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. It is a concept usually expensive to every country, an idea that synthesizes the maximum expression of independence, with the State holding the exclusive right to exercise the legislative, judicial and executive authorities within the territory
In times of political and commercial offensive from Donald Trump’s US government against Brazil, this concept has been repeated and emphasized by Brazilian authorities.
Brazil officially celebrates the independence of Portugal in the historic episode of September 7, 1822, but it was only on August 29, 1825 – 200 years ago – that this sovereignty became full. This is the old colonial metropolis.
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The process that transformed Brazil from colony to independent country did not occur overnight. The famous “Scream of Ipiranga” is regarded as Marco, but Prince Pedro was only acclaimed Pedro 1st, Emperor of Brazil, on October 12 of that year 1822. And Brazil only officially became an empire in December.
But the independence of a country has only effect, in fact, with the recognition of the others. From 1823, Brazil was in the midst of diplomatic negotiations so that other nations give the endorsement to existence.
International recognition
The pioneers in this regard were the United States, who formally recognized Brazil in 1824 – there was a predisposition of the Americans to this, since in these processes of independence, the other European colonies became under their geopolitical influence.
But there was also the fact that the Kingdom of Daomé, which existed from 1600 to 1904 in the present Benin, Africa, was one of the first to send diplomatic representatives to the then new country – slave businesses certainly weighed in this relationship.
The United Provinces of the Rio da Prata, a territory that today corresponds to Argentina, also recognized Brazil.
“The United States was the first to recognize [a independência do Brasil]and this has a direct relationship with the idea of American independence and America as a cool continent of European monarchies, ”says historian Marcelo Cheche Galves, a professor at Maranhão State University (Uema) and one of the organizers of the independence book: circulation of ideas and political practices.
“England did not want to recognize independent Brazil before Portugal did it because of European political chess,” he points out.
The United Kingdom was interested in the final resolution of the imbroglio between Brazil and Portugal.
“England guaranteed a potential great consumer market. Independence, linked to English interests, has left the United Kingdom profiting from both Brazil’s indebtedness and the economic dependence relations that were among the countries involved,” explains historian Victor Missiato, a researcher at the Mackenzie Institute.
“Independence [do Brasil] It meant England’s greater ability to expand its market in the Americas. ”
Thus, the British began to mediate negotiations between the new empire and the old metropolis. These negotiations were completed on August 29, 1825, with the signing of the Friendship and Alliance Treaty, also known as the Luso-Brazilian Treaty or Treaty of Rio de Janeiro.
This document was “the most solid base to ensure the financing of the political institutionality of the Brazilian State”, says historian Paulo Henrique Martinez, professor at Paulista State University (UNESP).
The historian Galves recalls that, at this point, “the situation of political emancipation” of Brazil was “more than resolved from a practical point of view”.
The treaty, therefore, resolved outstanding political imbrogs – from commitments signed with England by the future extinction of the so -called slave trade to the points related to succession in the thrones of both Portugal and Brazil.
Portugal started to recognize Brazil as a sovereign state. And Brazil has pledged to pay compensation to the European country – a total of £ 2 million, which was later used by Portugal to pay off bankers with bankers to fund the war that tried to reverse Brazilian independence.
English aid
British mediation came from the assumption that the United Kingdom informally recognized Brazilian independence. The English saw in Brazilian autonomy a political facilitator for the recognition of other Latin American nations. At the same time, especially after the Lisbon court move to Rio in 1808, Brazil was established as a solid consumer market of British exports.
This English interference was decisive for the agreement to be sealed. According to Martinez, the British weight came from the fact that the country was “the largest commercial, industrial and financial emporium in the world market” of the time and also because this help meant the “ideological presence of free trade.”
“The role [da mediação britânica] It was central, determining both the interests that the English had in relation to the treaty and the space that England occupied in geopolitics [do período]”, Highlights Galves.
As there was a difficulty in agreement between Portugal and Brazil to officialize independence, the English then offered themselves as mediators of this process.
The terms were conducted by politician George Canning (1770-1827), then Foreign Minister. Issues inherent to the succession of the Portuguese throne were under discussion-there were doubts about this process, since the successor of Dom João VI (1767-1826), Dom Pedro (1798-1834), had become, after all, Emperor of Brazil.
Amid the negotiations, British diplomat Charles Stuart (1779-1845) acted as ambassador in Lisbon, exposing to the Portuguese government that there was total practical impossibility in the idea of union of the two crowns. It was Stuart who proposed that Brazil compensate Portugal.
In total, the arbitrated amount of 2 million pounds was officially stipulated to reimburse the seized or confiscated vessels in the independence process and for Brazil to have remained the collection of the National Library – brought to Rio in 1808. If this was expensive, Brazil was born as the independent country of the Americas with the largest book collection on the continent. That is: sovereignty also came with knowledge.
“For Portugal, it was a big deal, considering that the situation had actually been resolved and militarily would not be possible any reversal,” says Galves.
Cascade effect
With consolidated independence, Brazil also became a protagonist of a movement in which Latin American countries were gaining autonomy and ceasing to be colonies. “In the dimension of America’s ensemble, it was an instrument of economic and mercantile dispute of British imperialism,” contextualizes Martinez.
“There was a waterfall effect [pelo continente]with England sponsoring, helping and supporting other processes also in Spanish America, ”says Missiato.
“For its geography,” recalls historian Martinez, sovereign Brazil was important to other countries, both in diplomatic and commercial relations.
“Occupying the pediment of the South Atlantic the projection of the Brazilian territory enjoyed privileged positions not only as a warehouse, but also as an area of origin and destination of numerous products, particularly tropical, and manufactured, coming from the northern hemisphere,” he says.
“Secondly by the attraction of the large -scale producing market of great demand genres in the world market, such as cotton, sugar, tobacco and, therefore, coffee and rubber. All this network moved others, such as insurance, shipyards, ports, navigation, loans, investments, taxation, legal quarrels, storage, supply, urban infrastructure, roads and communications.”
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