living away: Independence of Brasil

In September 7 of 1822, on the banks of the Ipiranga River in the state of São Paulo, Don Pedro I, proclaimed the Independence of Brasil!

Pedro I was born in October 12, 1798, in Portugal, at the time of revolution in France. His father was the regent prince at the time but would soon become King John VI of Portugal. In 1807, when he was nine, the royal family moved to Brasil in order to escape the Napoleonic Wars. The family would remain in Brasil for 13 years. Their presence made Rio de Janeiro the capital of the Portuguese Empire, and led to Brazil being elevated to the status of a kingdom co-equal with Portugal.King João VI was obliged to return to Portugal in the early 1820s, and most of the privileges that had been accorded to Brazil were rescinded, sparkling the anger of local nationalists. Pedro had remained in the country, assuming the place of his father.

Returning to a trip to Santos, São Paulo state, he received messages from his wife and from one of his ministers that the Portuguese Court considered his government traitorous and was dispatching troops to Brasil to take him out of his throne. In a famous scene at the shore of the Ipiranga River on September 7 of 1822, he had to decide between returning to Portugal in disgrace or opting for Brasil’s independence in that moment. So, he tore the Portuguese blue and white insignia from his uniform, drew his sword, and swore: "By my blood, by my honor, and by God I will make Brasil free: Independence or death!"

Pedro was proclaimed Emperor of Brazil on October 12 and crowned on December 1st of the same year. He ruled for 11 years and in the aftermath of a political crisis and among a growing economic crisis, Pedro abdicated his throne in Brazil in favor of his son Pedro II in 1831, who was only 5 at the time. He then returned to Portugal to fight against his brother King Miguel, who meanwhile had usurped the Portuguese crown! Pedro I, the Emperor of Brasil, died in Queluz, the palace of his birth, at the age of 36 of tuberculosis.

In 1972, his remains were returned to Brazil and rest in peace in the present Ipiranga Museum, which was built in the same spot where he proclaimed the independence himself.

The Brazilian Independence was sui generis. It was one of the few independence movements around the world that was bloodless and made by its own ruler/emperor.