Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/276

232 imposition of new taxes to meet these expenses. Not withstanding this the expenses continued to augment, and the Government had recourse to the reprehensible measure of altering the money standard, and the whole monetary system was soon thrown into the greatest confusion, a state of things from which the country suffers even at the present day, The bank, in addition to its private functions, farmed many of the regalia, and was in the practice of advancing large sums to the state, transactions which gave rise to extensive corruption, and terminated some years later in the breaking of the bank. Thus the Government of the prince regent began its career in the new world with dangerous errors in the financial system ; yet the increased activity which a multi tude of new customers and the increase of circulating medium gave to the trade of Rio, added a new stimulus to the industry of the whole nation. Numbers of English artisans and shipbuilders, Swedish iron-founders, German engineers, and French manufacturers sought fortunes in the new country, and diffused industry by their example. In the beginning of 1809, in retaliation of the occupa tion of Portugal, an expedition was sent from Para to the French colony of Guiana, and after some fighting this part of Guiana was incorporated with Brazil. This conquest was, however, of short duration; for, by the treaty of Vienna in 1815, the colony was restored to France. Its occupation contributed to the improvement of agriculture in Brazil ; it had been the policy of Portugal up to this time to separate the productions of its colonies, to reserve sugar for Brazil, and spices to the East Indies, and to prohibit the cultivation of these in the African possessions. Now, however, many plants were imported not only from Guiana but from India and Africa, cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden, and thence distributed. The same principle which dictated the conquest of French Guiana originated attempts to seize the Spanish colonies of Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, Portugal being also at war with Spain. The chiefs of these colonies were invited to place them under the protection of the Portuguese crown, but these at first affecting loyalty to Spain declined the offer, then threw off the mask and declared themselves independent, and the Spanish governor, Elio, was afterwards defeated by Artigas, the leader of the independents. The inroads made on the frontiers of Rio Grande and Sao Paulo decided the court of Rio to take possession of Monte Video; a force of 5000 troops was sent thither from Portugal, together with a Brazilian corps ; and the irregulars of Artigas, unable to withstand disciplined troops, were forced, after a total defeat, to take refuge beyond the River Uruguay. The Portuguese took posses sion of the city of Monte Video in January 1817, and the territory of Missiones was afterwards occupied. The im portance which Brazil was acquiring decided the regent to give it the title of kingdom, and by decree of the 16th January 1815, the Portuguese sovereignty thenceforward took, the title of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Thus the old colonial government dis appeared even in name. In March 1816 the Queen Donna Maria I. died, and the prince regent became king under the title of Dom Joao VI. Although Brazil had now become in fact the head of its own mother country, the government was not in the hands of Brazilians, but of the Portuguese, who had followed the court The discontent arising among Brazilians from this cause was heightened by a decree assigning a heavy tax on the chief Brazilian custom houses, to be in operation for forty years, for the benefit of the Portuguese noblemen who had suffered during the war with France. The amiable character of the king preserved his own popularity, but the Government was ignorant and profligate, justice was ill administered, negligence and disorder reigned in all its departments. Nor was the discontent less in Portugal on account of its anomalous position. These causes and the fermentation of liberal principles produced by the French Revolution originated a conspiracy in Lisbon in 1817, which was, however, discovered in time to prevent its success. A similar plot and rebellion took place in the province of Pernambuco, where the inhabitants of the important com mercial city of Recife were jealous of Rio and the sacrifices they were compelled to make for the support of the luxurious court there. Another conspiracy to establish a republican government was promptly smothered in Bahia, and the outbreak in Pernambuco was put down after a republic had been formed there for ninety clays. Still the progress of the republican spirit in Brazil caused Dom Joao to send to Portugal for bodies of picked troops, which were stationed throughout the provincial capitals. In Portugal the popular discontent produced the revolution of 1820, when representative government was proclaimed the Spanish constitution of 1812 being provisionally adopted. In Rio, the Portuguese troops with which the king had surrounded himself as a defence against the liberal spirit of the Brazilians, took up arms on the 26th February 1821, to force him to accept the system proclaimed in Portugal. The prince Dom Pedro, heir to the crown, who now for the first time took part in public affairs, actively exerted himself as a negotiator between the king and the troops, who were joined by bodies of the people. After attempting a compromise the king finally submitted, took the oath, and named a new ministry. The idea of free government filled the people with enthusiasm, and the principles of a representative legislature were freely adopted, the first care being for the election of deputies to the Cortes of Lisbon to take part in framing the new constitution. As the king could not abandon Portugal to itself he determined at first to send the prince thither as regent, but Dom Pedro had acquired such popularity by his conduct in the revolution, and had exhibited such a thirst for glory, that the king feared to trust his adventurous spirit in Europe, and decided to go himself. The Brazilian deputies on arriving in Lisbon expressed dissatisfaction with the Cortes for having begun the framing of the constitution before their arrival, for Brazil could not be treated as a secondary part of the monarchy. Sharp discussions and angry words passed between the Brazilian and Portuguese deputies, the news of which excited grsat discontent in Brazil. An insulting decree was passed in the Cortes, ordering the prince Dom Pedro to come to Europe, which filled the Brazilians with alarm ; they foresaw that without a central authority the country would fall back to its former colonial state subject to Portugal. The Pro visional Government of Sao Paulo, influenced by the brothers Andradas, began a movement for independence by asking the prince to disobey the Cortes and remain in Brazil, and the council of Rio de Janeiro followed with a similar repre sentation, to which the prince assented. The Portuguese troops of the capital at first assumed a coercive attitude, but were forced to give way before the ardour and military preparations of the Brazilians, and submitted to embark for Portugal. These scenes were repeated in Pernambuco. where the Portuguese, after various conflicts, were obliged to leave the country ; in Bahia, however, as well as in Maranhao and Para, the Portuguese prevailed. In Rio the agitation for independence continued. The two brothers Andradas were called to the ministry ; and the municipal council conferred upon the prince regent the title of Perpetual Defender of Brazil. With great activity he set off to the central provinces of Minas and Sao Paulo to suppress disaffected movements and direct the revolution. In Sao Paulo, on the 7th of September 1 822, he proclaimed the independence of Brazil On his return to Rio de 