BRAZILIAN INDEPENDENCE

"Give us freedom! Or give us death!" That was our freedom motto during our fight for independence. Now it's Brazil's turn "Independence or death!" Both sayings are pretty much the same right? Were the Independence wars the same? Of course not! So, I'm going to explain to you how the Brazilian war went ...

When the Spanish explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinzón drifted ashore in northern Brazil in January 1500, he saw the beautiful, flowing Amazon River, but couldn't claim any of it for Spain. Instead, Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral who carne ashore in May 1500, is recognized as the discoverer of Brazil. The very first settlement was founded until 1532 as São Vicente founded in 1532.

Steadily pushing out the home-grown tribes back over the next three centuries, the Portuguese colonists planted sugar plantations, imported slaves from Africa, exploited the large stands of lumber, built cities and mined gold and other minerals and gemstones and became extraordinarily wealthy!

With Napoleon (not the one from that stupid hit movie, but the famous general) and the Peninsular Wars, and the invasion and occupation of Spain and Portugal, Dom Joao VI, the seventeenth king of Portugal, fled Lisbon and established his court in Rio de Janeiro, where he ruled Portugal's Asian, African, and American colonies for the next thirteen years. Although Dom Joao VI never really ruled over an independent Brazil, historians called him "Founder of Brazilian Nationality." One of Dom's major contributions to the growing country of Brazil was opening the colony' s ports to free trade with other friendly nations, thus signaling a marked change in trade and the resulting improved consequence of Brazil. He also did much more for the wealthy nation. With the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, he thought it was safe to make Brazil another kingdom equal to Portugal. He also decided to remain in Brazil.

The Portuguese government disagreed with both decisions and in 1820 sent troops to assist his relocation to Portugal where the fierce army headed a revolution that was to bring about a constitutional government with Dom Joao as the constitutional monarch. Dom returned to Portugal, leaving his twenty-three year-old son Pedro as prince regent of Brazil! Pedro did a great job in enlisting support from both able advisors and the citizens of Brazil.

With revolutions and the urging desire for independence active in other Latin American countries, Pedro realized Brazil would soon wish for the same free feeling. With the support of the Brazilian citizens and the Brazilian Senate who had bestowed on him the title of Protecter and Perpetual Defender of Brazil, he defied an order to return to Portugal. When the Portuguese parliament hoped to return Brazil to colonial status, Pedro halted the moment. On September 7, 1822, After receiving orders from the Portuguese parliament limiting his powers over Brazil, Pedro declared Brazil's independence near the Ipiranga River in Sao Pualo. Dramatically, TEARING the Portuguese blue and white insignia from his uniform, Pedro drew his sword with a “CHING”and swore: “By my blood, by my honor, and by God: I will make Brazil free!” As I said earlier, their freedom motto was Independence or Death!

A war was started ...

Dom Pedro hired Admiral Thomas Cochrane, one of Britain's most successful naval commanders in the Napoleonic Wars and recently commander of the Chilean naval forces against Spain and others to drive Portuguese out of Bahia, Maranhao, and Para, and to force those areas to replace Lisbon's rule with that of Rio de Janeiro.

After a series of skirmishes and setbacks, international recognition of Brazil came when Brazil and Portugal recognized Brazilian independence by signing a treaty on August 29, 1825. However, internal politics, wars with neighboring countries and the difficulties of establishing an independent country led Dom Pedro I's abdication in 1831 Leaving his five year old son in the care of three regents, Dom Pedro sailed to Europe. The regency was an uneasy one but when Dom Pedro II was crowned emperor on July 18, 1841, it was hoped that a second empire would be one of national unity, peace, and prosperity. Dom Pedro II reigned the free country for 49 years and is acknowledged as one of the most able monarchs of his time. He ruled until 1889 when Brazil was

Now because of all the effort and hard work the generation did, September 7 in now named Brazilian Independence Day! Even today, just like America, Brazil is freeand independent. We know it was a long hard battle, but wasn't it worth it?! Brazil deserved everything they fought for. The more free countries we have, maybe it's for the better. Maybe then we can all be in peace and harmony. That's why Brazil is free. They want peace and harmony ... just like everyone else does. Most of the countries in war aren't free. Brazil and America is free and we aren't fighting. But the fighting is over. We are independent colonies now ...

I want to tell you what I've learned from all this research.

In the war, blood had been shed, and lives have been lost. But, it wasn't all blood and killing you think would be in a war. To me, I think it was more of a discussion war. Most of it was argument between Brazil and Portugal. Also, even after signing a treaty, Brazilians feared that Portugal would resume its attack. I learned that Dom Joao's mother died in 1816.

Bibiliography

From Wikipedia, the free encyc1opedia. 12:02, 23 December 2006. Ipiranga. 1/2/07
http://en.wikipedia.ora/wikillpiranaa
http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/brahistory/qt/IndependenceDay.htm Access on 12/26/06.