was only in the early 19th century that the cultivation of coffee would become the main economic activity of the colony, and gave Portugal a monopoly over the high demand of the grains from nations across the globe. This scenario, for the most part, is the result of coffee turning into a luxury drink in Europe and North America.

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.

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.

Failed Communard Revolution

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.

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.

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.

Portuguese imperialism in the 19th century

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.

United kingdom with Brazil

The Luso-Brazilian Compromise (1922)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

• The creation of a new Brazilian constitution;
• The Kingdom of Brazil would consists of every Portuguese territory in South America, while the Kingdom of Portugal would consists of the rest of the empire;
• Abolition of the title of Governor of Brazil and creation of the title of Prime Minister;
• Brazilians could be elected to all political offices;
• Establishment of a single citizenship. Luso-Brazilian;
• A common Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for diplomacy and foreign policy, comprised from both Portuguese and Brazilian integrants;
• Brazil would engage in every conflict which Portugal is involved;