AHC: Brazilian colonies

With a POD in 1788, make a TL where Brazil becomes the Empire of Brazil and successfully takes control over all the African colonies Portugal previously had, such as Mozambique and Angola.
 
You could get some of them, but not all of them.

Brazil would most likely get Angola and Sao Tome and Principe, but that's really all they could get, Cape Verde and Guinea are to far North and tied to Portugal, Mozambique has little to no ties to Brazil, but has a Portuguese minority and Goa and Timor are to far away and would be opposed by Britain in the former case.
 
Have the Portuguese monarchy move to Brazil, decide they like it there, and stay. Over time, more and more of the government institutions are transferred to Brazil because it's slowly becoming more important than Portugal. Eventually, Portugal itself has had enough neglect, and revolts, successfully gaining its independence from Brazil; however, the other colonies don't revolt, as they aren't particularly closely tied to Portugal either now that the government is in Brazil, and thus Brazil, as the legal successor to the Portuguese Empire, gets to keep said colonies.
 
Britain might even support it if Angola and Mocambique go to different owners, because then the danger of something like the Pink Map and a East-to-West blockade disappears.

OTOH, this might even lead to a Brazilian Congo. Which does not mean that TTL's Brazil will be stronger, in fact a colonial Empire of Brazil might be much weaker and more dependant on British goddwill. Which again might lead to a much earlier abolition of slavery in Brazil as conditio sine qua non for British acceptance of Brazilian possession of Angola: The UK will hardly accept that Brazil simply forces people from Angola into slavery in South America.
 
Britain might even support it if Angola and Mocambique go to different owners, because then the danger of something like the Pink Map and a East-to-West blockade disappears.

OTOH, this might even lead to a Brazilian Congo. Which does not mean that TTL's Brazil will be stronger, in fact a colonial Empire of Brazil might be much weaker and more dependant on British goddwill. Which again might lead to a much earlier abolition of slavery in Brazil as conditio sine qua non for British acceptance of Brazilian possession of Angola: The UK will hardly accept that Brazil simply forces people from Angola into slavery in South America.

I'm not really sure Brazil would be that interested in Africa outside of Angola, they'd most likely try to extend its borders, but I don't think they'd be interested in the large scale colonization done by the European powers.
 
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Have Napoleon not betray Spain and him being a lot more successful in the Napoleonic Wars. And having Portugal annexed to Spain with the Braganza Monarchy in Brazil gaining all of Portugal's colonies.
 
I mostly thought of the Kingdom of Kongo, the oldest Portuguese client state in West Africa. Since Cabinda is already Angolese, it seems rather natural to acquire at least a bit along the lower Zaire River, perhaps with the Kasai River as border. Other parts of OTL DRC might go to France (in the NW) and the UK or Germany (in the east).

kongo_map.gif
 

katchen

Banned
The British specifically insisted when Brazil became independent of Portugal that Portugal retain the African colonies specifically because the British were taking it upon themselves to phase out the slave trade worldwide. Maybe for Brazil to retain African colonies we need a TL in which Britain is navally humbled to the point where it decides that other nation's slave trade is really none of it's business.:(What outcome to the Napoleonic Wars would be needed to accomplish this?
 
In '88, you could have Francisco Antonio stay away from wherever it was that he caught smallpox. He's more liberal than his younger brother Joao who ended up king. Have him strengthen the military so that when the war of the oranges roll around, Portugal resists enough that it becomes a lengthier war and Portugal gets over run and the court gets transferred to Brazil in '01 instead of '07. England is looking for peace at this time, so OTL they abandoned Portugal (who OTL got lucky that Godoy was satisfied with an easy victory and pressed for minimal claims). At this point, ATL, FA recognizes Portugal is the past, Brazil is the future, so he proclaims Brazil the center of the empire, reduces Portugal to a satelite powerless kingdom with Joao as king, toadying to the French (with territorial losses to Spain, and indemnity to France). This does two things: first, it permanently separates Portugal and Brazil, and second, it closes off Portugal to the English, which was Frances aim when pushing Spain to start the war (and which was achieved OTL). England goes along with this arrangement with the proviso that the Brazilian markets are directly opened to them.

This is before the 1807 push by England to close off the slave trade, so they go along with the colonies going with Brazil. Plus, in 1801/1802, they're pushing hard for a peace with France, which is why they didn't use the opportunity to open another warfront OTL, so they're more amenable to a lot of stuff they wouldn't agree to later on in OTL.

This also shakes up the Iberian penninsula OTL timeline. Napoleon used the 1807 invasion of Portugal as cover to take over Spain. Speed things up to a point where he's also looking for a peace, you take that away. No penninsular war in 1808 completely changes the south american wars of independence, and has an immense effect on European theatre. without France preoccupied in Spain, does Austria attack in 1809? with the experienced French army (tied down in Spain OTL), does Napoleon fare better in Russia? As someone said, make France more successful, and England less successful, and Brazil's fortune rises. Simply having a King who would be proactive in arranging a permanent solution for the relationship of Brazil and Portugal rather than the reactive policies of Joao changes everything.
 
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