| War of the Portuguese Succession | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Prestigious Wars | |||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Liberals (Portugal)
|  Miguelists (Portugal)
|
||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Pedro I of Brazil
| D. Miguel I
|
||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| Total: 62,000
| Total: 55,000
|
||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Total: 19,000
| Total: 25,000
|
||||||||
| Civilian deaths: 51,000 | |||||||||
The War of the Portuguese Succession, also known as the Portuguese Civil War, the War of the Two Brothers, and the Second Luso-Brazilian Dynastic War, was a war between liberal constitutionalists and conservative absolutists in Portugal over royal succession that lasted from 1838 to 1840. Embroiled parties included the Kingdom of Portugal, Portuguese rebels, Brazil, and Spain.
The conflict is considered one of the so-called Prestigious Wars, a series of military conflicts that cemented Brazil as a great power in the eyes of the world.
Between the War of the Portuguese Succession and the Anglo-Brazilian War, Brazil's position in the world stage was uncertain. It was widely considered to be a great power, but it was still not clear if Brazil was going to disrupt the Concert of Europe or maintain it. In the end, the Treaty of Lisbon made it clear that, instead of disrupting the balance of power established after the Congress of Vienna, Brazil was going to integrated it.
Background[]
After the transfer of the Portuguese Court in 1808 during the Napoleonic Wars, Brazil was converted into the de facto, and later de jure, capital of the Portuguese Empire, a position it retained until 1820. The subsequent attempts by the new constitutional government in Portugal to revert Brazil back into a colony and restrict its rights led to the Brazilian War of Independence, the invasion of Portugal by the Brazil, the purchase of the largest Portuguese colonies in Africa, and the fragmentation of the House of Braganza into two rival monarchies.
Despite the sudden injection of cash to the royal treasury which resulted from the purchase of Angola and Mozambique by Brazil, the Portuguese government was left humiliated, with King John VI becoming an ever more distant figure as he aged. From 1824 to 1836, the king reigns through an uneventful yet declining period for Portugal, as the kingdom had lost its three biggest colonies.
The death of King João VI in December 1st, 1836, aged 69, created a dispute over succession. At the time, there was still hope among the Portuguese elites that Brazil and Portugal could be reunified and the African colonies could be reacquired, which led to the delay of the succession process. Because Prince Pedro, who was heir to the throne, had proclaimed the independence of Brazil and become its monarch fifteen years earlier, Prince Miguel was in Vienna, Queen Carlota Joaquina was exiled in Queluz and Isabel's older sisters (Maria Teresa and Maria Francisca of Assisi) had married to Spanish princes, Isabel Maria was chosen to be Regent of the Kingdom until the King Pedro (Pedro I of Brazil and future Pedro IV of Portugal) returned. While Pedro, the King of Brazil, was the king's oldest son, his younger brother Miguel contended that Pedro had forfeited his claim to the throne by declaring Brazilian independence. On one side, the Pedrist supporters were intent on reuniting the two crowns and giving Portugal renewed access to the resources of Brazil, Angola, and Mozambique, while the Miguelist supporters were for the reestablishment of absolutism. After two years of struggles, the Pedrist faction led by Isabel Maria gained the majority at the Cortes and acclaimed Pedro as the legitimate King of Portugal, effectively ending his sister's regency.
Pedro was briefly entitled D. Pedro IV of Portugal. However, despite the desires of the regent and the Cortes, Pedro knew that the idea of a unified monarchy was overwhelmingly unpopular among the Brazilian population, and that it was only supported by the Portuguese people on the assumption that the king's seat would be in Lisbon again; consequently, Pedro abdicated of the Portuguese throne in favor of his daughter, Princess Maria da Glória, aged 17, who became Maria II of Portugal.
The absolutist party of the landowners and the Church, however, were not satisfied with the new queen, continuing to regard Miguel as the legitimate successor to the throne on the grounds that according to the Portuguese succession rules (approved by the Cortes after the 1640 Restoration), Pedro had lost the right to the Portuguese crown, and therefore so had his descendants, when he raised arms against Portugal and became the monarch of a foreign country. They were alarmed by the liberal reforms that had been initiated in Spain by the detested Revolutionary France, reforms which the Portuguese feudal aristocracy had been spared by the time being.
In 1838, Maria was sent to Portugal to reign as its new queen, alongside her husband, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and her Brazilian-born son, Pedro. In February 1839, Miguel returned to Lisbon, ostensibly to take the oath of allegiance to the Constitutional charter in support of his niece. Miguel lives in the royal court in Lisbon, pretending to recognize Maria II's authority and mentoring her while amassing the support of the absolutist elements of the country for a coup.
In 1841, Miguel organizes a coup, supported by the absolutist elements of Portugal, ousting Maria II, who is imprisoned while her son and husband flee to the Brazil. Miguel dissolves the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Peers and summons the traditional Cortes of the three estates of the realm to proclaim his accession to absolute power. The Cortes of 1841 assented to Miguel's wish, proclaiming him king as Miguel I of Portugal and nullifying the Constitutional Charter.
War[]
This usurpation did not go unchallenged by the Liberals. On May 18, the garrison in Porto, the center of Portuguese progressives, declared its loyalty to Pedro and his daughter Maria da Glória, and the Constitutional Charter. The rebellion against the absolutists spread to other cities. Miguel suppressed these rebellions, and many thousands of Liberals were either arrested or fled to Spain and Great Britain.
In Brazil, the press inflamed the population with anger at Miguel's treachery and his treatment of their beloved Princess Maria, who was commonly called A Brasileirinha (The Little Brazilian) by the common person. The Brazilians took this as an insult to them and pushed for the king and the government in Rio de Janeiro to act. In 1841, King Pedro addressed the population in Rio de Janeiro and promised to send troops to Portugal to depose Miguel.
Spain's participation[]
Since the Napoleonic Invasions, Spain was embroiled in conflicts. Ferdinand VII of Spain would be given back his throne by the Congress of Vienna after having been deposed by Napoleon himself and replaced by Joseph Bonaparte. The king allied to the counter-revolutionary elements of society and reverted many of the liberal reforms. After his death, upon which the throne would pass to his daughter, Isabel II, his younger brother started the First Carlist War (1833-1840) after gaining the support of the so-called Carlists, who included absolutists and the Catholic Church. His victory in 1840 saw him ascending to the Spanish throne and exiling Isabel II to Naples.
Given the "Liberal problem" in Spain, the conflict in Portugal was seen as a security risk to Spain, who decided to support the Miguelists after news that the Brazilian forces had taken the Azores. Spain would send troops to Portugal in support of Miguel I and would siege Cádiz for two years in an attempt to take the city back. After the Pedro II led the Liberals in cementing their position in the Northern region of Portugal, headquartering themselves in Porto, the Spanish would start sending expeditions from Galicia and Léon, but they would be defeated. After the occupation of Galicia by the Liberal and Brazilian troops, revolts would explode all around Spain, forcing Carlos V to diverge troops to suppress them and sign peace with Brazil and the Liberals. The subsequent agreement saw Spain recognize full Brazilian sovereignty over Cádiz, cease its support for Miguel II and withdraw from the Portuguese territory. The Spanish defeat in the war created more instability in the country, leading to the Second Carlist War (1844-1846) and the removal of Carlos V from the Spanish throne and Isabella II being reinstated as Queen of Spain (as she would be until her deposition in 1868).