One Nation Under the Southern Cross - an alternate Brazil TL (updated 13/08)

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

That's it, friends. This chapter is a "season finale" of sorts, being the last chapter of the arc related to the War of Independence. After this part, Brazil becomes de facto independent from Portugal, and its first republican institutions will be created.

Hope you are enjoying the story. Don't forget to comment, every criticism is welcome, since I'm making a serious effort to be realistic (even if trying to make the wheel of fortune spin more favorably for my fellow countrymen in Brazil )

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14. The Campaign in Maranham and Grão-Pará​

As the year of 1818 came to its closure, the patriot forces active in the Northeastern Provinces were confident that Portugal had been defeated, even if they had yet to receive the news from Lisboa that the Portuguese government had finally opened the peace talks. Nevertheless, Cpt. Antônio Teixeira Coelho and Bgd. Tomás Afonso Nogueira Gaspar became convinced that another military enterprise was necessary to safeguard the borders of their fledgling nation: the conquest of Maranham, Grão-Pará and Rio Negro, that is, the provinces that comprised the immense North Region of Portuguese America.

Even after being informed that the main Portuguese military forces in Brazil had been defeated, and that the Viceroy D. Miguel Pereira Forjaz himself had returned to Portugal, the seated Governor of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro – a nobleman named Dom Teófilo Carneiro de Oliveira Braga – refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new regime, and proclaimed himself the most loyal subject of King João VI of Portugal. In a strong-worded letter that arrived to Nogueira Gaspar’s cabinet in Fortaleza, in January 1819, he proudly proclaimed that he was prepared to face the “cursed rebels” in battle, and that their “godless insurgence” would be destroyed.

Not only the province was extremely distant from the center of power in Rio de Janeiro, Grão-Pará was by far the largest territory in Brazil, with most of it uncharted and inhabited by hostile indigenous peoples. Its main settlements, including the provincial capital, Belém, were exposed to the foreign powers present in the Caribbean: France, Spain and Netherlands. Now, the region experienced a noticeable increase in revenue, due to the success of recent enterprises dedicated to the production of cotton, ceramics, tobacco, cocoa and even cattle in the valley of the River Branco. Even if D. Teófilo Braga’s threats were empty, the Liberator forces realized that the submission of this last royalist stronghold was a strategic necessity, especially considering that the ports of São Luís (in Maranham) and Belém (in Grão-Pará) might be used as bases from whence the Portuguese could attempt a reconquest in the future.

Before the month of January ended, thus, the 1º Exército Brasileiro marched from Fortaleza to reach the port-town of São Luís, under the scorching equatorial sun, but adequately supplied by sloops sailing along the beach carrying food and clothes.

The march was uneventful and unopposed, and the army arrived barely a week later at the destination. In February 1819, the fortified city of São Luís – a beautiful seaside town built by the French invaders in the 17th Century when they attempted to carve their own colony in the Americas – was besieged by the patriot army.

São Luís do Maranham, as seen from the Atlantic Ocean​

The defensive artillery was outdated, and the local Luso-Brazilian garrison had too few supplies to withstand a prolonged siege. Even so, they tried to mount a heroic resistance, which ended barely two days later when the inhabitants panicked and rioted against the local governor, carefully hidden inside the citadel near the harbor. He was assassinated during the night by his assistant slave, and by then the city gates had already been opened to the besiegers. After Bgd. Nogueira Gaspar joyfully announced the liberation from the tyranny of Portugal, investing the municipal council of São Luís as the new “Chamber of Maranhão” (with its own deputies to act on the behalf of the newly proclaimed federated state) and sought to reorganize the administrative and fiscal matters of the former province, Cpt. Teixeira Coelho conducted a series of military operations with his cavalry force to ensure the compliance of the indigenous and colonial peoples living around the lakes Verde, Cajari and Jacareí.

After a military officer was installed as the provisory Governor, with his own garrison, and the confident of the tranquility of the region, the 1º Exército Brasileiro continued its march to the west, headed for the Marajó Bay, where the city of Belém was nested.

Governor Teófilo Carneiro de Oliveira Braga, warned in advance about the coming of the “rebel” army, assembled a local force of militia and Indians, numbering about a 700 men, barely armed with firearms, but resorting to axes and spears, and barricaded himself in the diminutive citadel of Belém.

Even if the defending forces seemed prepared to withstand the siege, their effort quickly crumbled. The supplies, especially ammunition for the firearms, were scarce, so much that after a couple days no weapons were fired from inside the city, and the local population had been suffering terribly with an epidemic of smallpox during the previous months, a condition that compromised whatever defensive efforts they could mount. As if this was not enough, D. Teófilo Braga, despite his undying loyalty to the Crown, was an uncharismatic leader, whose prejudice towards the mestizos and blacks demoralized the garrison and provoked many desertions.

In the end, however, the fate of Belém was decided on its streets, after the emancipationist forces were invited inside by a group of deserters. Bands of militiamen barricaded in the town square were surprised by a cavalry charge of the “Brazilian hussars”, and after a quick bloodshed, the defenders surrendered. The patriot side had but a handful of casualties.

Battle of Belém (1819)​

D. Teófilo Braga had ignominously escaped the city in a boat disguised like a fisherman, but was surprised in the next day by a cadre of Indian hunters and given as a prisoner to Bgd. Nogueira Gaspar. With his capture, the last hazardous Loyalist presence in the former Portuguese colony was neutralized, and immediately after, he was sent by ship to Rio de Janeiro, and from there banished back to Portugal.

Of course, the Portuguese Governors of the Captaincies of Goyáz and Matto Grosso had, even now, refused outright to recognize the Independence movement, and remained loyal to the Portuguese Crown, but both of them were low threats to the newly established regime, considering that they were geographically and politically isolated and now entirely surrounded by the patriot forces, and their own military contingents were too small to wage a determined resistance. What mattered was that the main ports from the La Plata to the Amazon River were hostile to the Portuguese Navy, and would deny them safe harbors, even if the emancipationist forces headed by Gen. Mena Barreto’s Junta established in Rio de Janeiro had a very tenuous hold over the interior regions, and its confederation with the Northeastern States was based in a fragile alliance towards the European metropolis.

In the immense and uncharted expanses of Grão-Pará, there remained for several months partisans of resistance against the provisory government in Belém. The local aboriginal tribes, escaped slaves and mestizos that comprised the majority of the population hardly cared about the Crown of Portugal, but found the moment of political uncertainty opportune to vent their accumulated hatred due to the extreme poverty of the region against the regional junta established in 1819. Even after a series of military operations conducted by Cpt. Teixeira Coelho and Bgd. Nogueira Gaspar along the course of the Amazon River, going as far as the forts of Tapajós [“Santarém”] and Manáos [“Manaus”], the region as a whole remained in a state of rebellion until late 1820, when the most populous Indian groups were either exterminated or forced into agreements with the provisory government.

In June 1819, the leaders of the 1º Exército Brasileiro quartered in Belém happily announced to the tired soldiers that the Crown of Portugal had finally surrendered, and that their nation was free at last, and that the political deputies from various Municipal Chambers from Brazil had recently approved the Constitution of the Federation of Brazil.

 

[alysson124038]

Very nice Independence war, as a fellow Brazilian, I am very happy in having an active timeline about Brazil.

Great job and hope for more.

 

[Unknown]

Good job on the Brazilian independence war.

Also waiting for more, of course...

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

Very nice Independence war, as a fellow Brazilian, I am very happy in having an active timeline about Brazil.

Great job and hope for more.

Thanks, my friend. Happy to see compatriots around, and hope you continue appreciating it.

Good job on the Brazilian independence war.

Also waiting for more, of course...

My intention, obviously, is for the Independence to be just the beginning...

 

[Braganza]

Great work here! Looking forward for more!

One doubt: what happened with OTL Brazilian leaderships like Frei Caneca and Bonifácio de Andrada? Are we going to see them in the next updates or they didn't achieve the same relevance they did in our timeline?

Also, it looks like this Republic will be one of the oligarchies. The OTL Empire was struck by many rebellions during the regency (1830s-1840s), composed by a myriad of participants, like slaves and ranchers, but also the liberal middle class. These rebellions were also preponderant in the North. Isn't it possible that the Republic will face the same fate?

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

Great work here! Looking forward for more!

One doubt: what happened with OTL Brazilian leaderships like Frei Caneca and Bonifácio de Andrada? Are we going to see them in the next updates or they didn't achieve the same relevance they did in our timeline?

Also, it looks like this Republic will be one of the oligarchies. The OTL Empire was struck by many rebellions during the regency (1830s-1840s), composed by a myriad of participants, like slaves and ranchers, but also the liberal middle class. These rebellions were also preponderant in the North. Isn't it possible that the Republic will face the same fate?

Well, I didn't forget about the Historical Brazilian leaderships, but I'm trying to work with "hard" butterflies, which means that, indeed, some of them won't achieve the same relevance as they did IOTL. We must have in mind that, IOTL, the majority of the illustrious persons that appeared in the early 19th Century (thus including the reigns of D. João and D. Pedro I) either came with the Portuguese Court when they came to Rio de Janeiro, or rose to fame as a consequence of the Portuguese-Brazilian relations and conflicts that happened after 1808. ALL of them are indeed butterflied away, because very few people come from Portugal after Napoleon's invasion.

By the same reason, all the persons who were historically born after the "divergent period" (that is, between 1790s and 1810s) are butterflied away. This means we will never have Mal. Deodoro da Fonseca, Getúlio Vargas, and so forth. What we MAY have (considering that I'll inevitably try to observe some parallels with OTL to keep the world less outlandish) are fictional characters with "similar" roles to play in the ALT.

You are absolutely right about your second question. The picture I'll try to paint in the first half of the 19th Century-Brazil is similar to the "Coffee and Milk Republic", an oligarchic and conservative regime, but there will be more significant liberal and democratic influences than IOTL. In our History, the more progressive regimes (such as the Equador Confederation or the República do Rio Grande do Sul) were obliterated by the monarchical regime, while other persons with quite advanced ideas (such as Bonifácio de Andrada himself, or the Baron of Mauá) didn't obtain the success they deserved due to the retrograde context in which they operated. This ATL tries to "correct" this, without going into a "uber-Brazil becomes the USA" territory.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

When I started this TL, I decided to focus wholly in Brazil, because it began largely as an experimental writing project, and I wanted to avoid falling in the trap that many AH writers get into: losing the focus from the main points of interest. As I don’t trust myself, fearing that my obsession with (even minor) details transform a fluid read into a bloated textbook, I’ve reserved but a few passages to analyze the ALT-historical developments outside Brazil.

As I realize that the throwaway references might confuse the readers, I’ll try to post some stuff just to fill the voids, but without going in too much detail regarding non-Brazilian history.

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The Post-Napoleonic Order In Europe​

Napoleón Bonaparte was finally defeated by the combined forces of Russia, Austria, Prussia and Great Britain in 1814, after his battered army retreated from the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. France itself was occupied by the combined Prussian, Austrian, British and Russian armies, and the Emperor who had undone so many monarchs and broke apart the very foundations of Europe was forced to abdicate, and thus the revolution born in Paris was finally extinguished. The defeated and feared harbinger of the new world order was exiled to the distant island of Ascension, an isolated British possession in the very middle of the Atlantic Ocean [1], and the dethroned Bourbons were restored to power in France. He would end his own life barely a year later, while still in captivity, while his wife and son took refuge in the Viennese court to escape political enemies in France.

In one of the treaties conducted between the allied powers, the crowned heads of Europe agreed that a congress of nations would be convened to redefine the European geopolitics. It was agreed that congress would be hosted in Vienna, in late 1814, under presidency of the Austrian Minister Klemens von Metternich.

After months of discussions, the concept of “European concert” was established among the rulers of the great powers, whose basic premise was the idea of a balance of power regarding their territories, militaries and spheres of influence.

The resulting Concert of Vienna would later be criticized as “a fine collection of scraps of paper”, considering that many of its provisions would remain unfulfilled, while those which were indeed fulfilled represented an ill-fated attempt of turning back the clock of the ages. In this regard, the

Notorious provisions that came to last were:

• The formation of the German Confederation between the German States, including the Kingdom of Prussia (whose territories now included the Rhineland), the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Hannover itself (despite its personal union with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) as a more “modernized” version of the defunct Holy Roman Empire;
• The division of Italy in various princedoms, those of the northern part being ruled by Habsburg princes, with the restored Papal States in the center and the Neapolitan regime of Joachim Murat, with the Bourbon royalty still in Sicily;
• The confirmation of France’s pre-revolutionary borders;
• The creation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, joining the former Dutch Republic and the Austrian Low Lands.
• Various arrangements regarding colonial territories, mainly those conquered by Britain from Dutch and from Spanish control. In the same article, slave trafficking was condemned;
• The cession of the former French and Dutch colonies in the Guianas to the Kingdom of Portugal, as compensation for the destruction of Lisboa [2].

The efforts of creating a “century of peace” among the great powers were in vain, overridden by the ambitions of the crowned princes in assuring that their own share in the new European order is the “most just”. Ironically enough, the seeds of the next conflict were sowed in the peace conferences of 1814-1815.

The main controversy regarded the fates of Poland and Saxony. The monarchy of Prussia wanted the whole of Saxony, claiming that its King, Friedrich Augustus, had been one of Napoleón’s most stalwart allies, and did not deserve to be restored to power in his homeland. On the other side of the border, the defeated Duchy of Warsaw was coveted by the power-hungry Tsar of Russia. Animated by mutual friendship between their monarchs, and by their own ambitions, the nations of Prussia and Russia created an alliance in 1815, but met the opposition of Austria. The proposal of annexing the whole of Saxony to the Kingdom of Prussia and partitioning Poland in a way that the largest share went to the Russians concerned the Austrian government as much as it did to the heads of Bavaria, Hesse and Denmark-Norway, and the Great Britain, who feared exchanging a French dominance for a Russian one.

It is arguable that no one expected that the flashpoint question – which might have been solved if the great powers accepted the proposal of partitioning Poland between Prussia, Austria and Prussia once again [3] – would escalate into a war, so little time after the turbulent decades of the conflict.

Tsar Alexander of Russia launched the dice first, realizing that by pressuring Austria he could have his way, and invaded Galicia and Moravia even before the snows of winter melt in 1816, and the Prussians quickly joined the war, aggressively investing against Bohemia, thus innaugurating the War of Polish Partition, or, as the Austrians and British prefer to call it, the War of Russian Aggression.

The Austrian Empire, after so many defeats at the hands of Napoléon Bonaparte, was exhausted and wary of committing armies in field, and sought resolution for the conflict by maneuvering, attacking supply lines and ensuring the defensive control of the contested regions, but the strategy – perhaps adequate for the old age of “Cabinet warfare”, failed to prevent the Prussian and Russian combined and determined advance.

​

The Prussic-Russian alliance won the war, as it was foreseeable, having the largest combined force and the most proactive stance, while Austria was forced into a defensive position – even more after Joachim Murat, the King of Naples, threw his lot with the Prussic-Russian bloc and invested in 1817 against the Habsburg possessions in northern Italy, forcing the Austrians to deploy much needed forces to wage this second theater of war. The Austrians were confident only on the support of France, and, indeed, King Louis XVIII and his minister Tayllerand at first seemed eager to prove their commitment to the “welfare of Europe” in the post-Napoleonic order, but the exhausted French population had no interest in supporting the cause to fight in a distant conflict.

France unofficially abandoned the war in late 1818 - even after Marshal Ney had secured some gains in the Rhineland in brilliant victories against Prussia - when another revolution exploded in Paris against the Bourbons, this time led by a coalition of disgruntled Liberals and ambitious Bonapartists, who overwhelmed the government in a reckless attempt of installing a regency in favor of Napoleon's son, now living in Austria. The sudden revolt was quenched by Louis XVIII’s decision to abdicate in favor of his son, Charles, in 1818.

Great Britain, as much wary of war as France, had launched a dedicated naval campaign in the Baltic Sea, but committed few land forces, with the most distinguished one being the army led by the Duke of Wellington and the veterans of the Peninsular War to fight the Prussians in Hannover

In 1819, the belligerent powers met in Berlin to end hostilities. The Russo-Prussian alliance was satisfied with a mild triumph, and, ironically enough, were the first ones to revive the visionary concept of “balance of power”, fearing that France once again might disturb their own interests. The Treaty of Berlin (1819) served to restore the post-Napoleonic status quo in a more favorable arrangement to the victors, and, indeed, would prove to be a more serious arrangement than the Congress of Vienna. Some key points include:

• Prussia received the whole of Saxony, the Rhineland and Westphalia, Austrian Silesia, and a part of Hannover, and the Presidency of the German Confederation;
• Russia received the whole of Poland, Austrian Galicia and Bukovina, but conceded with partitioning Finland with Sweden;
• The regime of Joachim Murat, King of Naples, whose forces had breached in northern Italy to secure a united front of battle in the peninsula against the Austrians, was recognized as legitimate, and under Prussic-Russian influence, but his gains in northern Italy were ceded back to the Habsburgs dynasts related to the House of Vienna.

The war, despite its relatively short timespan, and a relatively low number of casualties and territorial changes in comparison to the world-breaking conflicts of the Napoleonic Wars, would in the next decades prove to have been one of the most decisive engagements of the century, not much due to the conflict itself, but due to its consequences in the European geopolitics. Russia and Prussia would maintain their hegemonic alliance, quickly substituting the now defunct French domination in continental Europe.

Even if the star of Austria had not waned, the conclusion of another disastrous war forced it to adopt military and political reforms, and a system of anti-Prussian and anti-Russian alliances in Italy, Germany and the Balkans.

On the other hand, fearing for the Russian domination, Great Britain quickly sought to organize a more structured concert, focusing on the Scandinavian nations – Denmark-Norway and Sweden [4] – as well as a reluctant détente with France.

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[1] ITTL, instead of being sent to the island of Elba, which was an arrangement suggested only by the Russian Tsar, Napoleon is sent to exile. Thus, the Hundred Days regime and the Battle of Waterloo are butterflied away.

[2] IOTL, the Dutch and French possessions of the Guianas were returned, excepting a fraction of the former Dutch territory, which remained with Great Britain and became the British Guiana. ITTL, due to the fact that Great Britain bombarded Lisboa and other Portuguese cities, it decided to give the whole of the Guianas' provinces as a measure of good faith.

[3] IOTL, the Polish-Saxon crisis emerged as a result of the negotiations of the Congress of Vienna. It seems that Russia did not bite the bullet, and decided for a peaceful resolution, with the Rhineland being given to Prussia, with a minor part of Poland, and the rest – Congress Poland – in a personal union with the Russian Tsar. Nevertheless, due to their combined strength, it is possible that in an alt-political arrangement, there would be no concessions, thus resulting in war.

[4] IOTL, the Treaty of Kiel of 1814 by which the personal union between Denmark and Norway is dissolved and Norway is forced into an union with Sweden (an event that led directly to the Norwegian declaration of independence) was butterflied away ITTL. Thus, differently from OTL Denmark-Norway remains intact as a dynastic union, while Sweden remains with its modern borders.

 

[St. Just]

Prussia Russia uber alles!

Does Prussia get Elsass-Lothringen back from France?

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

Prussia Russia uber alles!

Does Prussia get Elsass-Lothringen back from France?

I'll be really honest, I just wanted a thinly-veiled excuse to have an earlier German unification , the "Polish-Saxon Crisis" PoD seemed a very convenient one. I still haven't thought about the details, but it's most likely that Germany does indeed gets united under Prussian leadership (probably with a "Austria outside" solution, Kleindeutschland... don't know how to spell it) by the late 1840s.

Elsass-Lothringen remains with France, yet (France's borders are mostly the same of post-restoration period)! alt-Prussia's borders by now are rather similar to the OTL borders in 1816, but including the whole of Saxony, a bit enlarged Silesia, and a stretch of Hesse linking to Westphalia/Rhineland. Also, Hannover, despite being elevated to a Kingdom like it happened IOTL, has a smaller territory after the War of 1816/1819.

Nevertheless, what I had in mind is a cold war of sorts after the war between the Prussian-Russian bloc and the Franco-Austrian-British one, with the flashpoints being Germany itself and Italy.

 

[Unknown]

If you need any help, PM Jonathan Edelstein or Thande; they seem to be good sources about 19th-century Europe...

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

If you need any help, PM Jonathan Edelstein or Thande; they seem to be good sources about 19th-century Europe...

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm familiar with their works, specially "Malê Rising" (though I haven't read much of it), which incidentally begins with a Brazilian PoD. Nevertheless, I'll put my focus in Brazil itself (as it's literally an area with which I'm more confortable writing about), and these "international news" will come likely as interlude chapters. I'm preparing one to illustrate the situation of the Americas on the on-set of the Hispano-American movements of Independence from Spain.

 

[Unknown]

This won't end well in Europe...

 

[Braganza]

Thank you for your answer. Bonifácio and Frei Caneca had very interesting ideas. Good to see they will have more space in this TL.

I agree with Unknown. This is not good, but at least Murat will remain King of Naples, which may bring some interesting butterflies.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

This won't end well in Europe...

Europe, the world's best powder keg waiting for someone to set it ablaze... just wait for the Liberal revolutions. Things will get interesting.

Thank you for your answer. Bonifácio and Frei Caneca had very interesting ideas. Good to see they will have more space in this TL.

I agree with Unknown. This is not good, but at least Murat will remain King of Naples, which may bring some interesting butterflies.

You can be sure that even if someone "Historical" doesn't appears in person, I'll try to work with "allohistorical" similar characters, but my ultimate purpose is to create a world different from our own.

Regarding Italy, indeed, I have some projects for it.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

ACT II - BUILDING A NATION FROM SCRATCH​

"About Brazil I can say too much, and I fear that our vocabulary lacks enough words to justly describe this magnificent empire in the tropics: the placid beaches with whole nations of parrots, the exuberant forests and vivid jungles with timid toucans and defiant felines, the unending prairies with honey-colored grass and eternal rocky spires, the pristine rivers of red fishes and languid lakes, and the misty-covered ranges where wolves sing until daw.

About Brazilians, I can say only this: if you are white, look out for your purse, lest it'll disappear. If you are redskin, look for the point of the musket, lest you'll be shot on your arse. If you are a negro, watch out for the whip, lest you'll be flogged in your back. Whatever your race, look out for the insects. You'll feel like an Egyptian before the Hebrew exodus!"

Sir Harold George Exeter (British writer). In: Collection of Lord Exeter's Epistoles, written in 1841. Royal London Museum​

Geopolitical Map of the First Brazilian Republic at its largest extent, in 1830. The northernmost territory of the Guayanas and the southermost territory of Banda Oriental were disputed territories, respectively, in the South Atlantic War and in the Second War of Banda Oriental​

​

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

As soon as Gen. José de Abreu Mena Barreto had been acclaimed as Defender of the Free State of Brazil, in October 1817, he instituted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – headed by his personal friend Paulo de Tarso Albertino Góes – to represent the united former provinces of Portuguese America as an independent nation in the relations with foreign countries, and sent embassies to London, Paris, Washington and Lisboa, seeking recognition and eventual assistance against the recolonizing prospects of the former metropolis.

Great Britain, at the time, was deadlocked in a state of war against Russia and Prussia due to a crisis that escalated after the Congress of Vienna, so the events of the Americas were the least of her concerns. It only came to initiate genuine diplomatic contact with the Federation of Brazil in 1820.

Curiously enough, in London at the time there were some Luso-Brazilian residents, who had some years previously created the “Sociedade Braziliense” [lit. “Brazilian Fellowship”], a gentlemen club of intellectual pretenders whose purpose at first was meeting to discuss political, social and cultural topics related to their homeland. In 1813, they financed the creation of a newspaper in London – published in Portuguese – to announce news related to Brazil and Portugal, called “Mercúrio Brazileiro” [“Brazilian Mercury”]. Due to the fact that press remained forbidden in the colony, even after Fernando José de Portugal e Castro’s reforms in the 1800s, their editions arrived in Brazil as smuggled products, and were read in secrecy in the homes or halls of the privileged literate elite (mainly in Rio de Janeiro, but also in Salvador da Bahia and Recife de Pernambuco), and were proscribed due to the criticism it weaved against the Portuguese Crown. After the War of Independence began, they adopted a clear anti-Lusitanian stance, and the newspaper became somewhat popularized in Brazil, and even among the illiterate masses, especially in the Northeast, were informed of its content by reading in public squares by pro-independence rebels. Nevertheless, after the War of Independence, Mena Barreto’s regime was embarrassed by the apparent popularity of the Mercúrio Brazileiro, considering that its editor, José Barros da Costa Prata, was a declared monarchist, who defended the creation of a constitutional monarchy in Brazil, and the cession of the crown to Prince Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, King George III’s youngest surviving son. The government since 1820 endeavored to promote more favorable (i.e. pro-republican) newspapers.

The "Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro" was the first newspaper published in Brazilian soil, and was declaredly republican, but nevertheless very conservative​

*****​

The then serving President of the United States of America, James Madison, pledged moral support for the Brazilian revolution, applauding its purpose of bringing liberty and democracy to the New World, but did not offer any kind of material assistance. The official recognition of the new South American country only came already in 1822, when a commercial treaty was concluded between the nations.

*****​

In France, again the country appeared to be overtaken by political and social turmoil, and the European powers watched apprehensively. Due to the events of the War of Polish Partition, the already exhausted and impoverished French population was forced, against their collective will, into another European conflict, to satisfy the equivocal concerns of King Louis XVIII and his Minister Charles-Maurice de Tayllerand, in a botched attempt of seizing the Rhineland from Prussia. The people didn’t took it kindly, and a Liberal revolt broke in Paris in 1818, and claimed for the restoration of the Bonapartes. The Bourbon monarch defused the situation by giving up his own crown, and the new King, Charles X, sued for peace.

*****​

Even after the cessation of hostilities in 1819, the Crown of Portugal refused to officially recognize the sovereignty of the Republic of Brazil, still believing they could exert some influence in the former colony. King João VI of Portugal was an indecisive and distressed monarch, and his most fortunate days were those in which he was allowed to rest in the idyll of his palace, praying and eating, undisturbed by the tiring affairs of the State.

In some days, for many years until his death, perhaps afflicted by bad dreams and strange omens, he would summon his royal council and, in uncharacteristic upheaval, curse the rebellion of the colonists, whose war against him, “El-Rei” (as he called himself in the official dispatches), had been a sacrilege against the god given Empire, and applauded the increasingly more far-fetched plans of his most sycophant councilors to launch a full-fledged crusade to restore the colonial empire. For most of the seasons, however, he remained in his phlegmatic demeanor, lamenting the ruin of the nation and the losses suffered by Portuguese mothers and wives, and discarded whatever hopes there might be of restoring colonial dominion, realizing that Portugal couldn’t win this war without a great ally, such as the Kingdom of Spain or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and neither would borrow one soldier or one damned coin to fulfill this sacred enterprise.

By the end of his life, in 1828, he would have the displeasure of witnessing his former ally – the United Kingdom – recognizing officially the sovereignty of the Brazilian nation (in 1820), which symbolically represented the final abandonment of Portugal by its ancient friend. Various other great princes, such as those of the Netherlands and France (1822), Naples, Prussia, Denmark and Norway (1823), as well as Russia (1824), and even of Austria (1826) had by now followed suit and concluded treaties of commerce and friendship with the former colony. Only the proud monarch of Spain had refused to do it, and not due to any kind of consideration for Portugal, but rather due to the necessity of denying any sort of legitimacy to anti-colonialist movements, now that most of the Hispano-American colonies had splintered from the empire where the sun never sets.

Indeed, the fledgling nations arising from the wreckage of the Spanish Empire – notably the La Plata Federation, the Andine Republic, and the Confederation of Nueva Granada – inspired by a genuine sentiment of political and diplomatic friendship, immediately acknowledged the Brazilian state, while the absolutist monarchical regime of Nueva España, still ruled by the Spanish Bourbons denounced Brazil as a rebel colony of the Kingdom of Portugal [1].

Nevertheless, even if he refused to acknowledge the independence, claiming de jure the Brazilian provinces as part of Portuguese America, during the remaining years of his life, King João VI never undertook any hostile actions against the former colony. His deceasing in 1828 would change this panorama, as his son and heir, crowned King Pedro IV of Portugal, a brash and ambitious young man, based his early reign on an inflamed rhetoric of waging a crusade to restore the glory of the decaying Portuguese Empire.

King Pedro IV of Portugal and Algarves, first ruler of Portugal in the post-independence era​

In that year, by using as pretexts the “Guyanas Question” [2], and the British-sponsored prohibition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, he began systematic attacks against ships carrying the Brazilian flag off the coast of Africa in 1829, taking advantage of the fact that the former colony lacked a military navy, and their merchant or slave-carrying ships were easy targets. In 1830, the Brazilian Federation declared war on the Kingdom of Portugal, initiating the Atlantic War.

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[1] ITTL, due to a different development of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the Bourbon royalty escapes from Cádiz to the American province of New Spain (i.e. México and the Central American States), including King Charles IV and the future King Ferdinand VII. Despite their brief stay (between 1808 and 1814), the political and administrative reforms introduced by the exiled Bourbons provoke a series of changes (i.e. butterlies) in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In the long run, this episode will fail to prevent the emancipationist movements in South America, but will ensure that at least Central America remains pro-Spain (even if de facto autonomous) for many decades to come. This, obviously, will have severe impacts in the history of the western hemisphere.

[2] The "Guayanas Question" will be explained in the next post, and the South Atlantic War will be analyzed more with more details in a future chapter.

 

[The God-Emperor]

Portugal is really asking for it.
I know, let's go there and make Portugal OUR colony.
But speaking seriously, the updates were great, and the war of independence awesome.
Just as a curiosity, was there equivalent to "Maria Quitéria" in this War of Independence?

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

Portugal is really asking for it.
I know, let's go there and make Portugal OUR colony.
But speaking seriously, the updates were great, and the war of independence awesome.
Just as a curiosity, was there equivalent to "Maria Quitéria" in this War of Independence?

I feel kinda bad about writing this stuff sometimes, as I have a genuine appreciation for Portugal IRL (it's a very beautiful country), and my PoD was based on a "Portugal-screw" premise. The War of Independence, even more than the Napoleonic Wars, became a disastrous affair for the former metropolis... well, my consciousness is clean, because I actually cheer up for Portugal in the "Portuguese-wank" TL's Viriato writes

Regarding Maria Quitéria, the character I introduced briefly in Chapter 10, Part 4, called "Ana Angélica Firmino de Deus" (whose name also homages Joana Angélica de Deus, a nun who was martyred during the OTL Portuguese invasion), was entirely based in Maria Quitéria. In fact, the picture I used in that chapter is a drawing of Maria Quitéria on "civilian attire". I homaged her by the reference as "Brazilian Joan of Arc" I thought about using the Historical character ITTL, but, again, I feared that butterflies would have probably affected Maria Quitéria's rise to fame IOTL.

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

BRASIL BRASIL!

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

BRASIL BRASIL!

BR stronk!

By the way, my dear Uzbek monarch, I see you've started a new TL, and am curious to see what comes of it... but please don't forget about the Tawantinsuyu!