The Second Reign is a period of history within the Empire of Brazil that lasted 49 years, beginning with the end of the regency period on 23 July 1840, upon the declaration of Pedro de Alcântara's majority, and ending on 15 November 1889, when the parliamentary constitutional monarchy in force was removed by the proclamation of the republic.
The Second Reign represented a period of great cultural progress and significance for Brazil, with the growth and consolidation of the Brazilian nation as an independent country and as an important member of the American nations. This era witnessed the consolidation of the country's army and navy, culminating in the Paraguayan War in 1865, and profound changes in the social sphere, such as the gradual abolition of slavery and the encouragement of European immigration to join the Brazilian workforce.
The visual arts, literature and theater also flourished during this period. Although heavily influenced by European styles ranging from Neoclassicism to Romanticism, each concept was adapted to create a genuinely Brazilian culture. The expansion of the urbanization of the big cities, the large-scale construction of railroads, aimed at mobilizing the flow of consumer goods more efficiently, and the interiorization of the country also happened during the Second Reign.
Other examples of this historical period are the introduction of electric telegraphs lines that interconnected the Brazilian provinces and other South American countries; steamships lines that updated the merchant and war navies and, in 1877, the acquisition of the first telephone sets. The second half of the 19th century was marked by an incipient Brazilian modernization based on basic principles: the coffee economy in the Southeast, the end of the slave trade and the gradual extinction of slavery, the replacement of the old slave system with paid labor, and incentives for the country's industry to develop and assume, by the end of the Second Reign, an important position.
It is historically incorrect to refer to this period as the "Second Empire", since Brazil had a single continuous imperial period, divided into the First and Second Reigns and separated by a 9-year span known as the regency period, which was the most troubled moment in Brazilian history.
Majority of Pedro II
Triumviral Regency and Single Regency
Pedro I, the first emperor of Brazil, abdicated the Brazilian throne on 7 April 1831 in favor of his son Pedro de Alcântara, the future Pedro II, who became emperor at the age of five. The act marked the end of the First Reign and the beginning of the regency period in Brazil. Since Pedro II was still a minor, a Provisional Triumviral Regency was convened on 17 July 1831, and had a representative of the country's three major political groups: the liberals (senator Campos Vergueiro), the conservatives (José Joaquim Carneiro de Campos) and the military (general Francisco de Lima e Silva). They were responsible for holding elections to choose the Permanent Triumviral Regency, where Bráulio Muniz, Costa Carvalho and general Lima e Silva were elected, ruling the country for three years. In the meantime, Minister of Justice Diogo Feijó gained enough political influence to approve the Additional Act in 1834, which abolished the Triumviral Regency and instituted a single one. Feijó was elected in democratic elections, but the Additional Act failed, increasing the rivalries between the political factions in the provinces.
End of the regency
Regent Feijó was a democrat and a federalist. The Addictional Act created Legislative Assemblies to give greater autonomy to the Brazilian provinces, which led to decentralization. It also granted the city of Rio de Janeiro the status of a neutral municipality. However, since Feijó was unable to control the popular revolts, he resigned. Pedro de Araújo Lima, the Marquess of Olinda, a more centralizing and less liberal politician, was then elected in his place. During Olinda's regency, Pedro II was declared "of age" by the Senate.
According to historian Roderick J. Barman, by 1840 "they [the regents] had lost all faith in their ability to govern the country on their own. They accepted Pedro II as an authority figure whose presence was indispensable for the country's survival". Some of these politicians (who would form the Conservative Party in 1840) believed that a neutral figure, who could rise above political factions and petty interests to deal with discontent and moderate disputes, was necessary. They envisioned an emperor who would be more dependent on the legislature than the constitutional monarch conceived by Pedro I, but with more powers than those defended at the beginning of the regency by their rivals (who later formed the Liberal Party). However, the Liberals managed to introduce an initiative to bring forward Pedro II's age of majority from 18 to 14 years, and in July 1840 the emperor was declared ready to rule.
Reverse parliamentarism and the first years
Alves Branco Tariff
On 12 August 1844, the tariff policy known by the name of its creator (Manuel Alves Branco) was implemented, increasing customs duties to 30% on imported goods without a national equivalent, and 60% on products with a national equivalent. This measure affected around three thousand imported items, triggering protests not only from British businessmen, but also from importers in Brazil and the wealthier classes, who began to pay more for the imported items they needed. Although the tariff's goal was simply to increase the government's revenue, the measure ended up promoting the growth of new national economic activities. This tax increase lasted until the mid-1860s, when the imperial government, under pressure from exporting groups, reduced tariffs to alleviate Brazil's fiscal deficit, caused mainly by the Cisplatine War.
With the tariff, the percentage of GDP to maintain the Empire through taxation was 13%, and remained so until the mid-1930s. Most of the taxes came from customs through the import of international products. Comparatively, in 2015, taxes in Brazil accounted for 35% of GDP.
Creation of the Brazilian parliamentary model
In England, the parliamentary system was a consequence of the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689, which marked the triumph of Parliament over the King, putting an end to the absolutist monarchy in England. The leader of Parliament then became the head of government, i.e. the Prime Minister. The first to occupy this position was Sir Robert Walpole, who began to govern through a system he developed, called cabinet system, since the members of the government met in a room known as a "cabinet". Currently, the system works as follows: the leader of the ruling parliamentary party works together with a group of like-minded colleagues to get laws passed in parliament and, for practical purposes, govern the country. When the ruling party loses control, the opposition party appoints a new prime minister and a new cabinet. Back then, the existing parties were the Tories and the Whigs.
In Brazil, the Emperor was the ultimate power, accumulating the functions of head of state and government until the 1840s, when he decreed that the Emperor no longer had both powers, but only the moderating.
In 1847, D. Pedro II created the Council of Ministers, a department that would advise the monarch on the administration of Brazil, similar to British parliamentarism, but with a reversed hierarchy; hence the name "reverse parliamentarism".
in the same year, the post of President of the Council of Ministers (Prime minister) was also created, who would be the head of the ministry and in charge of organizing the Government Cabinet. Instead of appointing all the ministers, the Emperor appointed only the President of the council, who chose the other members of the Ministry, removing an aspect of political tension from Pedro II, without diminishing his authority.
D. Pedro II managed to create an efficient mechanism for running Brazil, based on the exchange of favors, a fact that can be considered admissible in politics, but that made the monarchy last only as long as the support of its economic elite lasted. Since the agricultural elite held power in Brazil in the 19th century, Pedro II always ruled by allying himself with them, granting favors (such as building railroads, dams, acquiring machinery, etc.) in exchange for the structure that he needed to stay in power. In this way, D. Pedro II succeeded, over the 49 years of his rule, in dealing with a stable and, from a certain point of view, prosperous Brazil.
The Conservative and Liberal parties
Two important political parties were established: the Liberals (in favor of strong local power, with autonomy for the provinces) and the Conservatives (in favor of a stronger central power), both representing landowners. Foreign policy would become a priority for Pedro II, who sought to prevent the strengthening of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, to balance the Plata region. Pedro II intervened, politically or militarily, in his neighbors in the Southern Cone region whenever he felt they were strategically important to Brazil's interests.
The Conservatives preached a political system where government authorities should act impartially, guaranteeing the freedom of all citizens; they supported centralized government and desired the achievements of progress. This party became known in the 1840s as "Saquarema", after the name of the municipality in Rio de Janeiro where the farms of one of its main leaders, José Rodrigues Torres, Viscount of Itaboraí, were located. In addition, the Conservatives had a strong regional base in Bahia and Pernambuco, where the landowning sector had experienced struggles for regional autonomy with popular content.
The Liberals, on the other hand, supported the independence of the provinces with a stronger parliamentary government, the abdication of the moderating power and the senate's lifelong mandate, the abolition of slavery and the biennial election of deputies. The Liberals were called "Luzias", a name derived from the village of Santa Luzia, located on the Das Velhas River in Minas Gerais, where a battle of the Liberal revolt in Minas Gerais, suppressed by General Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, then Baron of Caxias, happened. They had a strong base in the provinces of Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. In the latter two, the autonomy of the upper classes was a tradition. In Minas Gerais, the idea of decentralized autonomy came from both rural landowners and the urban population of the old mining towns.
The two parties didn't respect each other; each had its own press, which they used to attack their opponents. Both were created during the regency period (Conservative in 1836 and Liberal in 1831), but reached the height of their popularity during the Second Reign, with D. Pedro II remaining neutral between the two, although always vigilant, advising the conciliation of their ideas.
Moderating Power
The moderating power was a legal device present in the first Brazilian constitution (Art. 98 of the 1824 Constitution), granted by Emperor D. Pedro I in March 1824, which was based on the political ideals of Benjamin Constant (1767–1830) about a neutral power capable of adjusting and regulating the other three classic branches: executive, legislative and judiciary. The moderating power, the main political organization of the Empire, was initially considered an authoritarian and centralizing mechanism, which led to revolts in some provinces during the regency.
Although the moderating power became popular in Brazil after Constant, it is important to emphasize that the concept adopted in the country was different from the one expressed in the book Cours de Politique Constitutionelle. Based on Montesquieu's theory of the English system of parliamentarianism and the division of the three powers, Constant supported the idea of a neutral or moderating power in the constitutional monarchy, which would not be subject to party political disputes and would be exercised by the king. According to him, the moderating power was an important resource for moments of crisis, since it should be a conciliatory element in conflicts between the other powers.
The division of powers established in the 1824 Constitution was based on four theoretically equal parts. The moderating power was exercised solely by the emperor and had total autonomy over the other three powers. Its definition is described in Article 98 of the 1824 Constitution, which reads as follows:
The moderating power is the key to all political organization, and is reserved to the Emperor, as Supreme Head of the Nation, and its First Representative, so that he may incessantly watch over the maintenance of the independence, balance, and harmony of the other political powers.
In other words, the moderating power served as a restraining and counterbalancing element to guarantee the coherence of the other powers in terms of the prosperity of the nation. Article 101 of the 1824 Constitution established the way in which the Emperor could exercise the moderating power:
Art. 101. The Emperor exercises the moderating power:
- Appointing Senators in accordance with Art. 43;
- Summoning the General Assembly extraordinarily during recesses when the interests of the Empire demand it;
- Approving the decrees and resolutions of the General Assembly, so that they have the force of law;
- Approving and temporarily suspending the resolutions of the Provincial Councils;
- Extending or postponing the General Assembly and dissolving the Chamber of Deputies, in cases where the salvation of the State requires it, immediately convening another to replace it;
- Freely appointing and dismissing ministers of state;
- Suspending magistrates in the cases set out in Article 15;
- Forgiving and moderating the sentences imposed on defendants convicted by sentence;
- Granting amnesty in urgent cases where humanity and the good of the State so advise;