Brazilian Restoration (Napoleon's World)

The Brazilian Restoration was the sociopolitical movement in Brazil following its destructive civil war to restore the old monarchy that had been deposed in 1941. The Restoration, which began in 1987 during the Colombian occupation of Rio de Janeiro, culminated with the triumphant return of Dom Pedro de Braganza from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1989 and his subsequent coronation. The return of the monarchy after five decades of intermittent military rule and instability due to quasi-democratic, corrupt governments was seen as a major step in the recovery of the populous and formerly economically powerful country. With his coronation as Peter/Pedro IV of Brazil, Brazil became a constitutional monarchy as opposed to the democratic republic that the country's rebels had initially been fighting to form, although Brazil's Constitution of 1989 was built on the principles of the Republicano movement prevalent in the bloody conflict.