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4. The War of the Oranges (1801) (pt. 1)
To fully comprehend the process of Brazilian independence from Portugal, one must understand the extraordinary circumstances that happened in Europe in the very beginning of the 19th Century, and that provoked an irreversible change of the status quo in the European geopolitics. This necessarily impacted in Portuguese America, considering that, as a colony, it became tangentially affected by the revolutions occurring in the old world.
Europe at the dawn of the 19th Century seemed thrown in the primeval chaos that birthed the universe, as the revolutionary project bloodly initiated in the streets of Paris against King Louis XVI had spread like a wildfire through the continent. The crowned heads of Europe contemplated, in dismay, the shattering of the seemingly perpetual feudal traditions and archaic customs that gave so many privileges to the aristocracy. The younger generations propagated such odd ideas that every man and woman were in fact free to choose its own destiny, and even its leaders and lawmakers, and that the kings should serve the people, and not the opposite.
In the year 1800, the revolutionary radicalism that had provoked the bloodiest atrocities of the Terror in France gave place to a moderate order, now under control of a distinguished military officer from French Corsica, Napoleón Bonaparte, First Consul of the Republic. The French Revolutionary Army, like a storm of the century, had already defeated great hosts from the United Kingdom, extinguished the Italian principalities and cannibalized the Dutch provinces, and humbled the monarchies of Austria and Spain. It was clear that the “Revolution” was prevailing over the century-old European balance of power.
In the western part of the Iberian Peninsula lay the petite realm of Portugal. At the time one of the most conservative monarchies in Europe, whose nobility still benefited from archaic privileges, the nation was the center of a rotting empire comprising territories in South America, in Africa, as well as colonies in India and China. The seated monarch was Queen Maria I of Bragança, but since the 1790s, she had been recognized as clinically insane and was effectively interned in the palace of Queluz, in the suburbs of Lisboa. The government matters were responsibility of her son, Prince-Regent João de Bragança, a king without a crown.
As an evidence of how cruelly the Fates played with the course of Portugal, D. João was known by his contemporaries as a very weak and buffoon character. Being the second son of Queen Maria, he didn’t expect to inherit the crown, since his elder brother José had lived until the 27th year from his birth, when smallpox suddenly interrupted his life. The affairs of the State bothered Prince-Regent João so much that usually the kingdom – the Empire, actually – was run by his numerous ministers, while he secluded himself from public life until necessity made him appear before the subjects.
Portrait of D. João de Bragança, son and heir of Queen Maria I of Portugal
It was this monarch, who detested simple horse walks and preferred to spend his days praying in his private chapel, the one supposed to save Portugal from the destructive ambitions of the greatest military leader the world had seen since the times of Rome – Napoléon of France.
Perhaps Portugal could have escape ruin in virtue of its very insignificance to the geopolitics of Europe. However, they would soon become the main target of the Napoleon’s wrath, due to its ancient alliance with France’s greatest nemesis: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Until 1800, Portugal had been allied to the Kingdom of Spain in its war against Revolutionary France. After being defeated, however, the Spaniards simply changed sides, becoming allies of France, putting Portugal into a very difficult position: it could not renege on its alliance with Great Britain, but saw itself threatened by the two other great powers of Western Europe, Britain’s main rivals.
In that year, Prince-Regent João of Bragança received an ultimatum from France and Spain, ordering him to immediately declare war on the United Kingdom, and even cede a fraction of its territory to the Kingdom of Spain as a token of its loyalty. The Portuguese Crown stubbornly refused to cede, claiming neutrality in the war between the United Kingdom and the other European powers, but made hurried preparations for the inevitable war.
In April 1801, Spanish troops under Manuel de Godoy, assisted by a few French regiments, invaded Portugal, advancing through Alentejo in the south – seeking to capture Lisboa as soon as possible – while another force penetrated at the border in Tras-os-Montes to face any Portuguese resistance in the northern region of the country. The war received this curious name because the commander, Manuel de Godoy, picked some oranges in Elvas, near the captured border-town of Olivenças, and sent them to the Queen of Spain, with the message that he would proceed to Lisboa.
The Spanish expected this “war” be a very quick affair, but the undermanned regiments of Portugal seemed determined to fight, and obtained a surprising victory near the city of Flor da Rosa. The Spanish vanguard was ambushed while fording a creek, and were forced retreat to the city of Crato, abandoning some cannons and leaving many horses dead on field.
Battle of Flor da Rosa: an unexpected victory for the Lusitanians
This humiliating defeat enraged Marshal Manuel de Godoy, who became determined to avenge the loss, and penetrated eagerly in Portuguese territory. In July 1801 they overpowered, the main Lusitanian force in Évora, opening the path to the Atlantic coast. In the early September 1801, the Prince-Regent of Portugal received the dire news that the Portuguese garrisons in Tras-os-Montes had been outmaneuvered and defeated, and the Spaniards forced the capitulation of Setúbal, where the last defending regiments had been regrouped in the previous month. Prince-Regent João even started preparations to transport the Royal family to Brazil – a plan brought forward in every occasion that Portugal faced a war in Europe – but a Spanish flotilla from Cádiz had encircled the port of Lisboa, and the Portuguese fleet had scant hope of trespassing the blockade. After this disastrous campaign, the Crown of Portugal communicated its surrender to the Kingdom of Spain.
The border towns of Olivença and Campo Maior were annexed to the Kingdom of Spain, but the rest of the territorial integrity of the nation was preserved.
Prince João became a virtual prisoner in his favored palace of Mafra, and the regency of the mad Queen Maria was officially assumed by his wife, Princess Carlota Joaquina, daughter of King Carlos IV of Spain, as a measure to ensure the compliance of the Portuguese Crown to the foreign interests.
In December 1801, by the Treaty of Évora, Portugal entered an alliance with the Republic of France and the Kingdom of Spain against the United Kingdom. The most humiliating terms of the treaty, however, were the permission for a Spanish regiment to be quartered in the city of Setúbal, to “ensure the safety of the princess of Spain and of the people and church of Portugal against the pernicious revolutionaries”, and the partition of Portuguese America between France and Spain. Nevertheless, this last article wouldn’t be fulfilled solely by the efforts of the colonists themselves, because, while the war of 1801 ended on a disastrous defeat for Portugal in Europe, it became a resounding victory to the kingdom in the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
_________________________________
Historical Notes: The Portuguese didn’t actually gain any victory against the invading Spanish Army in the War of the Oranges. IOTL their defeat near the borders satisfied Spain, and they never get close to Lisboa before signing a peace treaty.
IOTL, the War of the Oranges was finished by June 1801, and, excepting for the cession of Olivenças, maintained the status quo antebellum.
Historically, the Portuguese Court only migrated to Brazil in the year of 1808, with assistance of the British Royal Navy, when the Napoleonic forces invaded Portugal and captured Lisboa. Nevertheless, the plan for moving the royal family to a safe refuge in the colony had already been contemplated since 1580, when the Spanish troops of Phillip II overran Portugal to ensure his claim in a succession war. In 1801, it was indeed defended by some of D. João’s ministers, but he refused and decided to remain to fight against Spain.
1. Historical Background at the Time of the Invasion of Portugal
To fully comprehend the process of Brazilian independence from Portugal, one must understand the extraordinary circumstances that happened in Europe in the very beginning of the 19th Century, and that provoked an irreversible change of the status quo in the European geopolitics. This necessarily impacted in Portuguese America, considering that, as a colony, it became tangentially affected by the revolutions occurring in the old world.
Europe at the dawn of the 19th Century seemed thrown in the primeval chaos that birthed the universe, as the revolutionary project bloodly initiated in the streets of Paris against King Louis XVI had spread like a wildfire through the continent. The crowned heads of Europe contemplated, in dismay, the shattering of the seemingly perpetual feudal traditions and archaic customs that gave so many privileges to the aristocracy. The younger generations propagated such odd ideas that every man and woman were in fact free to choose its own destiny, and even its leaders and lawmakers, and that the kings should serve the people, and not the opposite.
In the year 1800, the revolutionary radicalism that had provoked the bloodiest atrocities of the Terror in France gave place to a moderate order, now under control of a distinguished military officer from French Corsica, Napoleón Bonaparte, First Consul of the Republic. The French Revolutionary Army, like a storm of the century, had already defeated great hosts from the United Kingdom, extinguished the Italian principalities and cannibalized the Dutch provinces, and humbled the monarchies of Austria and Spain. It was clear that the “Revolution” was prevailing over the century-old European balance of power.
In the western part of the Iberian Peninsula lay the petite realm of Portugal. At the time one of the most conservative monarchies in Europe, whose nobility still benefited from archaic privileges, the nation was the center of a rotting empire comprising territories in South America, in Africa, as well as colonies in India and China. The seated monarch was Queen Maria I of Bragança, but since the 1790s, she had been recognized as clinically insane and was effectively interned in the palace of Queluz, in the suburbs of Lisboa. The government matters were responsibility of her son, Prince-Regent João de Bragança, a king without a crown.
As an evidence of how cruelly the Fates played with the course of Portugal, D. João was known by his contemporaries as a very weak and buffoon character. Being the second son of Queen Maria, he didn’t expect to inherit the crown, since his elder brother José had lived until the 27th year from his birth, when smallpox suddenly interrupted his life. The affairs of the State bothered Prince-Regent João so much that usually the kingdom – the Empire, actually – was run by his numerous ministers, while he secluded himself from public life until necessity made him appear before the subjects.
Portrait of D. João de Bragança, son and heir of Queen Maria I of Portugal
It was this monarch, who detested simple horse walks and preferred to spend his days praying in his private chapel, the one supposed to save Portugal from the destructive ambitions of the greatest military leader the world had seen since the times of Rome – Napoléon of France.
Perhaps Portugal could have escape ruin in virtue of its very insignificance to the geopolitics of Europe. However, they would soon become the main target of the Napoleon’s wrath, due to its ancient alliance with France’s greatest nemesis: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
2. The War of the Oranges
Until 1800, Portugal had been allied to the Kingdom of Spain in its war against Revolutionary France. After being defeated, however, the Spaniards simply changed sides, becoming allies of France, putting Portugal into a very difficult position: it could not renege on its alliance with Great Britain, but saw itself threatened by the two other great powers of Western Europe, Britain’s main rivals.
In that year, Prince-Regent João of Bragança received an ultimatum from France and Spain, ordering him to immediately declare war on the United Kingdom, and even cede a fraction of its territory to the Kingdom of Spain as a token of its loyalty. The Portuguese Crown stubbornly refused to cede, claiming neutrality in the war between the United Kingdom and the other European powers, but made hurried preparations for the inevitable war.
In April 1801, Spanish troops under Manuel de Godoy, assisted by a few French regiments, invaded Portugal, advancing through Alentejo in the south – seeking to capture Lisboa as soon as possible – while another force penetrated at the border in Tras-os-Montes to face any Portuguese resistance in the northern region of the country. The war received this curious name because the commander, Manuel de Godoy, picked some oranges in Elvas, near the captured border-town of Olivenças, and sent them to the Queen of Spain, with the message that he would proceed to Lisboa.
The Spanish expected this “war” be a very quick affair, but the undermanned regiments of Portugal seemed determined to fight, and obtained a surprising victory near the city of Flor da Rosa. The Spanish vanguard was ambushed while fording a creek, and were forced retreat to the city of Crato, abandoning some cannons and leaving many horses dead on field.
Battle of Flor da Rosa: an unexpected victory for the Lusitanians
This humiliating defeat enraged Marshal Manuel de Godoy, who became determined to avenge the loss, and penetrated eagerly in Portuguese territory. In July 1801 they overpowered, the main Lusitanian force in Évora, opening the path to the Atlantic coast. In the early September 1801, the Prince-Regent of Portugal received the dire news that the Portuguese garrisons in Tras-os-Montes had been outmaneuvered and defeated, and the Spaniards forced the capitulation of Setúbal, where the last defending regiments had been regrouped in the previous month. Prince-Regent João even started preparations to transport the Royal family to Brazil – a plan brought forward in every occasion that Portugal faced a war in Europe – but a Spanish flotilla from Cádiz had encircled the port of Lisboa, and the Portuguese fleet had scant hope of trespassing the blockade. After this disastrous campaign, the Crown of Portugal communicated its surrender to the Kingdom of Spain.
The border towns of Olivença and Campo Maior were annexed to the Kingdom of Spain, but the rest of the territorial integrity of the nation was preserved.
Prince João became a virtual prisoner in his favored palace of Mafra, and the regency of the mad Queen Maria was officially assumed by his wife, Princess Carlota Joaquina, daughter of King Carlos IV of Spain, as a measure to ensure the compliance of the Portuguese Crown to the foreign interests.
In December 1801, by the Treaty of Évora, Portugal entered an alliance with the Republic of France and the Kingdom of Spain against the United Kingdom. The most humiliating terms of the treaty, however, were the permission for a Spanish regiment to be quartered in the city of Setúbal, to “ensure the safety of the princess of Spain and of the people and church of Portugal against the pernicious revolutionaries”, and the partition of Portuguese America between France and Spain. Nevertheless, this last article wouldn’t be fulfilled solely by the efforts of the colonists themselves, because, while the war of 1801 ended on a disastrous defeat for Portugal in Europe, it became a resounding victory to the kingdom in the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
_________________________________
Historical Notes: The Portuguese didn’t actually gain any victory against the invading Spanish Army in the War of the Oranges. IOTL their defeat near the borders satisfied Spain, and they never get close to Lisboa before signing a peace treaty.
IOTL, the War of the Oranges was finished by June 1801, and, excepting for the cession of Olivenças, maintained the status quo antebellum.
Historically, the Portuguese Court only migrated to Brazil in the year of 1808, with assistance of the British Royal Navy, when the Napoleonic forces invaded Portugal and captured Lisboa. Nevertheless, the plan for moving the royal family to a safe refuge in the colony had already been contemplated since 1580, when the Spanish troops of Phillip II overran Portugal to ensure his claim in a succession war. In 1801, it was indeed defended by some of D. João’s ministers, but he refused and decided to remain to fight against Spain.
- Rdffigueira
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