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

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

ONE NATION UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS

Hello, friends, in this thread I’ll present you a project which has been developing in my mind for some time now: a timeline in which the colony of Brazil becomes independent from Portugal, but instead of adopting a monarchical system under the Braganza Dynasty – as it happened IOTL in 1821 – it is born as a republic as soon as Portugal recognizes its independence. There are two significant points of divergence, on both sides of the Atlantic:

1. Inside Brazil, there are two early emancipationist movements against Portugal – IOTL known as the Inconfidência Mineira (1789) and the Revolt of the Tailors (1798) – which were declaredly inspired by the French Revolution and by the American Revolution. Both attempts were historically aborted because traitors interested in royal pardon denounced the plans to the authorities before they came to fruition. ITTL, however, both movements will happen, but won't be successful. Despite their short-term failure, they will serve as a important inspiration for the future republican groups that will fight for independence;

2. In Europe, the invasion of Portugal in 1801 by Spain (allied to Revolutionary France) has a very different outcome, and results in a virtual occupation of Portugal by the Spanish army, and the installation of a pro-French regime in Lisboa. This results in rapid breakup of the alliance between Portugal and Great Britain, and impedes the transfer of the royal Portuguese court to Brazil that only happened IOTL in 1808 due to the assistance of the British fleet.

First of all, I’ll make a serious effort to work with “hard-butterflies” in this scenario. That means that after the Points of Divergence, there will be significant changes in the historical developments, and they will mount up as the decades pass. You will see that some episodes happen with very near parallels to OTL, but they might happen in different places and possibly with different people. Nevertheless, macro-historical events or trends whose causes already existed in the late 18th Century will happen in schedule – Napoleon’s rise and fall, the decolonization wars in Latin America, the westward expansion of the United States, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of nationalism, etc.

People often complain there aren't many TLs here focused on South America. I'll try to keep my focus inside Brazil, and only if necessary I'll take about Europe and the rest of the world. This might become a Brazilwank, but I'll try to keep some realism.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

In Out Timeline, Brazil since its colonization by the Kingdom of Portugal would rise to become the most prized colony in the Portuguese Empire. By the late 18th Century, as Portugal became decadent and backwards, it also became entirely dependent on the exploitation of the natural resources extracted from Brazil. Without Brazil, Portugal would be reduced to a feeble princedom hugged in the shores of the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1808, Napoleonic France invaded Portugal due to its alliance with Britain. The entire Portuguese court, headed by the Prince-Regent John of Braganza (ruling in the name of his mother, Queen Maria I of Portugal) was transported to Rio de Janeiro with assistance of Great Britain. Never before a European monarch had even visited an overseas colony, but now the entire administration of Portugal was transplanted to the tropics, and the reforms enacted by Prince John forever changed the relationship between the metropolis and the colony. In 1815, after Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated, Brazil was elevated to the condition of United Kingdom with the realm of Portugal, and the capital of the Portuguese Empire was placed in Rio de Janeiro.

Nevertheless, the resentment and dissatisfaction of the Portuguese generated a grave crisis in 1820 – dubbed the Liberal Revolution – which in turn forced the Portuguese monarch (now named King John VI) to return to Lisboa and accept a Constitution diminishing his own powers, and the restoration of Brazil’s status quo as a colony.

In an unprecedented move, the faction inside Brazil that sought emancipation from Portugal supported Prince Pedro of Beira (the heir to the Kingdom of Portugal) to oppose the government of Lisboa and proclaim independence. In 1821, Dom Pedro relinquished his inheritance of the Portuguese crown, but was acclaimed Emperor of Brazil [Pedro I], and, after a brief war, had its independence recognized.

To most Brazilians, the “Imperial Era” is to this day understood as a golden age of sorts to the nation, especially the long reign of Emperor Pedro II (1831 – 1889, “the Second Reign”), as the former colony rose from an almost medieval country to the paramount nation in South America and an emerging power in the geopolitical scenario. This nostalgic aspect received an even more striking contrast by the fact that the First Republic that came after the unexpected downfall of the monarchy, in 1889, was marred by a succession of corrupt military dictatorships, and conservative agrarian oligarchies, whose policies effectively stagnated the country until the presidency of Getúlio Vargas in the 1930s, the first president who implemented projects of modernization and industrialization.

Modern Historians agree that without the monarchy, Brazil would have probably fragmented in at least three different countries, as there were strong emancipationist movements in its outlying provinces, similar to what happened in Spanish America.

This TL explores exactly a world in which the republic is founded after independence, but the territorial integrity of the country is maintained by "iron and blood" diplomacy, but at the cost of various civil wars. By the end, you will probably say this is a “Brazilwank”, but I’ll try to paint a more turbulent history for my own country.

The premise is: despite the conspicuous distinction of housing one of the only monarchical regimes in the Americas (like Haiti and Mexico), Brazil experienced some important republican movements by the end of the 18th Century and through the 19th Century, notably inspired by the ideals of the French and American Revolutions, in a context very similar to that in which the other South American countries became independent from the Kingdom of Spain. Those movements were all bloodily suppressed by the monarchist government, but ITTL they will be a bit more successful.

This TL begins with the two earliest of those movements, and from there onwards there will be significant divergences in the scenario, mainly in South America, but also in Europe.

Shall we go?

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

ACT I - AN EMPIRE IN THE TROPICS​

This same day, at the hour of vespers we sighted land, that is to say, first a very high rounded mountain, then other lower ranges of hills to the south of it, and a plain covered with large trees. The admiral named the mountain Easter Mount and the country the Land of the True Cross.

Letter of Pêro Vaz de Caminha describing the discovery of Brazil (1500 C.E.)​

Southern Cross Constellation




1. The Colonization of Brazil by Portugal​

The coast of Brazil had been discovered by Portugal in the year 1500, and since then it was settled and fortified by the Portuguese, mainly as an extractivist colony, to produce material resources directed to the metropolis.

During the 16th Century, the main material good directly extracted from the coastal regions inhabited by the first Portuguese colonists was brazilwood, highly valued in the European markets, and its production employed mainly Indian slave labor.

In the late part of this century, sugar-cane began to be cultivated in this colony, mainly in the Northeast Region, and the sugar trade reached its apogee in the 17th Century, as the great plantation system – now employing mainly African slave workforce – created one of the most profitable enterprises of the Americas. At the time, the Portuguese Empire created and monopolized the Atlantic slave trade from Africa, and the colonial population in Brazil would be exponentially increased by the forced immigration of Africans.

In the 18th Century, as the movements to explore and settle in the hinterland – spearheaded by companies of adventurers named Bandeirantes (“flag-bearers”) which sought to discover gold and enslave Indians – finally discovered precious metal and diamond mines in the region that would become known, for this reason, as “Minas Gerais” (“The Great Mines”).

The Bandeirantes, first explorers and adventurers of the Brazilian interior in search of riches and slaves, would become the symbol of the people of São Paulo
​

As the colonial regions experienced an unprecedented demographic explosion, with a massive influx of migrants due to the “gold rush”, the Portuguese administration reformed the colonial government to capitalize on the extraction of wealth. The most notorious example of this change of affairs was the moving of the colonial capital from the city of Salvador (in Bahia) to the port-city of Rio de Janeiro, from whence the riches removed from Minas Gerais and São Paulo were transported to Europe.

By the end of the 18th Century, however, both the cycles of sugar cane and precious metals extraction began to decay – in the first case due to the competition of the Dutch in the Antilles, and in the second case due to the gradual depletion of the local resources. Yet, even if Portugal was now greatly enriched at the expense of the colonists, Brazil was still poor and backwards, and its population benefited nothing from the exploitation.

The Map of Brazil in 1800 C.E.​

II. The Age of the Revolutions​

In the year 1800, while Europe welcomed and applauded generations of geniuses and inventors, of illuminated statesmen, far-sighting visionaries and distinguished leaders, the people of Brazil lived like peasants and anglers forgotten in a dark age. Basic communal activities and services were lacking, like schools, tribunals, factories, press, libraries, and hospitals. Despite the recent production of noble metals, coinage was almost nonexistent, and most of the commerce, excepting in the largest port-towns like Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, was still based on barter, as the greater part of the golden wealth was shipped beyond the Atlantic Sea. The vast territory lacked significant roads, excepting those that had been trailed by the Amerindians through the centuries and those built by orders of the Crown solely to accelerate the transport of gold from the mines. The most reliable means of communication were through the ports and coastal fortresses, as it was the interest of the metropolis that foreign invasions could be warned, but not that the locals could have convenient access through the provinces. Almost the whole population, excepting the top-most officers, administrators and clergymen, were illiterate. Overseas trade was entirely restricted to Portugal, due to the enforcement of the so-called “colonial pact”, and Brazilian ports were closed to non-Portuguese ships.

The cycle of gold, even more than the cycle of sugar, created a very distasteful state of affairs in the colony, as the metropolitan administration became even more oppressive and corrupt, and the rare earth from the country was greedily drained from the mostly impoverished colonists to sustain the rapacious privileges of a distant and useless aristocracy, without any compensations. The oppressed Brazilian population was much higher than that of the metropolis, and if the commoners resented the increasing financial burdens, the more conscious members of the regional elites despised the fact that they were obliged to satisfy the needs of a rotten empire.

Yet, the late 18th Century experienced the first winds of change. The winds of revolution, in fact.

The dreariest nightmares of the nefarious rulers of this decadent empire seated in Lisboa would soon come true. Even if the Portuguese tyrants tried to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas coming from France, deeply rooted in the Illuminist proposals of freedom and equality, they penetrated the borders of Portugal’s most prized colony, and contaminated its intellectual elites, the rising middle class and the basest castes of society.

In addition, in this very western hemisphere, as if a shining beacon to inspire the oppressed nations, there lay a race who had managed to break the chains of a mighty European empire and earn its freedom. Yes, the greatest example to be followed was that of the former Thirteen Colonies of the United Kingdom, which had given birth to the United States of America, resurrecting the republican precepts from the ancient ages of mankind.

In Brazil, those news of revolution inspired the first generation of movements that sought full emancipation from the tyrannical thumb of the colonial system: The Mineira and Baiana Revolts.

_________________________________

Historical Notes: The Mineira Revolt never actually happened IOTL, because one of its original architects betrayed the movement when it was still in its initial stage. There are, nevertheless, surviving documents of the judicial trial to which the conspirators were submitted that detail its plans and objectives.

The Baiana revolt, on the other hand, really happened, and I tried to paint a picture similar to OTL.

 

[Unknown]

Good updates.

Waiting for more.

Hope this isn't abandoned...

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

2. The Mineira Revolt

In the middle of February, 1789, the Governor of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais, Luís Antônio Furtado de Castro do Rio de Mendonça e Faro (known simply as Viscount of Barbacena), in the name of Queen Maria I of Portugal and Algarves, instituted the derrama [1] in that province, an extremely onerous tax on gold imposed in the whole province. This measure had been foreseen by the local population, and was highly reviled, especially because the Mineiros were already burdened by fiscal exactions and the minefields were depleting.

In the day the new duty was imposed, the population of Vila Rica d'Ouro Preto [2] rioted and assaulted the tax-gatherers of the Crown, and Gov. Mendonça e Faro immediately called the city guard, led by Lieutenant Francisco de Paula Freire de Andrade, to suppress the insurgence. What the Governor didn’t knew, however, was that Lt. Freire de Andrade was one of the leaders of a conspiracy dedicated to the overthrowing of the colonial rule, and his military contingent surrounded Gov. Mendonça e Faro’s bodyguard and imprisoned them.

Inside the dungeon, he depressingly discovered that the mutiny was only the first act of a rebellion orchestrated by a cabal of magistrates, friars and military officers opposed to the Crown. Their immediate purpose was the extinction of taxes, but their ultimate goal was completely revolutionary: the proclamation of the independence of the province of Minas Gerais from the Kingdom of Portugal, clearly influenced by Jacobinism [3].

The colony since its foundation in 1500 had witnessed a multitude of revolts from the settlers against the colonial government, usually due to abusive fines and general dissatisfaction with the administration. The Mineira Revolt, also known as Revolta dos Maçons (“Revolt of the Masons”) [4], however, was the first emancipationist movement in Brazil. The inspiration from the recent French Revolution was evident, as the architects of the movement hailed from the intellectual elite – most of them had studied in Europe and were entirely aware of the sociopolitical transformations occurring there – as was the influence of the American Revolution. Both episodes demonstrated that the monarchy could be toppled, and a new regime based on liberty could be created.

The Mineira Conspiracy – the Flag of the Revolution carries the Latin quotation “Libertas quae sera tamen”, from Virgil, which means “Liberty, even if late”
​

One of the conspirators, in fact, had secretly corresponded with Thomas Jefferson when he was still ambassador of the United States in France (1786), explaining that the liberation of the North-American colonies against the United Kingdom was seen as a “victorious precedent”, and sought the sympathy and support of the American government [5].

The successful conspirators inspired the enthusiasm of the Mineira population, and immediately established a provisory government in Vila Rica, with the famous poet Tomás Antônio Gonzaga as the provisory president of the “Republic of Vila Rica” (also known as República dos Mazombos [6]), and the charismatic Lt. Freire de Andrade as the commander-in-chief. The city of Sabará was convinced to join the movement, and in March 1789 the rebels defeated a minor Royalist regiment that came from the village of Santo Antônio do Paraibuna [7]. By May 1789, the most populous towns in the region, like Mariana, Congonhas and Tejuco [8], were integrated into the revolutionary state, and the famous bill of rights that History came to name “The Declaration of Vila Rica” was published, announcing the sacred rights to liberty and the choosing of its representatives in the communal decisions.

Despite the apparent success, however, the movement was firmed on very weak bases. If the urban citizens in general were impressed by the Jacobin ideals of extinguishing the aristocratic privileges, the rural masses were only concerned with the reduction of taxes, and they were barely diminished, only diverted to the coffers of the new government. The imperative of organizing a serious military resistance against the colonial government forced the rebel rulers to conscript every available men to the “Revolutionary Army”, which decreased the popularity of the movement.
In August 1789, a large Royalist force came from Rio de Janeiro and defeated the Revolutionary Army in the village of Palmyra [9]. The movement immediately started to crumble, as its internal fractures appeared, and not even the effort of resisting the Portuguese Crown seemed enough to heal them. The rebel militias suffered mass desertions, forcing the provisory government to conscript slaves to serve in the army. Internal dissent grew and splinter factions arose, seeking a compromise with the Crown in Lisboa.

In October 1789, another Royalist victory over the rebel forces near the town of São João del-Rei sealed the defeat of the short-lived revolution. Some leaders capitulated in exchange for a royal pardon, and Vila Rica was retaken by the royal forces in the first days of November after a hard-fought battle in the streets. Tomáz Antônio Gonzaga surrendered and was later banished, but a cadre of hardliners of the defunct provisory government, led by Lt. Freire de Andrade, escaped to their last stronghold in Tijuco, a mountainous region where they waged a violent guerrilla warfare against the Royal forces, harassing the supplies and thwarting the transport of gold ore in the central region of the province. By February 1790 – a year after the rebellion started – the revolutionary remnant had been exhausted by attrition, and opted to finally give up the fight. Francisco de Paula Freire de Andrade committed suicide in 18 February 1790 and his regiment disbanded.

Those members of the provisory government that had surrendered received the lighter punishments, like property confiscation and temporary imprisonment. The most important leaders from wealthier families and from the Church were permanently exiled, while some others were condemned to forced labor in the galleys. The military officers of low and medium ranks were executed by hanging, as were many freed slaves that had participated on the fighting.

Despite failing in the end, the movement was the most remarkable precedent of the process of emancipation in relation to Portugal, a generation later, and many of the founding fathers of the Brazilian Republic would be profoundly influenced by this first attempt of decolonization.

One must remember that the Mineira Revolt, despite its revolutionary proposal regarding the political system, was very conservative in other aspects: the majority of its leaders upheld slavery and only resorted to manumission to bolster its military force, and many of the idealizers of the movement actually disliked republicanism, and only saw it as a convenient way of ending the colonial pact.

It was, after all, a movement that sought to guarantee the interests of the landholder oligarchy and of the urban intellectual elites, and never intended to project itself as a “Brazilian” independence movement, but rather obtain more autonomy and more privileges for the Captaincy of Minas Gerais.

In this regard, the Baiana Revolt – which occurred almost concomitantly with the Republic of Vila Rica – was an even more revolutionary enterprise, being the first campaign that propagated the idea of a democratic political regime, in which every person regardless of race could participate, and championed the abolition of slavery.

_________________________________

[1] “Derrama” (lit. “spilling”) was a tax imposed on the whole province of Minas Gerais by the Portugal inside Brazil, designed to ensure that the dues to the Crown reached a minimum annual quota. It was understood by the provincial inhabitants as an unfair exaction, because it affected every citizen, even if they had no relation to the auriferous production, and it became extremely onerous in late 18th Century, as the gold extraction was already in decline.

[2] “Vila Rica” is the ancient name for the modern city of Ouro Preto, in the State of Minas Gerais/Brazil, and, during the colonial period, was the capital of Minas Gerais, and the largest city of the “Gold District” where the gold extracted from the rivers and rocks was melted into ingots and bullions to be sent directly to Portugal.

[3] “Jacobinism” or “Francesia” (lit. “frenchiness”) was the name used by the Portuguese authorities to refer to revolutionary projects and propaganda, and accusations of the sort could result from loss of property to banishment and even execution.

[4] The “Masonry” (or Freemasonry) had a significant presence among the intellectual elites of the main Brazilian cities (especially Rio de Janeiro, Vila Rica, Salvador), like it did in the rest of Latin America and in the United States. Due to its secretive nature, Illuminist and non-conformist worldview, those agencies were usually the champions of the revolutionary movements in Brazil, so much that by the late 18th Century masonry was effectively outlawed in the whole Portuguese Empire.

[5] The correspondence between Thomas Jefferson (before his presidency) and a conspirator from Minas Gerais occurred historically. While serving as Ambassador of the United States in France, T. Jefferson received letters from a pseudonym “Vendek” [in reality José Joaquim Maia e Barbalho, a Luso-Brazilian student in France], pleading the help of the American government to an emancipationist movement inside Portuguese America. Jefferson made no promises, but the letter was indeed remitted to the American Department of State.

[6] “Mazombo” is how the people from European descent born in Brazilian territory were sometimes called. By the 18th Century, they indeed identified themselves as a separate ethnicity in relation to the Portuguese.

[7] “Santo Antônio do Paraibuna” is the ancient name for the modern city of Juiz de Fora, in the State of Minas Gerais/Brazil.

[8] “Tijuco” is the ancient name for the modern city of Diamantina, in the State of Minas Gerais/Brazil.

[9] “Palmyra” is the old name for the modern city of Santos Dumont, in the State of Minas Gerais/Brazil.

_________________________________

Historical Notes: As said in the previous chapter, there was indeed a conspiracy orchestrated by the elites of Minas Gerais against the colonial government, strongly influenced by the Illuminist ideas propagated by the French Revolution, and had substantial association with the Freemasonry (as its secretive and elitist nature allowed the formation of a single group of interest able to organize an anti-colonial conspiracy).

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

Good updates.

Waiting for more.

Hope this isn't abandoned...

Thanks, my Unknown friend. I have a loooot of stuff already written and saved on Word. I won't abandon it so soon, I promise.

I'll put online many updates in the next few days. I just take some time to revise the grammar and to upload the images (because this Forum has no function of directly uploading an image from the computer )

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

The Captaincy of Bahia in the late 18th Century was by far the most populous region of Brazil, and its capital, the city of Salvador, not only was one of the largest urban settlements, but it had also been the capital of the colony for almost two centuries (from 1549 to 1763). In fact, it was the moving of the administrative seat of the colony to Rio de Janeiro in the middle 18th Century that precipitated its decline.

The sugar-cane cultivation, that had greatly enriched the Kingdom of Portugal through those two centuries, came to shape not only the economy, but also the society, the demographics and even the politics of the northeastern provinces of Brazil – from the massive presence of African slaves forced to work in the plantations to the exceptional authority of the latifundiários (great plantation owners), who commanded their own private militias and effectively controlled the political affairs in the local communities. Now, however, the sugar-cane cultivation was in decline, and its symptoms were visible to naked eye, as the former wealthy and populous provinces of the Northeast became gradually impoverished, unable to satisfy the selfish burdens imposed by the Portuguese Crown.

In the last decade of the 18th Century, successive periods of droughts, combined with the price-control policies enforced by the then governor D. Fernando José de Portugal e Castro, caused a serious famine. As it happened that hungry mobs sacked markets to steal fresh meat, corn and grain, a climate of general insubordination contaminated the low-ranking soldiery in the barracks.

In June 1793, not long after the Mineira Revolt had been suppressed, a famine riot in Salvador forced the local governor, D. Fernando José de Portugal e Castro, to flee the city with his retinue to avoid the same fate that befell the Viscount of Barbacena in Vila Rica, five years earlier.

The uprising was quickly harnessed by visionary demagogues, and became a movement to proclaim independence from the tiny Iberian kingdom beyond the Atlantic Sea. The revolutionary ideas of the French and American Revolutions were already being disseminated among the population of Salvador and other towns in the Recôncavo Baiano [1], and were now championed by intellectual leaders such as the physician Cipriano Barata and by a masonic group known as “Cavaleiros da Luz” (Knights of Light). It soon became a popular movement, with many individuals from the “middle class” of Salvador, like physicians, clergymen, bureaucrats and soldiers, and some leaders even came from poorer classes, like free blacks and mulattos. Because most of them were employed as tailors, shoemakers and barbers, the revolt was associated with these professionals.

The more remarkable legacy of this short-lived attempt of emancipation is that it advocated the abolition of slavery – with immediate manumission of slaves – and the implementation of an egalitarian and democratic government.

The people of Salvador, capital of Bahia, in the 1790s​

Despite its revolutionary project and the initial military success, the provisory government failed to coopt the support of the other provinces of the Northeast Region, and became isolated after a flotilla came Recife to blockade the port of Salvador.

In the middle of October 1794, the deposed Governor D. Fernando José de Portugal e Castro returned with an army mustered in other towns from Bahia and besieged the revolutionary capital. Starvation soon afflicted the rebellious citizens, and the dissatisfaction and fear of the Royal punishment emboldened a group of disgruntled Portuguese officers to stage a coup and restore the control of the city to the Governor. In the night of 22 October 1794, they secretly opened the city gates to the besiegers and assassinated the populist leader Cipriano Barata in his own house. The Royalist forces penetrated the defenses, and, after two days of barricade fighting, forced the rebels to submit.

The black and mulatto leaders were hanged and quartered in public square, while the leaders of Portuguese descent were exiled to Africa.

One of the black leaders of the movement prepared to be hanged​

Brazilian History for a long period would applaud louder the Mineira Revolt – whose proposals were more convenient to the rural and urban high-classes – and the Baiana Revolt, marked by an ideological radicalism fell into a relative oblivion, excepting a fond memory inside Bahia itself (indeed, the flag used by the rebels would be eventually adopted as the official flag of the State of Bahia). Nevertheless, this episode would be rejuvenated in the national consciousness by the abolitionist and suffragist movements that gained impulse in Brazilian republican politics by the 1840s, and today is recognized as a very important precedent in the emancipation process.

Modern scholarship argues that these two “nativist crusades”, despite having failing their immediate objectives, were in the long run vindicated by History, as Brazil did indeed obtained independence, and adopted a republican system, even if contaminated by idiosyncratic trends inherited from the British intervention in the 1800s.

As the 19th Century dawned, however, even if there was a stark distinction between “Brazilian” – as a person born in this side of the Atlantic – and “Portuguese” –as someone coming from Portugal or its other colonies – and those peoples already regarded each other as different nations, the very notion of a “Brazilian Nation” was nonexistent. As of yet, each of the colonial provinces stared inwards, but the hardships and losses of future wars would eventually spark the flaming sentiments of unity and brotherhood among those born in Brazil to divorce itself from the destiny of Portugal.

_________________________________

[1] “Recôncavo Baiano” is the region surrounding the All Saint Bay in Bahia, where most of the population of the province lived (to this day, is the most populous region of the State of Bahia, inside the metropolitan region of Salvador).

_____________________________________________________

Historical Notes: Until the middle 18th Century the capital of Brazil was established in Salvador, being the most convenient port to syphon the sugar-cane production from the Northeast Brazil to Portugal. After the gold and diamond extraction began in Minas Gerais, however, the capital was moved to the fledgling port of Rio de Janeiro to control the flow of precious metals to the Atlantic Sea, especially because smuggling was at its height. Historians agree today that the change of the administrative center was one of the causes that provoked the impoverishment and neglect of the Northeast Region, and the sudden growth of the Southeast Region, around the regions of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and São Paulo.

IOTL, the Baiana Revolt occurred in 1798, but due to the butterflies caused by the Mineira Revolt, and its inspiring example in Brazil, the rebellion in Bahia occurred much earlier.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

Ooh, this is good. We don't get much about Latin America here, which sucks, so I'm thankful to see something like this come about.

 

[Unknown]

Waiting for more, of course...

Good start.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

Ooh, this is good. We don't get much about Latin America here, which sucks, so I'm thankful to see something like this come about.

Thanks, Soverihn. Happy to see you around. I hope you enjoy the TL

Waiting for more, of course...

Good start.

Update incoming right now, sir!

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

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.

 

[Gonzaga]

[1] 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.

[2] IOTL, the War of the Oranges was finished by June 1801, and, excepting for the cession of Olivenças, maintained the status quo antebellum.

Not in Europe, but in South America Portugal was much more successful IOTL. Half of Rio Grande do Sul was taken during the War of the Oranges, and the territories were never given back (the Spanish occupation of Olivença was one of the reasons).

BTW, great TL! Brazil starting as a Republic isn't often seen in TLs (despite the fact that the IOTL path is almost ASB ).

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

Not in Europe, but in South America Portugal was much more successful IOTL. Half of Rio Grande do Sul was taken during the War of the Oranges, and the territories were never given back (the Spanish occupation of Olivença was one of the reasons).

BTW, great TL! Brazil starting as a Republic isn't often seen in TLs (despite the fact that the IOTL path is almost ASB ).

Indeed, meu caro, that's what we'll see in the next update! This next chapter explores the expansion of Rio Grande do Sul.

BTW, the Gaúchos will have a very important role to play in this TL

And I agree completely, our own History is borderline ASB. I had this idea of writing about a Republican Brazil after I read in a blog "WI the Inconfidência Mineira worked out?", and reading Laurentino Gomes' book "1808", in which he speculates that without the transfer of the Portuguese court to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil would have probably gone the same way of the Hispano-American colonies in South America.

 

[Jonathan Edelstein]

This is really great stuff, and I look forward to seeing more of it.

IOTL, the next revolt after the ones you mention was the Pernambucan uprising of 1817, followed by the Equatorial Confederacy in the 1820s and then the Cabanagem and the Piratini revolt in the 1830s-40s. Will the greater success of the Minas Gerais and Bahian revolts move up the timetable for these other uprisings - which were after all based on similar Enlightenment principles - or will they be pre-empted or caught up in the general republican revolution? It will be interesting to see how the republic handles sectional issues and local separatism.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

1. The Campaign in the Southern Frontier​

The notice of the war against Spain arrived in Brazil only in June, barely a month earlier than the decisive defeat of the Portuguese Army, and the military contingents in the southernmost province – the Captaincy of São Pedro do Rio Grande – were quickly mobilized against the Spanish settlements east of the Uruguay River, a group of seven towns originally founded by the Jesuits to catechize the local Amerindian peoples, and which became collectively known as Seven Povos das Missões [‘Seven Settlements of the Missions’] or, in Castilian language, as Misiones Orientales [‘Eastern Missions’].

The Seven Settlements and their area of influence, contrasted with the modern borders of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil) – in 1801 still called “Captaincy of São Pedro do Rio Grande”.​

The southernmost province of colonial Brazil was one of the most militarized regions of the whole country. Through the centuries, the colonists occupied and settled in this territory in various conflicts with the local Guarani tribes and their Jesuit allies, and now its expansive plains were dedicated to cattle herding. This last frontier became disputed in various conflicts in the 18th Century between the Luso-Brazilian inhabitants and the Hispanic colonists from the Viceroyalty of La Plata.

Even without military orders from the distant Portuguese Crown, the local settlers regularly waged wars to occupy the lands of the Spaniards, and their declared objective was fixing a “natural border” along the course of the Uruguay River.

Manuel dos Santos Pedroso and José Francisco Borges do Canto, two militia sergeants, with bands of about sixty Luso-Brazilian and hundreds of Guarani Indians, succeeded in taking the forts of São Martinho, São Miguel das Missões, and, in the next month, of São João, Santo Ângelo, São Lourenço, São Luís e São Nicolau, hamlets that by then had already been abandoned by the local population. The last settlement, São Borja, was inhabited by baptized Indians, who sworn loyalty to Portugal after imprisoning the local Spanish administrator.

In the very southern border region, Lt. José Antunes da Porciúncula conquered the strategic fortress of Chuí. This engagement saw the first military action of José de Abreu Mena Barreto, who was then Sergeant of a division of Dragoons responsible for patrolling the border, but would in the future become one of the most important military and political leaders of the First Brazilian Republic.

After this victory, the other small forts of the region were abandoned by the Spaniards and occupied by the Luso-Brazilian colonists without fight. This short conflict increased the territory of the Captaincy of São Pedro do Rio Grande in almost a third, and now its border was established in the Fort of Santa Tecla, and along the course of the River Quaraí.

Territorial Expansion of Brazil in the War of 1801​

2. The Campaign in the Central Frontier​

The Captaincy of Mato Grosso on the contemporary maps appeared as one of the largest territories of colonial Brazil, but, in reality, it was scarcely occupied by the Portuguese. The only roads to the deep interior (called Sertão [1]) were those that had been braved by the bandeirantes companies through the 17th Century.

The routes of exploration undertaken by the Bandeirantes, groups of armed adventurers in search of riches and specialized in enslaving Indians.
It was until now mostly inhabited by the aboriginal belonging to the Guarani-Kaiowá people, and there were isolated fortresses in the undefined border with the dominions of the Crown of Spain. After the Treaty of Madrid in 1750, the Kingdoms of Portugal and Spain finally abrogated the fictitious pretense established by the Treaty of Tordesillas in the 15th Century, and decided that the land in this vast and unknown frontier would belong to the nation that effectively settled the land (uti possidetis principle).

The strongholds of Coimbra [2], Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade and Miranda were built afterwards to secure the Portuguese presence in the hinterland. By 1801, however, they were undermanned with token garrisons.

For this reason, when the Spanish Governor of Paraguay received the news about the war between Portugal and Spain, he sent an expeditionary force to take what he imagined to be the weakest point in the border, the fort of Coimbra.

In 16 September 1801, the 40 soldiers and 60 civilians living inside the fort responded to the approach of a Hispanic expeditionary regiment by firing their cannons. Despite the numerical superiority, the Spanish force failed to besiege the fort, and was repelled in four occasions by the defensive artillery. In the next week, the Hispanic forces retreated, and the governor of the captaincy, D. Caetano Pinto de Miranda Montenegro, prepared a counterattack. A small Portuguese force advanced along the valley of the River Mondego under Lt. Francisco Rodrigues Prado, and captured the Fort of São Jorge in the River Apa. This apparently insignificant conquest, led by a diminutive military contingent, would prove to be one of the most successful in the History of Brazil, as that river would be eventually adopted as the definite border between Brazil and Paraguay.

Owing to the defeat of the Kingdom of Portugal in the War of the Oranges, neither of the conquests of the colonists were officially recognized by the Kingdom of Spain in the Treaty of Évora (1801). In fact, as said previously, Spain and France accorded the partition of Brazilian territories, but they would never come to enforce the terms of the arrangement. The recent conquests of the Brazilian colonials, undertaken by very small irregular bands, would become permanent due to the occupation of the local citadels. They would only be officially regarded as constituent territories of Brazil after the recognition of independence. After the collapse of the Spanish Empire in the 1820s, none of the successor Hispano-American republics would make a serious effort to claim these territories.

_________________________________

[1] “Sertão” is an archaic Portuguese word meaning “interior” or “hinterland” (in the relation to the littoral), but in the context of Colonial Brazil, became a synonymous of “terra nullius”, uncharted territories inhabited by pagan indigenous peoples and where the explorers believed to exist hidden cities of gold (similar to the Spanish legend of El Dorado).

[2] “Coimbra” is the old name of the modern city of Corumbá, in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul/Brazil.

_____________________________________________________

Historical Notes: Much like the previous chapter, this one follows historical events, I haven't changed much, considering that Brazil really expanded in the War of 1801.

 

[Red_Galiray]

So you finally started the timeline like you said It's very good. I will be following.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

This is really great stuff, and I look forward to seeing more of it.

IOTL, the next revolt after the ones you mention was the Pernambucan uprising of 1817, followed by the Equatorial Confederacy in the 1820s and then the Cabanagem and the Piratini revolt in the 1830s-40s. Will the greater success of the Minas Gerais and Bahian revolts move up the timetable for these other uprisings - which were after all based on similar Enlightenment principles - or will they be pre-empted or caught up in the general republican revolution? It will be interesting to see how the republic handles sectional issues and local separatism.

You are absolutely spot-on, Jonathan (and I'm really happy to see you took interest in this TL). It seems you just forgot about the Malê Revolt in this line-up you mention

Answering your questions, OTL republican revolts will be butterflied away in the way they happened historically, as I'll try to work with hard-butterflies.

There will, however, be a series of revolutionary revolts between the 1810s until roughly the 1860s (when the country finally gets around the notion of "national integration"), most of them separatist, in the example of the Pernambucan Revolt and the Equador Confederation. Considering that the capital will be in Rio de Janeiro, there will be strong emancipationist trends in the "peripheric" regions of the Northeast (especially Bahia and Pernambuco), and also in Rio Grande do Sul.

The revolutionary/republican "fervor" will show at its strongest in the context of the War of Independence (ITTL it happens between 1816 and 1819), but it won't die off until after the half of the 19th Century, when the secessionist movements will kinda disappear in favor of "federalist" revolts similar to what happened in Argentina, Colombia and even the USA.

 

[PulkitNahata]

Wonderful start to this TL.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

So you finally started the timeline like you said It's very good. I will be following.

Indeed. I had some stuff written already, just needed to mature it a bit more, as didn't want to interrupt it when real life stuff comes knocking in my door.

Wonderful start to this TL.

Thanks! I hope you keep enjoying it.

Now, let's go for the next chapter.

 

[Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)]

1. The Regency of D. Carlota Joaquina​

Princess Carlota Joaquina, although favorable to the Spanish Crown (to which she was directly related), was deeply distrustful of “Jacobin” France and fearful of Great Britain, the two countries who were, respectively, the masters of the land and of the seas in Europe. She anxiously cultivated the alliance with Spain - represented by her own father, King Carlos VI - already conscious that this meant subservience to their much more powerful Iberian neighbor, and possibly enmity with the United Kingdom, a very dangerous game that in one way or another could threaten the very existence of the kingdom. Nevertheless, she harbored a genuined belief that the renovation of the alliance between Portugal and Spain would prevent the penetration of the revolutionary disease in the Iberian Peninsula, with the preservation of the traditional Christian values among its peoples.

Princess Carlota Joaquina of Spain, Regent of Queen Maria of Portugal
​

Yet, her blundered attempts of maintaining a neutral policy in the convoluted geopolitics of Europe abused the patience of the recently proclaimed Emperor of the French, Napoléon Bonaparte, whose relations with the King Carlos IV of Spain would soon break down due to mutual distrust and diverging geopolitical interests.

France made it painfully clear that it was entirely willing to invade Portugal and dethrone the Bragança dynasty if they failed to participate in the war effort against Britain, providing troops and ships to join the French forces. Spain, on the other hand, sought to maintain its influence on the western neighbor through the reign of Carlota Joaquina, which in a near future might allow a second Iberian Union, and rapidly grew resentful of France’s threats of intervening in Portugal, at the same time it made a concerted effort to maintain amiable relations with the "Caesar of Paris".

At the same time, though, Portugal’s faltering behavior quickly alienated Britain – who had been, until that turbulent century, Portugal’s most reliable ally. The exasperated tone of the diplomatic contacts between Lisboa and London through 1801 to 1805 aggravated the division between the former allies, and the British government made it clear to the Portuguese Crown that whoever was not on their side was their enemy, and would be treated accordingly. The only way to salvage their alliance would be to declare war against Spain and France.

In 1804, Princess Carlota Joaquina uncovered a palatine plot aiming her imprisonment and the restoration of Prince João - her stranged husband - as the ruling regent. In desperation, she pleaded the help of the Spanish forces in Setúbal and coordinated a great purge in the administration, imprisoning various ministers, noblemen and bureaucrats under vague accusations of treason. In April 1804, D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho – Portugal’s most able and respected statesman – was incarcerated, with many other decision-makers forming the so-called “English Party” in the government, under vague accusations of treason and conspiracy.

Prince João was still anguishing in the palace of Mafra, and only discovered about the attempted coup against his wife after it had already been suppressed. With dismal silence, he read the letter signed by the princess-regent, in the name of his own mother, Queen Maria, that forced him into unofficial exile to Madrid. Assured that this was a measure to ensure the prince’s own safety against the revolutionary factions inside Portugal, and that he would be the most welcomed guest in the court of his father-in-law, the King of Spain, Prince João was conducted to his presence in the same month, and from there sent to Ciudad Real, once again imprisoned in a gilded cage.

Afterwards, the Great Britain recalled the ambassador in Lisboa, and diplomatic relations between the nations broke down. This state of affairs, of intense paranoia in the Lusitanian court, coupled with the arrival of new Spanish regiments to Lisboa, Porto and Braga, made it clear to the poor citizens of Portugal that their country was on the verge of collapse. They didn’t know, however, that Fate had reserved the greatest tragedy for the next year.

2. Britannia Rules the Waves​

In 1805, the French Empire was yet again at war, against the third coalition of great powers that sought to destroy the unstoppable revolution sparked in Paris. This alliance would break apart before the year came to end, after the French Grand Armée destroyed the combined Austrian and Russian armies in Hustopeče, thus ensuring the surrender of Vienna. These victories would provoke the dissolution of the millennia-old Holy Roman Empire and effectively end the coalition, forcing the Emperors of Austria and of Russia into unconditional surrender.

Nevertheless, the details of this continental campaign and of the amazing battles, interesting as they are, have little relevance to this chronicle, as we must diverge our attention to another remarkable episode: Napoléon’s greatest defeat since his ascension to power, the naval Battle of Huelva.

In that fateful year, Napoléon of France had resolved to undertake an invasion of Great Britain. However, the Channel was entirely controlled by the Royal Navy, and most of the French ports were blockaded by His Majesty's Ships. To disrupt their maritime defenses and allow the transportation of the French army to Britain, a mighty fleet of French and Spanish ships from the Mediterranean Sea attempted to trespass a British sea blockade positioned just west of the Pillars of Hercules.

Three Portuguese warships had to be entrusted to the Spanish navy to appease the Emperor of the French, who had expressly threatened to invade Portugal if they failed to assist in the war effort against Great Britain. Realizing that Spain wouldn’t oppose the advance of an invading French army, the desperate Princess Carlota Joaquina was harshly admonished by her father, the King of Spain, to end the farce of “neutrality” and comply to the French interests.

In September 1805, Princess Carlota Joaquina, the whole Lusitanian nobility and thousands of citizens of Lisboa prayed for God’s deliverance against “Perfidious Albion” in the cathedral of the capital, while the allied warships under Pierre-Charles Villeneuve were intercepted by the numerically inferior fleet under the brilliant Admiral Horatio Nelson. In this famous engagement, off the coast of the Spanish city of Huelva [3], the British fleet obtained a legendary victory over their enemy. Afterwards, Admiral Nelson returned to London, where he received the highest honors of the state.

This triumph ensured the complete domination of the British in the seas, and the French Emperor abandoned his plans of invading the home islands, forcing him to resort to the precarious “Continental Blockade” policy, enforced upon the other European powers by the threat of French retaliation.

For the Portuguese, the loss of the ships was damaging enough, considering the poor state of their navy, and the fact that the ships “borrowed” to the Spanish fleet were some of the best war vessels available, but the political consequences were the most devastating. Until then, despite nominally allied to the Kingdom of Spain and formally recognizant of the French hegemony, the Kingdom of Portugal had not participated in any military operations against the Britain – and, even under the threatening pressure of Napoléon, freely allowed British ships in its ports and coasts –, which preserved at least the hope of a future restoration of the diplomatic friendship between the nations.

In late November 1805, before the news came about the Napoléon’s decisive victory over the Third Coalition in Austria, Princess Carlota Joaquina received the last British delegation in Lisboa, declaring war between the Kingdom of Portugal and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The British gave her an ultimatum to salvage the countries’ relationship: Portugal would have to cede its entire war fleet, as well as all of its colonies, and immediately declare war on Spain and France.

D. Carlota Joaquina did not even have time to refuse the unacceptable terms imposed by the Londoner delegation. Her short reign had been too unpopular, and now she was widely hated by the Portuguese population.

Fearing for her life, she fled the palace of Queluz in the last week of 1805 with her sons, daughters, her mother-in-law, the insane Queen of Portugal, and personal servants, as soon as the news came that the population of Lisboa had risen in full rebellion against her rule, demanding her imprisonment and the return of Prince João as the regent. She had been regularly corresponding with Francisco Javier Castaños, the commanding officer of the Spanish regiment in Setúbal, so he was informed about the departure of the Portuguese Royal Family to Madrid and immediately marched to repress the riot. In the last line of the letter, the miserable princess pleaded the Spanish troops to be gentle and kind to “their Iberian brothers, the peaceful children of Portugal”.

Lisboa was overrun by the Spanish forces and the revolt was bloodily terminated. General Francisco Javier Castaños created an “administrative council” to rule the nation in the name of King Carlos IV of Spain, allegedly to safeguard the people of Portugal against the nefarious and antichristian Jacobin ideas. Desolated, the Portuguese lamented their ruin and cried for the eviscerated corpses of rioters hanged in public squares.

*****​

In February 1806, the inhabitants of Porto, in northern Portugal, were awakened in a dark night by the sounds of cannon-shots. A British fleet of eight ships of the line and other minor warships directed by Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith bombarded its harbor and various coastal buildings. After three days of consecutive fire, a British regiment disembarked and invaded the city’s arsenal. Without any opposition, they took away every artillery piece, firearm and ammunitions from the city’s arsenal.

In the next week, they met with the feeble Portuguese fleet off the port of Lisboa, whose fourteen ships, in precarious condition, made a poor effort to defend the capital. After a quick engagement, the defending ships were encircled and forced to surrender the entire fleet. As the sun set, the proud metropolis of the Portuguese Empire – embellished and enlightened after a devastating earthquake that had ruined it barely 50 years earlier – was again reduced to a desolate ruin, but this time by the wrath of the most formidable maritime power the world had ever seen.

British warfleet near the Belém Tower, in Lisboa​

Four days of fire raining from the sky converted the capital of the Portuguese Empire into a smoldering wreckage. The whole population had already been evacuated by the Spanish military officers in the previous day, so there were almost no human casualties, but the infrastructural damage was catastrophic.

The last chapter of this unrestrained campaign of destruction was the shelling of Cádiz, the main port in southwestern Spain. Differently from what happened in Lisboa, the citizens of Cádiz had no time to move away, and thousands perished in the destruction.

Through March 1806, this British expedition sailed along the coast of Africa, occupying Madeira and destroying naval bases in the Spanish Canaries. After the insignificant garrison of Portuguese Cabo Verde was forced to capitulate and accept the British hegemony, Admiral Sidney Smith’s fleet immediately departed for Brazil, intending to secure it for His Majesty, the King of Great Britain and Ireland.

_________________________________

Historical notes: IOTL, there was indeed two distinct factions inside the Portuguese court that tried to influence Prince-Regent João’s policies: the “English Party”, thus called because they insisted solidifying the alliance with the United Kingdom, championed by Dom Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, and the “French Party”, led by Antônio Araújo de Azevedo whose members thought that Portugal would only be safe if they obtained Napoléon’s favor. Historically, the “English Party” prevailed, and it was D. Rodrigo Coutinho that organized the transfer of the court to Brazil.

The Battle of Hustopeče is an alt-version of the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon’s decisive victory over the combined Austrian and Russian armies (“the Battle of the Three Emperors”) that finished the Third Coalition. Despite the fact that the battle was found in a different place than OTL, you can imagine that the details of the battle are very similar to Austerlitz, as are its consequences.

Similarly, the Battle of Huelva is nothing more than an alt-version of the Battle of Trafalgar, which happened near Cádiz, in Spain, not far from Huelva. The details of the battle are similar, but an important divergence is that Adm. Horatio Nelson survives the battle, differently from OTL.

IOTL, Admiral Sidney Smith was one of the British naval officers in the bombardment of Copenhagen (1807), in which the recalcitrant Kingdom of Denmark had its capital assaulted, and its fleet captured by the United Kingdom in an effort to prevent France from obtaining a fleet able to invade de home islands. In addition, the Royal Navy was indeed instructed to bombard Lisboa and capture the Portuguese fleet if they failed to preserve the alliance. This drastic measure was not taken only because Prince-Regent João of Portugal made a secret arrangement with the British government to transfer the court to Brazil in late 1807, thus cementing the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, but it was a close call.