Are we going to see higher rates of German and Italian immigration to Brazil's south? Considering that IOTL the numbers were already pretty large.
A New World with New Ideas - A Brazilian Timeline
- Thread starter CobraFumante
- Start date
The War of the Oranges
Chapter XXV - The War of the Oranges
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The premiership of Tomé Vanderlei was not a smooth one, being acclaimed as Prime Minister in January the 1st 1799 he had to contend with the growing possibility of conflict between Portugal and a Franco-Spanish alliance, specially now that France managed to defeat a coallition of European powers thanks in part to the help of a young General named Napoleon Bonaparte, to prepare for this he thereby created (with Portuguese support) the Brazilian army, the first academy was opened in a city close to the capital called Niteroy [1] and from there the first Brazilian professionals were being trained in case of conflict.
Conflict did eventually came on the 20th of May 1801 when the Spaniards and French crossed the border into Portugal, unlike in other occasions where the smaller but better Portuguese army was able to repel the Spaniards this time the Spaniards and French managed to make progress and penetrate the Lusitanian Line, soon after they headed towards Lisbon taking Braganza in the process, the Spaniards were set on wanting to avenge the humiliating defeats at the hands of their smaller neighbor, they marched on burning, raping and slaughtering their way trough Northern Portugal, the Portuguese however managed to slow the invaders down for enough time that a British expeditionary forced arrived in Lisbon, they alongside the Portuguese army managed to fight the invading forces to a draw at Viseu Dão Lafões on the 7th of October, from there on the central-front became stagnant as further attempts to capture Lisbon were successfully repelled by the Portuguese and British forces, action however continued in the North with the French and Spanish capturing Galicia and later the city of Porto by May of 1802, however attacks in the south were unsuccessful and the war in Europe became stagnant.
In South America however things were different, once new of war had arrived to Tomé’s years he knew they had to act quick, the militias from Cisplatina, Missões, Uruguay, Araucária and Iguassú were ordered to assemble in Curityba where they would be joined by the newly trained soliders of the Brazilian army, from there a force of 30,000 men marched to the province of Missões and on the 8th of November the Brazilians crossed the Uruguay river and entered into Spanish held territory, from there they marched southwards taking over many settlements and forts, they also encountered foerce resistance from the local Indians whom had a deep hatred of the Brazilians after the hole ordeal from the 7 years war, the Brazilians however managed to best their foes on the fields of San Salvador where their superiority in firepower overcame their enemy’s cavalry advantage, after this however the natives took to the countryside beginning a guerrilla war against the invaders, essentially coping what was done in the 7 years war the Brazilians plundered, murdered and rapes wherever they passed, here however this proved to only worsen the situation as more and more people joined in the fight against the Lusos, by the end of 1802 the governor of La Plata managed to gather a big enough army of around 25,000 men to fight the Brazilians who got busy committing war-crimes, the battle was fought at Gualeguaychú and despite the Spaniards and their Allie’s fighting bravely they were eventually defeat by the more numerous Brazilians who then proceeded to plunder Buenos Aires, this more or less put an end to this theater of war as both sides met to organize a truce.
Then the Brazilians remembered that French Guyana existed, so a month after the attack on Buenos Aires the governor of Grão-Pará received permission to lead a force of 5,000 men into French Guyana to occupy it, the invasion went smoothly as the Brazilians already had good connections in the area with the governor’s mother herself being from an influential French family from Guyana, all in all the Brazilians just landed its troops near Cayenne and after some sporadic fighting with the French garrison they captured the city and the colony surrendered, well actually in the costal areas surrender as the natives who feared having their lands taken away would take to the countryside and fight a guerrilla war against the Brazilians for the next 10 years, with most people considering this a different war from the hole War of Oranges ordeal.
These military victories were very important as they both enlarged Brazil and managed to get Tomé reelected on the second election in Brazilian history winning a whopping 45,718 votes.
Back in Europe he war had become a stalemate as neither side had the forces to push the other, the Portuguese who were sick of this decided to sue for peace and in the end they had to give Galicia back to Spain[2], the Spaniards for their part distrusted the Galicians and thought of them as not Castilian enough so they began to enforce order in the provinces via force, this coupled with the destruction of Northern Portugal led to a huge increase in emigration to Brazil with some 30,000 people arriving in just 5 years, meanwhile in Lisbon the Portuguese were absolutely pissed about what had just happened and they began to plot revenge the Spaniards might have won the battle (if you forget South America of course) but by god the Portuguese were going to win the war
PS: sorry for the lack of posts this week
[1] the same city as OTL
[2] Not for long that I promise
Last edited:
Gonna be honest with ya, I might have forgotten Argentina had a sizable slave population despite me posting about it here
Also about the navy all I can say is soon...
Thy Kingdom Come
Chapter XXVI - Thy Kingdom Come
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
“Truly I tell ye, that the brave nation of Portugal suffered greatly at the hands of the nefarious hordes of Spain and France, the mad despot in Madrid and the unruly mobs of Paris united under the common goal of destroying this nation, yet they failed and whilst they may have achieved temporary successes in the form of the annexation Galicia this was to be but a temporary state of affairs, Portugal was not the only nation dated to duel the malicious Franco-Spaniard alliance, in defiance of their tyranny stood mighty Britannia alongside its Allie’s Prussia, Austria, Russian and Sweden; it seemed more then obvious that the fate of France was sealed, however the French had a secretary weapon up their sleeve, a small Corsican[1] whom fought like a devil and seemed to have no equal on the battlefield, the mad General soon obtained enough prestige and power that he staged a coup against the French government and later crowned himself the Emperor of the French, the deposit in his lust to defeat the Mistress of the Oceans called upon a continental-wide embargo against London, most nations fearing retribution obliged but our brave small kingdom chose to fight rather then be slaves, the Corsican however had other plans and he would make sure we paid for our rightful defiance.”
Back in Brazil, now that La Plata was defeated and French Guyana was firmly incorporated they pondered on what to do, firstly it was decided that all slaves held in occupied territory were to be freed immediately, this official decree was a response to the Marquês incident where a soldier from a Brazilian company stationed in La Plata fell in love with a local slave, after some weeks they decided to marry whoever since she was a slave she could not do it without the consent of her master, in response his company barged into the slaver’s property and freed all slaves there, this of course caused tension and as to avoid the Brazilians violently and illegally freeing the slaves they decided to instead decree their freedom and pay an indemnity to the slave owners. Another point of content for Tomé’s government was about the newly acquired terriories which after years of fighting had become devoid of people, so the government using the Lei do Sertão begin dividing up land and giving them to families to start the repopulation of the area, this also had the effect of turning the Spanish speaking population into a minority, lastly there was the issue of French Guyana which if you remind has an ongoing native rebellion deep in the Amazon, to deal with this problem an additional 5,000 troops from the provinces of Mearim and Grão-Pará were raised and sent to the new province, the fighting was brutal and would last until 1812 killing an estimate of 10,000 Indians.
The issue of war however was not something that São Sebastião really cared, to them the Brazilians had done everything in their power and any further involvement was beyond their financial and logistical capabilities, this was however when Fernando José de Portugal (aka the representative of the king in the Brazilian government) gave a simple suggestion, since the Portuguese navy was to stay in Portugal in case of another attack the Brazilians must build a navy of their own to aid in the war effort, at first this idea seemed ludicrous about how Brazil should build a navy to attack French possessions and send troops to Portugal, but the more they thought about it the more it made sense, so in 1805 the Lei da Esquadra Brazileira which officially created a Brazilian navy for the Brazilian nation, first course of action was to actually build those ships for this modern shipbuilding facilities were to be created as the ones Brazil had were to old and obsolete to create a modern navy, immigrants from Britain and the Netherlands who had arrived previously proved to be very useful in this endeavor as many of them had shipbuilding experience, the most important of them was William Hunstanton who, although was born in East Anglia lived most of his live in the London docks where he eventually became a shipbuilder fleeing to Brazil afterwards to dodge any possible war drafts, he and his expertise were put to use and go on to create a proper navy, however certain turn of events would render this unnecessary, also in 1806 an unexpected turn of events happened, as it turned out PM Tomé had been having an affair with a rich French woman from Haiti and this really blew up in his face as when the elections began the leader of the conservatives Rodrigo de Matos managed to win a decisively against his opponent.
Back in Portugal, Napoleon finally had enough of the Lusitanian insolence and sought to make an example out of Portugal, a French army left France and headed towards Lisbon, at the time the king was D.Sebastião II (the son of D.Eduardo II) and when he received the news the was shocked to his core, heated debates about what to do ensued. Should Portugal try to fight the French or should they submit to the French and go on to fight the British? They first option was unlikely as there was no way the Portuguese were going to best the French army in the field, the second option was also impossible since the king was married to Princess Sophia and the king was not ready to betray the British, incomes the British diplomat in Lisbon which gives a suggestion to his majesty, if the king continue to fight Napoleon a British fleet could escort him and the royal family to Brazil where they could from there continue the fight, after some time of pondering the King accepted the offer the Portuguese Empire was to keep the flame alive in the Tropical lands of Brazil. In the following days the entire royal court of Portugal alongside many prominent citizens and other immigrants + most of the royal library and other valuable pieces of art and furniture left Portugal for Brazil and as the ships disappeared in the ocean the French arrived in the port making them “Ficar a ver navios”[2].
Painting of the Portuguese court preparing for their trans-Atlantic vacation.
[1] He was average height for the time
[2] A Brazilian expression originating here which basically means being deceived
Last edited:
Yes! I would love to see the anti-slavery portuguese kicking some french ass there
It might even help to prevent the massacre of white citizens post-victory, though I dunno if the logistics would allow it
Back in the fight
Chapter XXVII - Back in the fight
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
In the year of our lord of 1807 the Portuguese Royal family left Lisbon in face of the French invasion, the king and his family escorted by the British and Portuguese navy arrived in Salvador on the 22nd of January and later moving to São Sebastião and arriving on the 7th of March, there one of his first actions was to declare that although Portugal has fallen the fight was to continue, the King then proceeded to meet with the PM Rodrigo de Matos and discuss with him about the governing of the kingdom, a number of reforms were to be made in order for Brazil to carry on the struggle (which is ironic considering Rodrigo ran on the grounds of no radical reforms), the first of these reforms was unifying the import duties which so far were a convoluted mess with often contradictory taxes being applied, this reform in particular set the taxes on foreign imports to be at 30%, however the taxes on English and Portuguese products were at 15% which essentially meant that English goods began to flood Brazil and break the little industry the country was building, another reform was the navy which now temporarily integrated the Portuguese navy into its ranks, lastly there was the question about finances which although were discussed way back in the Consitucional Convention was still an undecided matter, which is why Eduardo founded the Bank of Brazil the first of its kind in Brazil.
Another measure taken by Eduardo would be in respect to the thousands of nobles and educated people that came with him, to this end he ordered massive building projects in São Sebastião so as to accommodate a European court, soon the capital was filled with beautiful wonders of architecture as many theaters, libraries and houses were constructed in a baroque style, now of course not everything was flowers and sunshine, while these constructions were being built many people had their houses seized or demolished, this of course led to riots as many decried that the government was exerting power beyond its capabilities, the situation however was resolved when the government agreed to indemnify the peple and pay double what their properties were worth, it was also agreed that the government would redistribute land in the interior for those who wished land. Despite the controversy surrounding the whole ordeal there was no question that those projects transformed São Sebastião into perhaps the most beautiful city in the Americas, after these projects ended the king received many guests including the British consulates to Brazil, in those meetings the Portuguese king proposed to the British the creation of a colony in the southern cone to weaken the Spanish position even further[1].
However despite all of this the king’s most noteworthy achievements would be military ones, to avenge the fall of his homeland the king would spare no chance to fight the French and it would be in Haiti that the first battle was to be fought. For those who didn’t know Haiti was fighting a brutal war against the French as Napoleon had sent reinforcements to the island during the short peace between France and the UK, the Haitians were getting desperate and there was a fear among the European elites that the French living in Haiti were getting the short end of the stick, this is why the Portuguese came to Haiti with an offer, in exchange for allowing Brazilian troops in Haiti the Lusitanians would recognize Haiti and help them fight the French, the Haitians who were in a dire situation accepted almost immediately and so a contingent of 12,000 professional Brazilian troops were dispatched to Haiti, the Brazilians once they got there actually became good friends with Haitians, sure there were some who were racists but by en large the Haitian-Brazilian relations were very chill this would also be the seed for future cooperation between the two nations, for now tough the Brazilians fought alongside the Haitians against the French, battle would rage on for a year between 1809 and 1810 before the last vestiges of Napoleonic power in Haiti were destroyed, after the French defeat the remains French population in Haiti was transported back to Brazil, now basically nobody wanted to settle in Brazil but since the Portuguese weren’t going to let them back to France they had no choice but to stay until the war was over.
By the end of 1810 another election was held and Rodrigo managed to be re-elected with a tight margin of 52% of the Popular vote.
Brazilians Soldiers during the period
In the following months the Brazilians were preparing for their most ambitious project yet, since 1808 the British aided by Spanish and Portuguese rebels had been fighting the French in Iberia, now it was time for the Brazilians to join the fun, on he 11th of January 1810 an expeditionary force of 25,000 Brazilian left Brazil and headed for Portugal, the army landed in the city of Porto on April after a small stay in the Azores and from there connected with the British army under Arthur Wellesley and together begun to head against the French armies still in Portugal, after successfully liberating the occupied nation they then turned their attention northwards and liberated Galicia with a combined assault by the Luso-British army from the South and the Spanish from the East, as time dragged on the French position in Iberia began to weaken further and further until they were finally expelled in 1813, the Brazilians saw fight no further and returned to their homelands victorious and proud of their achievements
[1] keep in mind this was when Spain was already an Allie after being betrayed by Napoleon which means that even tough they were allies Portugal still had some animosity towards Spain.
Last edited:
At the edge of Europe
Chapter XXVIII - At the edge of Europe
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
First things first the Portuguese king and the nobility were to return, now there was some problem with this namely that the king didn’t wasn’t to go back, he had grown accustomed to Brazil and was quiet fond of the place, there was also the problem that if he were to returned to Portugal he would need to deal with some angry people and the fears of the French Revolution and head-chopping were still fresh in everyone’s mind, thankfully his wife and the new PM Leonardo Sefarino de Souza (new conservative PM) managed to convince him to return to Portugal, now not everyone wanted to follow through with the plan and some preferred to stay, such was the case of some pretty important people like the king’s younger brother Pedro de Alcântara[1], but when it was due time the royal family had to go and they left Brazil in December of 1815.
Once they arrived in Portugal as expected, Eduardo had to deal with the pending crisis his country faced as liberals demanded more rights and freedoms, now a lot of his advisors were throwing ideas around some even suggesting his majesty should crush the liberals while he could, ultimately it came to his wife to once again convince the king, now since she was British and as such already sympathies for those liberal ideas she successfully convinced her husband to talk to the dissidents, finally convinced the king set out to form an agreement which the wannabe revolutionaries, these talks also known as the Congresso do Porto which shockingly was held in the city of Porto, resulted in an agreement with the king where Portugal adopted a constitution, however unlike future constitutional monarchies the king was granted significant powers including one called the “Poder Moderador” which granted the monarch the power to dissolve parliament whenever he pleased however this could be outruled by a 2/3 majority (good luck getting that tough).
The creation of the Portuguese constitution.
Then there were the reactions to this elsewhere, now the reaction to this in the UK, Brazil and the US where extremely positive as they were the forefront era of liberalism now that the French Revolution ended, everywhere else in Europe tough hated it, monarchs across Europe feared that tiny little Portugal had lighted the sparks for more revolutions in Europe and that they needed to intervene to place an absolutist monarch in charge, in the end tough they did nothing mostly because there was no 2nd round of European revolutions (yet) and thus saw no need to get into a costly expedition to the Iberian peninsula all because of paranoia.
[1] The guy is based on D.Pedro I but they are not the same person since it would be pretty much impossible for him to exist
Last edited:
It’s mostly because it was occupied by the brits and they made sure to the Dutch they would return it afterwards
It should be napoleon, shouldn't it? Also, I just finished reading this TL and I must say this is a very good TL! Easily in the top 5 for best TL's for Latin America, this is speaking as a Brazilian!
Last edited:
well you are right, gotta fix it
also I am happy you’re liking it
Last edited:
Brazil, which is essentially Portugal’s best tool in the shed is going to positively impact the Portuguese Empire in Africa
As for international relations for most of the 19th century there will be little need for Brazil to have a proactive involvement internationally with some exceptions which we will see in a somewhat distant future.
Last edited:
A Wedding in the Tropics
Chapter XXIX - A Wedding in the Tropics
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Following the return of the Portuguese Royal as well as the Liberal reforms normality returned to Portugal, this is also when people asking where was the king’s brother? He was as many already suspected still in Brazil as he had grown fond of the warm climate of São Sebastião, the young lad born in the 2nd of April of 1797 was as of 1816 unmarried but hot on suitors, his brother back in Portugal decided that it was finally time for his brother to tie the knot, however he wanted him to be married to a noble of high prestige as a member of the house of Avis should, after looking for a suitable match he finally found one in the form “Leopoldine Caroline Josepha von Habsburg-Lothringen” the daughter of the ex-Holy Roman Emperor and currently the Archduke of Austria (+ a crap load of other titles) Francis I, this was however not because the king thought that both would grow to be happy but more to secure good ties with the Austrians as Portugal suspected them to have a bright future ahead, so after a few negotiations with the Austrians as well as massive dowry it was agreed that both were to marry, the question now was where it would happen, now Eduardo wished for the marriage to happen in Lisbon where it would be easier to meet as well as better suited for the Austrians, Pedro however insisted on a marriage in Brazil which was where he wanted to be, but after some persuasion Eduardo convinced Pedro to temporarily return to Portugal just so he could be married, he did and on the 17th of July 1816 both Leopoldine and Pedro were married and promptly returned to Brazil after January, although both were married due to the interests of their countries, the couple soon grew very fond of one another and Leopoldina (her Portuguese name) was keen on showing she was committed to her new land so much so that she presented to her husband which later presented it to parliament a flag design unique to Brazil, after a short vote in congress with 242-63 and in the Senate for the proposal 65-16 her design became the face of Brazil a new country for a new world.
Another matter of importance around Brazilian politics this time would be about Tariffs, since the creation of the nation the topic about these taxes was a very delicate one, for one since things like property taxes or income taxes don’t exist the Government can only really make money through the taxation of goods, this however also presented a problem since the bulk of the Brazilian economy was all about low value agricultural exports since the local industries were essentially destroyed after the low tariffs placed on British and Portuguese goods caused an inflow of cheaply manufactured goods, the Liberals which since the scandals involving Vanderlei’s mistress were unable to win an election after being defeated in 1806, 1810 and 1814, their hope would be to capitalize on the royal couple both of which had clear Liberal tendencies and frame the party as a beacon of progress while keeping old traditions, this served them well as their incumbent candidate Henrique Garcias da Costa e Ferreira won a major victory against the conservative candidate José Matias de Souza winning a whopping 49,364 votes and also securing the parliament to be full of Liberals, this election however was a very fraudulent one and was full of voter suppression, something which would come to bite the Liberals in the ass later on.
However not much changed as the Liberals saw no need to change much with the exception of the mentioned tariffs, which rose to 30% granting the federal government’s revenue as well as trying (and failing) to kickstart the nation’s industry, however Henrique’s most noteworthy achievement would be at the course of diplomacy as he played a key role in convincing the Portuguese government to recognize the new fledgeling Spanish-American republics, now Brazilians had been fighting in the conflicts since the beginning as many volunteered to fight against the Spaniards, many would also smuggle equipment to the rebels in the hopes of turning the tides against Madrid, this at largely worked to the point that if someone studies the Latin-American wars of independence you will always find a Brazilian there fighting, the last noteworthy Brazilian achievement of the 1810’s would be the Tristão expedition, Raimundo Tristão (a direct descendant of the old Brazilian governor Diogo Tristão) led an expedition of Portuguese and Brazilians into Angola and from there tried to reach Mozambique, the track was of course full of dangers and after running into all sorts of tribes and animals the expedition managed to reach its destination (tough short on half of its crew), said expedition would lead to the then Governor Luís da Mota Feio launching a program to settle Brazilians and Portuguese in Angola in order to increase Portuguese control of the area in hopes of one day connecting the colonies of Angola and Mozambique.
Last edited: