Why Was Brazil Different? The Contexts of Independence
Written by: Kenneth Maxwell
John Parry Memorial Lecture
April 25, 2000
Harvard University
Over recent decades surprisingly little scholarly work has been done on the achievement
of Brazilian independence. Even less attention has been devoted to the impact of the decolonization of Portugal’s vast South American empire during the 1820s on Portugal itself. Portuguese historians still sometimes write as if Brazil never existed—the most recent and most prestigious history of Portugal in the 18th century, for example, barely mentions Brazil, even though for most of that century sixty percent of the state’s revenues derived from Brazil—and Brazilian historians often ignore the important transatlantic dimensions of Brazil’s domestic political conflicts and economic constraints.1 The period that runs from late 1807 — when the invasion of Portugal by General Junot forced the Portuguese court to take refuge in Brazil, up to 1825, when Portugal and the major European powers recognized Brazil’s independence—lacks even the most rudimentary interpretative outline. Yet events on each side of the Atlantic were intimately linked and cannot be explained without an understanding of their connectedness. Indeed, between 1815 and 1821 Portugal and Brazil were formally and institutionally part of a “United Kingdom.” The interpenetration of Brazilian and Portuguese
politics and economy was extensive, and remained so well into the mid-nineteenth century.
John Parry Memorial Lecture
April 25, 2000
Harvard University
Over recent decades surprisingly little scholarly work has been done on the achievement
of Brazilian independence. Even less attention has been devoted to the impact of the decolonization of Portugal’s vast South American empire during the 1820s on Portugal itself. Portuguese historians still sometimes write as if Brazil never existed—the most recent and most prestigious history of Portugal in the 18th century, for example, barely mentions Brazil, even though for most of that century sixty percent of the state’s revenues derived from Brazil—and Brazilian historians often ignore the important transatlantic dimensions of Brazil’s domestic political conflicts and economic constraints.1 The period that runs from late 1807 — when the invasion of Portugal by General Junot forced the Portuguese court to take refuge in Brazil, up to 1825, when Portugal and the major European powers recognized Brazil’s independence—lacks even the most rudimentary interpretative outline. Yet events on each side of the Atlantic were intimately linked and cannot be explained without an understanding of their connectedness. Indeed, between 1815 and 1821 Portugal and Brazil were formally and institutionally part of a “United Kingdom.” The interpenetration of Brazilian and Portuguese
politics and economy was extensive, and remained so well into the mid-nineteenth century.
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