According to CLOTHINGEXPRESS, the stay of the court in Rio de Janeiro had also caused discontent in Portugal, where the king was accused of sacrificing the interests of the metropolis to those of Brazil and of granting too much authority, in the council of regency, to the English elements. In fact, Portuguese politics was dominated by the English diplomat Carlo Stuart and the famous Marshal Beresford, who, in 1818, stifled the revolutionary movement promoted by Freire de Andrade, a former Napoleonic soldier. But in 1820, in the absence of Beresford, who went to Brazil, the liberal revolution triumphed, which broke out on August 24 in Porto and spread to Lisbon on 29. Once a revolutionary junta was created, the Cortes were summoned to prepare the constitution. This news aroused joy in Brazil, none foreseeing that the Chamber born of the revolution would then manifest clearly conservative intentions towards Brazil. At court, opinions were divided: the king, as usual, indecisive and uncertain; the restless and dissolute queen, frantic partisan of absolutism and blindly devoted to her youngest son, Michele, who shared her ideas; Crown Prince Pedro, on the other hand, inclined to liberalism. He had, in 1817, married the archduchess of Austria, Carolina Giuseppa Leopoldina, not beautiful, but intelligent, cultured, welcomed by the Brazilians, who contributed not a little to making her husband’s sympathies active for the national cause. On February 18, a royal manifesto announced the imminent departure for Lisbon of Prince Pedro, to agree with the Cortes about the introduction in Brazil of ” In separating from his son, the king foresaw the imminent separation of Brazil, and advised Pedro to take the crown in that case, before some adventurer took possession of it. The departure gave rise to new riots, which were suppressed, but without bloodshed. Don Pedro, according to an English historian, “was left in a country quivering with discontent and practically bankrupt” In that year, Brazil had over 4,300,000 residents, including 800,000 Indians in the wild: Rio de Janeiro it had reached 150,000 residents. but without bloodshed. Don Pedro, according to an English historian, “was left in a country quivering with discontent and practically bankrupt” In that year, Brazil had over 4,300,000 residents, including 800,000 Indians in the wild: Rio de Janeiro it had reached 150,000 residents. but without bloodshed. Don Pedro, according to an English historian, “was left in a country quivering with discontent and practically bankrupt” In that year, Brazil had over 4,300,000 residents, including 800,000 Indians in the wild: Rio de Janeiro it had reached 150,000 residents.
Soon we learned what the spirit of the revolutionary Cortes was, which, among other things, began to deliberate on Brazilian affairs even before the legal contingent of Brazilian representatives had arrived in Lisbon. A decree of 29 September 1821 declared the provincial governments of Brazil independent, abolished the courts and other institutes created by John VI, ordered the return of Don Pedro to Portugal “to complete his education”. Other decrees reinforced the Bahia and Rio garrisons with Portuguese auxiliary troops of proven loyalty. In other words, they wanted to restore the old colonial regime, bring the country back to what it was before 1808, and Rio de Janeiro to the simple conditions of a major captaincy. The new Portuguese legislators did not realize what had happened in the distant colony during the stay there of the court, the changed public spirit, the rapid development of culture, and, with it, of political ideas. Under John VI, these ideas, in the most ardent patriots, were oriented towards the republic; but, faced with the arrogance of Lisbon, even the republicans wisely opted for the conversion to the monarchy, making the young prince center and shield, in the voice of a liberal. The numerous officials who had lost their posts due to the decrees of the Cortes, and the Portuguese royalists themselves who remained in Brazil also joined the separatist ideas, who saw dangerous Jacobin tendencies in the regime established in the metropolis. It seemed a necessary act, before any other, prevent the prince’s departure for Europe; to which the patriots actively worked, seconded by the Freemasonry and other secret societies that had been founded, and by the energetic press campaign conducted by the newspaper the reverb. Don Pedro found himself in an extremely difficult situation: to become a traitor, either to the country of origin, or to that of election. It seems that at first he was prepared to obey the invitation of the Cortes and to leave Brazil; but the will of the country soon took over. In that serious contingency, a man had arisen who, having already revealed himself to be an eminent scientist and patriot, was then to manifest himself as one of the strongest political leaders and firmest characters in his country: Giuseppe Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva. This great citizen, the eldest of three brothers all illustrious in Brazilian history, was trained in Europe and made a name for himself in mineralogy and metallurgy (he also had relations with Alessandro Volta); during the peninsular war he fought for the Portuguese against the French, but he hadn’t been long in nurturing separatist ideas and, returning to Brazil, to become a champion of independence. Its influence was exercised especially in the native province of São Paulo and in the finite province of Minas Geraes, which had been the cradle of Brazilian separatism. In 1821, he was vice-president of the provisional council of S. Paolo; and was the most effective promoter of popular action, which culminated in the address, signed by 8000 patriots and presented to the prince by the Senate of the Chamber (a kind of provincial government), in the person of its president Giuseppe Clemente Pereira, a Portuguese sympathizer for the Brazilian aspirations. Faced with this precise manifestation of the popular will, the last obscenities of Don Pedro fell who, on January 9, 1822, said to the bearer of the memage the famous phrase: ”
