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Pedro II of Brazil
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Pedro II, , or Dom Pedro de Alcântara; December 2, 1825 December 5, 1891) was the second and last Emperor of Brazil, having ruled for almost 50 years. His name in full was Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Bragança e Habsburgo, By the Grace of God and Unanimous Acclamation of the People, Constitutional Emperor and Perpetual Defender of Brazil.
When anglicised, his name would be Peter II of Brazil, full name Peter of Alcantara John Charles Leopold Salvador Vivian Francis Xavier of Paula Leocadio Michael Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga of Braganza and Habsburg.
He was born on December 2, 1825, in Rio de Janeiro, the seventh child of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil and Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria.
he was a boy of five, Pedro became the Emperor of Brazil.
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Pedro II, , or Dom Pedro de Alcântara; December 2, 1825 December 5, 1891) was the second and last Emperor of Brazil, having ruled for almost 50 years. His name in full was Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga de Bragança e Habsburgo, By the Grace of God and Unanimous Acclamation of the People, Constitutional Emperor and Perpetual Defender of Brazil.
When anglicised, his name would be Peter II of Brazil, full name Peter of Alcantara John Charles Leopold Salvador Vivian Francis Xavier of Paula Leocadio Michael Gabriel Raphael Gonzaga of Braganza and Habsburg.
He was born on December 2, 1825, in Rio de Janeiro, the seventh child of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil and Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria.
The Regency
When he was a boy of five, Pedro became the Emperor of Brazil. His father Pedro I abdicated the Throne on April 7, 1831, after violent protests in Brazil against his careless handling of internal affairs, to fight a civil war in Portugal. The aim of the war in Portugal was to restore the throne of Portugal to Maria II, elder sister of Pedro II.
As a result of caring for his children's interests, in 1834, his father, Pedro I of Brazil (and Pedro IV of Portugal), had a daughter (who was only 15 years old) on the throne of Portugal and a son, Pedro II, who was Emperor of Brazil, at age 9.
During the Emperor's childhood, a series of regents administered the government, in accordance with the Constitution. On July 23, 1840, the Brazilian Imperial Parliament, or General Assembly, declared Pedro to be of age to govern and abolished the regency. Though only 14, Pedro already had a reputation as a judicious ruler, and the Imperial Parliament hoped that his popularity would quell the regional revolts that had rocked Brazil in the 1830s. Emperor Pedro II was consecrated and crowned on July 18, 1841.
Family life
Dom Pedro II was married on September 17, 1842, to his cousin Princess Teresa of the Two Sicilies (1822–1889), the youngest daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies (1777–1830) and Maria Isabella of Spain. (Pedro I had been married to Leopoldina of Austria when he was Crown Prince of Portugal).
Pedro II and Teresa Cristina had four children:
- Afonso de Bourbon e Bragança (1845–1847), Prince Imperial of Brazil.
- Isabel de Bourbon e Bragança (1846–1921), who married Louis Philippe Marie Ferdinand Gaston, comte d'Eu, son of Louis of Orleans, Duke of Nemours.
- Leopoldina de Bourbon e Bragança (1847–1871), who married Prince Ludwig August of Kohary of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
- Pedro de Bourbon e Bragança (1848–1850), Prince Imperial of Brazil.
Emperor of Brazil
Pedro II reigned as Emperor of Brazil for 49 years. As emperor, he brought economic stability and progress by encouraging coffee production instead of sugar. The period saw the beginnings of industrialization: the first paved roads, the first steam-engine railway, a submarine telegraphy cable, and the introduction of the telephone. He fought against poverty and illiteracy by establishing primary schools and specialized secondary colleges and universities all over the country. By the end of his reign, there were 118 schools in Rio de Janeiro. He also set up the Brazilian Institute of History and Geography. Pedro II encouraged culture in his country as he subsidized artists and writers, and established libraries. Furthermore, having studied French political thought and being fond of the concept of constitutional governments, he wanted his people to be educated so that they would be able to self-govern.
Because of his strong intellectual passions, he traveled to the United States and attended the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, where Alexander Graham Bell showed him his new telephone. Pedro II probably was the first Brazilian to use the invention. He recited Shakespeare's classic line from Hamlet, "To be or not to be" into it, and exclaimed, "This thing speaks!". His regime was supported for 40 years because of his leadership and compassion for the Brazilian people.
Liberal in outlook, Pedro II took steps to end slavery, after freeing forty slaves that he inherited when became legally an adult in 1840. He knew that the Brazilian landowners would disagree with complete and immediate emancipation, therefore the process was gradual. In 1871, he passed the "free womb" laws that claimed that children born to enslaved women would be free upon birth; the law also claimed that all bondmen were declared free and a special bond was set aside to help slaves purchase freedom. The final abolition edict, the Golden Law, was signed in his absence by his daughter Princess Isabel, on May 13, 1888, freeing 700,000 slaves without any compensation for their owners.
Pedro II also tried to learn Guarani, the most widely spoken indigenous language in nineteenth-century Brazil.
He was widely respected by Brazilians of all social levels as an enlightened monarch who ruled in a principled, rational, moderate fashion. His relations with the Roman Catholic Church were strained due to his opposition to their 1872 anti-Masonic laws. Historian Thomas Skidmore has compared Pedro II to Queen Victoria, another nineteenth-century monarch who was popular for similar reasons.
Though an enlightened monarch, Pedro II nonetheless retained extensive power over the Brazilian government, as he presided over 36 cabinets. Under the Brazilian Constitution of 1824, the Emperor possessed Poder Moderador ("Moderating Power"), i.e. the power to temper the will of Brazil's representative government. In practice, this meant that Pedro II had the right to veto legislation, dissolve the lower house of the legislature (the only one that was elected), and call new elections at his pleasure. Pedro II generally respected the wishes of the electorate, and did all that he could to alternate support between the Liberal and Conservative parties so that each would have a fair amount of time in power. These parties represented the landowning class, causing tensions within other classes of Brazilian society and often leaving them displeased. The unexpectedly long and costly Paraguayan War of 1865-1870 also diminished his popularity. Regardless of its negative impacts, the war had significant impacts on politics, as it strengthened and solidified relations with Argentina, while establishing the Brazilian army's power.
In the wake of the Paraguayan War, a war not started by Brazil, the monarchy was seen by some to be an obstacle to modernization and economic growth. Liberals called both for greater regional autonomy. The abolition of slavery in Brazil, the last place where it still existed in the Americas, irritated the wealthy elite. A military coup d'etat on November 15, 1889 overthrew the monarchy. The Emperor and his family went into exile in Europe, and Brazil created a new federalist, republican government under the Brazilian Constitution of 1891.
Pedro II died on December 5, 1891, in Paris, France. The government of France gave a state funeral to the old emperor. At the same time, the Brazilian Republic censored the details of Pedro's death and funeral.
His and his wife's remains were taken to Brazil in 1920, and were placed in a chapel in the city Petrópolis.
Ancestry
Books
- Barman, Roderick J. Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825–1891. 1999.
- Brown, Rose. American Emperor: Dom Pedro II of Brazil. 1945.
- Crow, John A. The Epic of Latin American: Fourth Edition University of California Press, 1992.
- da Costa, Emilia Viotti. The Brazilian Empire: Myths and Histories. 2000; 1985.
- Harding, Bertita. Amazon Throne. London: Harrap, 1942.
- Schwarcz, Lilia Moritz. The Emperor's Beard: Dom Pedro II and His Tropical Monarchy in Brazil. Trans. John Gledson. 2003.
- Skidmore, Thomas. Brazil: Five Centuries of Change. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Skidmore, Thomas. Modern Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005
See also
External links
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