João sailed back in tears in 1821, and the last chapter of colonial Brazil drew to a close, setting the stage for the strong, independent nation that we know today, changing the New World forever.
Never had the country lost so many people in so little time.įinally, after Napoleon's fall and over a decade of misery, the Portuguese demanded the return of their king. Meanwhile, Portugal was suffering the effects of abandonment, war, and famine. Maior território escravista do hemisfério ocidental, o Brasil recebeu cerca de 5 milhões de cativos africanos, 40 do total de 12,5 milhões embarcados para a América ao longo de três séculos e meio. As raízes do Brasil com o corpo na América e a alma na África. As explorers mapped the burgeoning nation's distant regions, the prince authorized the construction of roads, the founding of schools, and the creation of factories, raising Brazil to kingdom status in 1815. Do autor dos best-sellers 1808, 1822 e 1889. Sickness ran rampant.Īfter landing in Brazil, Prince João liberated the colony from a trade monopoly with Portugal. Vermin infested the food, and bacteria contaminated the drinking water. Lice infested some of the vessels, and noble women had to shave their hair and grease their bald heads with antiseptic sulfur. It took two months in cramped, decrepit ships. Thousands made the voyage, but it was no luxury cruise.
Until then, no European monarch had ever set foot in the Americas. Protected by the British Navy, he fled to Brazil with his entire family, including his deranged mother, most of the nobility, and the entire state apparatus. Cornered, Prince Regent João had to make the most fraught decision of his life. In a time of terror for Europe's monarchs-imprisoned, exiled, executed-Napoleon's army marched toward Lisbon.
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