A independência brasileira: Novas dimensões

Abstract

In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of works on Brazil’s independence and First Empire. While the general story has not changed, the methods and materials used to explore the breakdown of the colonial system and the rise of the western hemisphere’s only lasting empire have. However, most work to date has appeared in narrowly focused monographs that are of interest only to Brazilianists. Therein lies the need for and strength of this book: by bringing together researchers that approach Brazilian independence from such varied perspectives as print culture, late colonial economics, Atlantic world currents, and regional studies, a complex, complicated, and inherently more complete picture of the period emerges, a picture that lends itself to cross-cultural comparisons.A indepêndencia brasileira is a collection of essays based on a semester-long seminar held at Oxford University in 2003. The book divides Brazil’s independence period into three sections: the late colonial period, the transfer of the court, and the crisis of 1820 – 23. Each section contains several chapters that revolve around key questions for that period. Chapters by Jorge Miguel Pedreira and João Pinto Furtado in the first section, for example, focus on the key issue of colonial antecedents for Brazilian independence. Were the aborted revolutions of the late eighteenth century (Inconfidência Mineira, Revolt of the Tailors, etc.), forerunners of independence? One of the most interesting points to emerge from this section is an acknowledgement that the transfer of the court challenged the successful colonial system and led to a crisis in Portugal. Ultimately, the authors argue that independence was not the culmination of a process that emerged from the colonial period in Brazil.The second section includes a chapter by Kirsten Schultz that builds on her work in Tropical Versailles (Routledge, 2001), and a chapter by the book’s editor on Brazilian elites at independence. Both chapters address the valuable question of how exactly the transfer of the court in 1808 affected Brazil. Did the presence of the monarch on Brazilian soil advance or retard independence? Schultz places the Brazilian movement for independence into the context of the Atlantic world in the age of revolutions, arguing that independence appeared as a conservative alternative to republicanism. In this light, the Portuguese in Rio supported a movement that would protect the monarchy, even at the loss of the colony.The third section highlights the use of innovative materials to examine independence. From chapters on Brazilians in the Portuguese court, to the impact of the nascent political press in Rio, to the rituals of independence, the authors find that independence pervaded Brazilian culture and society. While the materials used to this point may be innovative, the actors are familiar. For the most part, the actions of elites in Rio de Janeiro and Lisbon tell the story of independence. Hendrik Kraay addresses this issue in his chapter “Muralhas da independência e liberdade do Brasil: A participação popular nas lutas políticas (Bahia, 1820-25).” Kraay examines the motives held by enslaved, freed, and free Afro-Brazilians as they fought for independence in the National Guard in Bahia. He highlights the complexity of the race and class system by arguing that there was little ideological cohesion among the various groups, though the white elite saw a unified threat to social order. While more work remains to be done on integrating popular classes in our understanding of independence movements, this chapter shows one possible window into the motives and understandings of those who left few records.The concluding section by Anthony McFarlane focuses on the position of Brazil-ian independence in the larger Atlantic world and illuminates both the strengths and weaknesses of the book as a whole. The process of collecting together numerous scholars examining independence through a multitude of lenses exposes the complexity of Brazilian independence and highlights new approaches to the period. The most significant contribution of the book is the placement of Brazil’s independence movement into larger contexts — Portugal, the Atlantic world, and Spanish America. The only significant limitation is the language of publication. The questions, arguments, and conclusions will be of interest to a broad range of scholars. Those working on independence movements in Spanish America and the impact of enlightenment political philosophy in the larger Atlantic world will find much here to inform their research. As the organizer and editor himself acknowledges: “comparative analyses between the Hispanic world and Portuguese America are practically nonexistent” (p. 45). This book goes a long way toward rectifying that problem.