The Second Reign was the period in Brazilian history when Brazil was ruled by Dom Peter II . This period began with the Coup da Majority, of 1840, which anticipated the majority of D. Pedro II, allowing him to assume the throne at the age of 14. D. Pedro II ruled Brazil until 1889 and, in his reign, several changes took place in the country.
Coup da Maioridade and the first years of D. Pedro II
The ascension of Dom Pedro II to the Brazilian throne officially took place in 1840, from the Coup da Maioridade, led by liberal politicians. The Majority Coup basically consisted of a political maneuver to allow D. Pedro II to assume the Brazilian throne at the age of 14 (Brazilian law only allowed at the age of 18), starting the Second Reign.
The Second Reign lasted from 1840 to 1889 and can be organized into the following phases:
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Consolidation (1840-1850):during this period, D. Pedro II was consolidating himself in power and reconciling disputes between political groups in Brazil;
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Peak (1850-1870):in this period, D. Pedro II was consolidated in power as a widely respected figure and political disputes were under control;
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Decline (1870-1889):this period began with the Paraguayan War, in which the figure of D. Pedro II lost part of its prestige, and movements to contest the monarchy emerged in Brazil.
In the first ten years of his reign, the Emperor tried to consolidate his position in power and contain the existing political disputes between liberals and conservatives. One of the most important measures taken by D. Pedro II was the imposition of a model known as parliamentarism at backwards .
In this model, D. Pedro II appointed the members of the ministerial cabinet according to the power attributed to him by the Moderating Power. However, if the Chamber of Deputies was not aligned with his interests, D. Pedro II dissolved it and called new elections so that a new Chamber could be composed with members who defended the Emperor's interests. In addition, a policy of alternation was put in place, which alternated between liberals and conservatives in power.
Changes in Brazil
The Second Reign was a period marked by intense political disputes between groups that had different interests. One of these disputes took place between those who defended the end of slave labor – the abolitionists – and those who defended their maintenance – the slavers . However, the question of the end of slave labor was an old one in Brazil and went back to the period of the First Reign.
Since the First Reign , the Brazilian government postponed taking action against the slave trade, which brought slaves from Africa to Brazil. This indolent stance on the part of Brazil was abandoned because of pressure from England, especially from the Bill Aberdeen . The result of this was the passing of the Law Eusebio from Queirós .
The Eusébio de Queirós Law decreed the prohibition of the slave trade in Brazil from 1850, resulting in the end of this trade in Brazil in a concrete way. From then on, slave labor in Brazil became rarer and, therefore, more expensive. One of the ways found by the slaveholders who produced coffee was to purchase slaves from the Northeast region.
During the second half of the 19th century, the struggle between abolitionists and slavers led to the enactment of some laws that made a gradual and slow transition to the official end of slavery, such as the Law from Belly Free (1870) and the Law dos Sexagenarians (1884). The abolition of slave labor in Brazil was consolidated in 1888 with the Law Aurea .
In the economic field, a new product has established itself as the main economic commodity in Brazil:coffee . Coffee cultivation initially thrived in the Valley from Paraiba from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. With the success of this activity in Brazil, the coffee producing areas expanded to the West region. Paulista, which also prospered quickly.
Coffee growers and the high demand for labor to work on coffee plantations were essential for the increase in the flow of immigrants in Brazil, especially in the 1880s, when slavery was in an acute crisis. In general, immigrants came from regions such as Italy, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Japan, etc.
Paraguay War
A watershed in the history of the Second Reign was the War from Paraguay , which took place from December 1864 to March 1870. This conflict was caused by the clash of interests between Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay with the Paraguay government and was initiated by two acts of aggression carried out by Paraguay:imprisonment of the vessel Marquis of Olinda and invasion of the province of Mato Grosso.
Brazil emerged victorious after five years of conflict, but suffered negative impacts, especially on the economy. Brazil had approximately 50,000 dead, and Dom Pedro II's position was weakened. From then on, the army and the republican movement gained strength in Brazil's political frameworks.
Proclamation of the Republic
The weakening of the monarchy was consolidated from three ruptures that took place from the 1870s onwards:1) the Question Religious, that marked the separation between the Catholic Church and the State; 2) the Question Military, which marked the removal of the Army and the State due to unmet demands; 3) and finally the Question Slave, that marked the separation of the slavers and the State.
In addition to the defenders of republicanism, the Army was the great articulator of the end of the monarchy in Brazil. The influence of positivist ideals and dissatisfaction with the low valuation of the corporation – as they claimed at the time – were the main reasons that led them to conspire against the monarchy.
On November 11, 1889, the Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca he was convinced by a group headed by Quintino Bocaiuva to lead a coup against the ministerial cabinet. This coup was led by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca himself on November 15, 1889, and the Proclamation of the Republic was actually carried out on the same day by José from Sponsorship . Two days later, D. Pedro II went into exile in Europe.
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*Image credits:Georgios Kollidas and Shutterstock
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