The Brazilian Monarchy
  Dedicated to the Promotion, Study and
Restoration of the Brazilian Glorious Monarchy

 

The Glorious Pedro the Second of Brazil
 

"No other monarch was more dedicated to the fidelity of his people."
Gladstone, British Prime Minister

 

A Brief Synopses of the Brazilian Monarchy and it last reigning Monarch  

Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil (December 2, 1825-December 5, 1891) was the second and final Brazilian Emperor. His name in full was Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga, By the Grace of God and Unanimous Acclamation of the People, Constitutional Emperor and Perpetual Defender of Brazil.

Dom Pedro II was married September 4, 1843 to Princess Teresa of the Two Sicilies (b. 1822 – d. 1889), the youngest daughter of King Francis I of the Two Sicilies (b. 1777 – d. 1830) and had four children:

He was born on December 2, 1825 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. When he was a boy of five, he became the emperor-to-be of Brazil on the edict of his father Pedro I who abdicated the throne on April 7, 1831 to fight a civil war in Portugal. The aim of the war in Portugal was to restore the throne of Portugal to Maria II, older sister of Pedro. As a result of caring for his children's interests, in 1834, the warrior father Pedro I had a daughter of 15 on the throne of Portugal and a son of 9 Pedro II who was emperor-to-be of Brazil. But until the boy emperor-to-be grew to be fifteen, a series of regents administered the government, as his father had commanded. And on July 18, 1841, the regents transferred full authority to the boy and crowned him Dom Pedro II, the Emperor of Brazil. He was a statesman of great erudition, received an excellent classical education that served him well, who studied  science and humanistic in a depth a very unique achievement for a ruler during that time. D. Pedro II was fluent in 10 languages: Portuguese, German, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Tupi-Guarani, Arabic and Hebrew. Dom Pedro II had a deep appreciation for the potential contributions of science and technology to society.  He conducted with great skills and without social traumas the peaceful abolition of slavery in the country with the largest population of black slaves in the world. In the United States, the same process took a sad and difficult period of civil war in which 60% of the male population died. He promoted the diversity of national ethnicity and sponsored the mass immigration of Europeans, principally Italians and Germans.  He was interested in expanding our country's primary agricultural commodities and in making Brazil a major cotton producer. After the defeat of the Confederate States in the U.S. Civil War, the emperor invited successful Confederate cotton planters to settle in Brazil. Between 1867 and 1871, at least three thousand Confederate families passed through the port of Rio de Janeiro. About 80 percent of the families returned to the United States, but one successful American settlement in Brazil--Americana, founded by Colonel William Hutchinson Norris (1800-1893) of Mobile, Alabama--still exists. Located seventy-five miles from the city of São Paulo, Americana in 2003 has a population of approximately 250,000 persons. Conversations among the descendants of the confederados (about 10 percent of the population) are often in Southern-accented English. Families with names such as Jones, MacKnight, and Whitaker come together for the Fourth of July and other holidays to have a Southern-style barbecue. Former First lady Rosalyn Carter, wife of  Former President Jimmy Carter, has relatives buried in the Confederate cemetery in Americana. In 1992 President-elect Bill Clinton (b. 1946-) wrote a letter to the confederados of Americana in which he recalled that Arkansas was one of the thirteen states that had sent settlers to Brazil.

During Dom Pedro II  long reign, Brazil experienced domestic peace, prosperity, and progress. For example, it was in these years that Brazil built its first stone-paved road, "União e Indústria" (Union and Industry), linking Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis, and Juiz de Fora. In the same era, Brazil's first steam-engine locomotive started running from Santos to São Paulo in 1868, the Brazil-Europe submarine cable was installed, telephone service began in 1877 last then a year after it's public presentation to Dom Pedro in Philadelphia, as a matter of fact the Library of Congress Website claims the Dom Pedro was the first ( not one of the first, but the first ) shareholder to buy stock of the newly formed Bell's company, the Bell Telephone Company, he also instituted our first postal stamp "Olho de Boi".  Dom Pedro II was in the United States, as a guest of President Ulysses Grant, during the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, he was one of the Judges of the Exposition commemorating the on hundred year of the United States Independence, where Alexander Graham Bell showed him his new telephone. Pedro II  was the first Brazilian and certain the first Ruler to ever  to use the telephone. Pedro II  was a well educated man, a brilliant photographer, also corresponded   It's believed that the first telephone ever installed was between Pedro II Palace and his Residence. He recited Shakespeare's classic line from Hamlet, "To be or not to be" into it, and exclaimed, " Ora pois esta coisa fala" (This thing speaks!).

Liberal in outlook, Pedro II took steps to industrialize Brazil and to end slavery. (The final abolition edict was signed in his absence by his daughter The Regent Princess Isabel, on May 13, 1888.) This progressive stance, however, brought him into conflict with the more conservative elements of Brazilian society. At the same time, the liberal elements, which he encouraged, eventually decided that Pedro was not willing to make reforms fast enough, so they also rejected his rule. Although Pedro was very popular among the people, an able and honest ruler, he was deposed on November 15, 1889 by a fake and shameful military coup whose leader-apparent  was not even aware of his actions , and the imperial family was subject  an undignified exile. When he departed into exile, he expressed his "ardent wishes for the greatness and prosperity of Brazil." Just before his departure Dom Pedro refuse a substantial financial grant from the Brazilian "new" government, as a gesture of displeasure and the unselfishness attitude of a great man.

Once a Arch-Duke of Austria on a visit to Brazil, arrived at São Cristovão Place to visit the family, there was no one at the door as the Arch-Duke had no appointment, he finally notice a servant as ask to see the Emperor and Empress, he was told that they were away for the day, but the princess were at their chamber, as the Countess of Barral came down with the princess, the Arch-Duke asked who guard the Emperor and the imperial family, the Countess answer, " no one just the love of his subjects, your Highness."  That was the philosophy of our beloved Dom Pedro II, of blessed memory.

 
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© 2005 Barony of Fulwood Trust