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Mexican Independence isn't on Cindo De Mayo like many think. Mexican Independence day is on September 13. It is celebrated as Spain had kept Mexico a colony for over 300 years. As It was all started when a priest named Father Hidalgo rang a bell starting a war that lasted over 10 years. Since the end of the war, they have been celebrating the great day since 1810.

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Before their gain of independence from Spain, Mexico had no prior expirience with governing. And with that the constitution of 1824, lead to an independant governing of the Mexican Empire. This led to 19 states and four territories, along with the Mexico City fedral district.

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Although the Spanish crown initially rejected O'Donojú's recognition of Mexican independence, the date now recognized as that of separation from Old Spain is in fact August 24, 1821.

The Mexican Empire, 1821-23

The first Mexican Empire spanned only a short transitional period during which Mexico became an independent republic. Independence from the former mother country had been the only glue which bound republicans and monarchists together, but, once that elusive goal had been achieved, the intrinsic animosity between the two came to dominate the body politic.

Iturbide first became president of a council of regents, which convoked a congress to draw up a new constitution. Deputies to the congress represented the intendancies. When representatives from the Central American intendancies, part of the old viceroyalty of New Spain, declared that they did not wish to remain part of the Mexican Empire, they were allowed to withdraw and to organize their own governments.

On the evening of May 18, 1822, military groups in Mexico City proclaimed Iturbide Emperor Agustín I, and on the next day a majority in congress ratified the "people's choice" and recommended that the monarchy be hereditary, not elective. Agustín I was crowned in a pompous ceremony on July 21. The empire was recognized by the United States on December 12, 1822, when the Mexican minister was officially received in Washington, D.C. But even then Agustín's power and prestige were ebbing, and conflict soon developed between the military hero-emperor and the primarily civilian congress. On October 31, 1822, the emperor dismissed congress and ruled through an appointed 45-man junta. The act, condemned by many as arbitrary, provided a pretext to revolt. Among the rebel leaders was General Antonio López de Santa Anna, who would dominate Mexico's political life for the next third of a century. In Veracruz, on December 2, 1822, Santa Anna proclaimed that Mexico should become a republic, a position supported by many rebels and liberal leaders. Agustín was forced to reconvene congress and to abdicate. In 1824 he returned from European exile but was arrested and shot. This first epoch of independent Mexican national life foreshadowed many problems of the developing republic.

The early republic

Until they adopted a republican constitution in 1824, the Mexican people had little or no previous experience in self-government. Their economy was precarious; mining, a mainstay in colonial times, had declined during the many years of fighting, and widespread anti-Spanish feelings had caused an exodus of Spaniards, depleting both the country's capital reserves and its pool of trained people. Political instability made borrowing abroad expensive, and nearly all public revenues had to come from customs receipts, which were pledged well in advance. As Mexico's national debt mounted, so did its problems, and it became trapped in a vicious, seemingly unbreakable cycle. Whenever public monies were insufficient to pay the army, its officers revolted, captured the government, and negotiated international loans. The high interest payments on such loans reduced available funds for education and other social and cultural improvements, which many Mexican leaders thought were urgent requirements.

The constitution of 1824 set a number of democratic goals and provided for a federal republic, consisting of 19 states, four territories, and the Mexico City federal district. Indigenous peoples lost their special colonial status, and accompanying protections, as wards of the government. In many ways they were worse off during the 19th century than they had been under the paternalism of the Spanish crown. In addition, restrictive state legislation excluded the great mass of peasantry from the political process. Because chattel slavery had greatly declined in Mexico and was less widespread than elsewhere in the Americas, a decree abolishing it in 1829 was largely symbolic.

Under various labels, two factions contended for control. The Centralists, who were generally conservative, favoured a strong central government in the viceregal tradition, a paid national army, and Roman Catholicism as the exclusive religion. Opposed to them were the Federalists, who favoured limited central government, local militia, and nearly autonomous states; they tended to be anticlerical and opposed the continuance of colonial , which gave special status to ecclesiastics and the military and exempted them from various civil obligations.

The pendulum of power swung back and forth between the two groups. In 1824 Guadalupe Victoria, a Federalist and a leader in the independence movement, was elected Mexico's first president. Centralists replaced Federalists in 1828. A Federalist revolt in 1829 put Vicente Guerrero in the presidential chair, but he was soon overthrown by the Centralists, who held power until 1832. In 1833 another change placed Federalists in power until 1836, when Centralists again regained control and held it for nearly a decade.

After the downfall of Iturbide, Mexican politics revolved for some time about the enigmatic personality of the charismatic Antonio López de Santa Anna, who seemingly had few fixed ideological or political beliefs. Allied with the Federalists, Santa Anna was first chosen president in 1833, but, rather than serve, he placed the liberal vice president, Valentín Gómez Farías, at the head of the government until Farías and his group in 1834 attacked the privileges of the clergy. Then Santa Anna assumed his presidential post and nullified the anticlerical legislation. Before his political career ended he would be in and out of the presidency 10 more times.

Santa Anna was president when difficulties over Texas first began to mount. Under favourable terms, some 30,000 U.S. immigrants had populated that previously desolate area. Fearful that their growing numbers posed a threat, the Mexican government in 1830 closed the border to further immigration and imposed on the Texans oppressive restrictions that contravened the Mexican constitution. When Santa Anna adopted a new constitution in 1836, and in the process eliminated all vestiges of states' rights, Texas declared itself an independent republic. Santa Anna quickly gathered an army to crush the revolt. He met with initial success when he trapped a small Texas garrison at the Alamo and totally eliminated it, but he was defeated and captured by Texas forces in April 1836. Though Mexico made no further efforts to reconquer Texas, it refused to recognize its independence.

At that time a doctrine now known as Manifest Destiny was a driving sociopolitical force in the United States. It envisioned a United States that would extend from sea to shining sea and perhaps would ultimately encompass all of Mexico. The United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845, a move that Mexico saw as the first aggressive step and one which prompted a rupture in diplomatic relations. Santa Anna was overthrown for his apparent willingness to negotiate with the United States.

Although the United States claimed that the southern boundary of Texas was the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), the boundary had always been the Nueces River. Shortly after his election in March 1845, U.S. President James K. Polk tried to secure an agreement on the Rio Grande boundary and to purchase California, but the Mexican government refused to discuss either matter. Polk ordered U.S. troops to occupy the disputed territory between the rivers. When Mexican and U.S. patrols clashed in April 1846, Polk asserted that American blood had been shed on American soil-an outrage that he claimed required action. Less-warlike politicians, such as the Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln, to no avail submitted resolutions asking Polk to point out the precise location of this outrage. Polk's congressional majority formally declared war on Mexico in April.

Without major difficulty, U.S. troops captured New Mexico and Upper California. General Zachary Taylor led the main U.S. force to quick victories in northeastern Mexico. At that juncture the government of Mexican president Mariano Paredes y Arrillaga was overthrown, and Santa Anna reemerged as president in September 1846. Almost immediately, Santa Anna mobilized Mexican forces and marched northward, boasting that the superior numbers and courage of his men meant that he would sign a peace treaty in Washington. Although Taylor and Santa Anna fought a close battle at Buena Vista, Santa Anna was beaten and forced to retreat on Feb. 23, 1847. Both sides sustained heavy losses.

A change in U.S. strategy left Taylor holding ground in northern Mexico; it was decided that Mexico could be beaten only by capturing Mexico City, via Veracruz. General Winfield Scott was given command of the expedition. On April 18, 1847, he defeated Santa Anna in the critical battle at Cerro Gordo. Though Mexican resistance continued to be formidable, Scott captured Mexico City on September 14, 1847. Santa Anna went into voluntary exile while a new Mexican government negotiated peace.

Dated February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ended hostility between the two countries. By its terms Mexico gave up its claims to Texas and ceded all of the territory now occupied by the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and California; most of New Mexico and Arizona; and parts of Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wyoming. It was a humiliating dismemberment of almost half of Mexico's national territory (albeit a loss of only about 1 percent of the country's population). The United States paid Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed $3,250,000 in claims held by U.S. citizens against Mexico. Mexican citizens who suddenly found themselves residing in an expanded United States were given the option of returning to Mexico or becoming U.S. citizens and were guaranteed that their property rights would be inviolably respected. Many would learn that the promises looked better on paper than in reality, and they often found themselves being treated as second-class citizens.

After the war Santa Anna figured in one more major episode before the political scene changed. In 1853 conservatives seized power and invited him to become dictator. Among other things, on December 16, 1853, Santa Anna decreed that the dictatorship should be prolonged indefinitely and that he should be addressed as "His Most Serene Highness." To raise funds for an expanded army, he sold territory south of the Gila River to the United States for $10,000,000; this Gadsden Purchase, as it is now called, was the last significant boundary change of the Mexican Republic and included the southern portions of what are now the U.S. states of New Mexico and Arizona.

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Mexico - Independence, Revolution, 1810: Although the Spanish crown initially rejected O'Donojú's recognition of Mexican independence, the date now recognized as that of separation from Old Spain is in fact August 24, 1821. The first Mexican Empire spanned only a short transitional period during which Mexico became an independent republic.

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On September 7, 1822 Prince Dom Pedro helped Brazil win independence from Portugal. As he shouted the famous words, "Independence or Death!" Which helped the Brazilian army gain all the confidence they needed to make the Brazil we know today.

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The 200th anniversary of Brazil's Independence

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King João returned to Portugal in April 1821, leaving behind his son and heir, Prince Dom Pedro, to rule Brazil as his regent. The Portuguese government immediately moved to revoke the political autonomy that Brazil had been granted since 1808. The threat of losing their limited control over local affairs ignited widespread opposition among Brazilians. Jose Bonifacio de Andrada, along with other Brazilian leaders, convinced Pedro to declare Brazil’s independence from Portugal on September 7, 1822.

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Key Points

In 1494, the two kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain) divided the New World between them in the Treaty of Tordesillas

In 1500, navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in what is now Brazil and claimed it in the name of King Manuel I of Portugal.

The Portuguese identified brazilwood as a valuable red dye and an exploitable product and attempted to force indigenous groups in Brazil to cut the trees, but at first gave little attention to the area.

Over time, the Portuguese realized that some European countries, especially France, were also sending excursions to Brazil to extract brazilwood, and the Portuguese crown decided to send large missions to take possession of the land by setting up hereditary captaincies, which were largely a failure.

Starting in the 16th century, sugarcane production became the base of Brazilian economy and society, with the use of slaves on large plantations to make sugar for export to Europe.

Throughout most of the colonial period, the Portuguese settlers fought conflicts with the French and the Dutch for control over the territory.

The discovery of gold in the early 18th century ushered in a gold rush, bringing in many new European settlers.

Key Terms

engenhos: A colonial-era Portuguese term for a sugar cane mill and the associated facilities.

Treaty of Tordesillas: A treaty signed on June 7, 1494, that divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and the Crown of Castile (Spain) along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands off the west coast of Africa. This line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde islands (already Portuguese) and the islands entered by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage (claimed for Castile and León), named in the treaty as Cipangu and Antilia (Cuba and Hispaniola). It created the Tordesillas Meridian, dividing the world between those two kingdoms. All land discovered or to be discovered east of that meridian was to be the property of Portugal, and everything to the west of it went to Spain.

Dutch West India Company: A chartered company of Dutch merchants. On June 3, 1621, it was granted a charter for a trade monopoly in the West Indies (meaning the Caribbean) by the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and given jurisdiction over the Atlantic slave trade, Brazil, the Caribbean, and North America. The intended purpose of the charter was to eliminate competition, particularly Spanish or Portuguese, between the various trading posts established by the merchants. The company became instrumental in the Dutch colonization of the Americas.

European Discovery and Early Colonization of Brazil

The Portuguese "discovery" of Brazil was preceded by a series of treaties between the kings of Portugal and Castile, following Portuguese sailings down the coast of Africa to India and the voyages to the Caribbean of the Genoese mariner sailing for Castile, Christopher Columbus. The most decisive of these treaties was the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, that created the Tordesillas Meridian, dividing the world between those two kingdoms. All land discovered or to be discovered east of that meridian was to be the property of Portugal, and everything to the west of it went to Spain.

The Tordesillas Meridian divided South America into two parts, leaving a large chunk of land to be exploited by the Spaniards. The Treaty of Tordesillas was one of the most decisive events in all Brazilian history, since it alone determined that a portion of South America would be settled by Portugal instead of Spain. The present extent of Brazil's coastline is almost exactly that defined by the Treaty of Madrid, which was approved in 1750.

On April 22, 1500, during the reign of King Manuel I, a fleet led by navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil and took possession of the land in the name of the king. Although it is debated whether previous Portuguese explorers had already been in Brazil, this date is widely and politically accepted as the day of the discovery of Brazil by Europeans. Álvares Cabral was leading a large fleet of 13 ships and more than 1,000 men following Vasco da Gama 's way to India, around Africa. The place where Álvares Cabral arrived is now known as Porto Seguro ("safe harbor") in Northeastern Brazil.

After the voyage of Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese concentrated their efforts on the lucrative possessions in Africa and India and showed little interest in Brazil. Between 1500 and 1530, relatively few Portuguese expeditions came to the new land to chart the coast and obtain brazilwood, which the Portuguese had identified as a valuable commodity upon arrival and from where Brazil gets its name. In Europe, this wood was used to produce a valuable dye to give color to luxury textiles. To extract brazilwood from the tropical rainforest, the Portuguese and other Europeans relied on the work of the natives, who initially labored in exchange for European goods like mirrors, scissors, knives, and axes.

In this early stage of the colonization of Brazil and also later, the Portuguese frequently relied on the help of Europeans who lived together with the indigenous peoples and knew their languages and culture. The most famous of these were João Ramalho, who lived among the Guaianaz tribe near today's São Paulo, and Diogo Álvares Correia, nicknamed Caramuru, who lived among the Tupinambá natives near today's Salvador da Bahia.

Colonial Brazil: Portuguese map by Lopo Homem (c. 1519) showing the coast of Brazil and natives extracting brazilwood, as well as Portuguese ships.

Colonial Brazil

Portugal's relative lack of interest allowed traders, pirates, and privateers of several countries to poach profitable brazilwood in lands claimed by Portugal. Over time, the Portuguese realized that some European countries, especially France, were also sending excursions to the land to extract brazilwood. Worried about foreign incursions and hoping to find mineral riches, the Portuguese crown decided to send large missions to take possession of the land and combat the French.

In 1530, an expedition led by Martim Afonso de Sousa arrived in Brazil to patrol the entire coast, ban the French, and create the first colonial villages like São Vicente on the coast. The Portuguese crown devised a system to effectively occupy Brazil without paying the costs. Through the hereditary Captaincies system, Brazil was divided into strips of land that were donated to Portuguese noblemen, who were in turn responsible for the occupation and administration of the land and answered to the king. The system was a failure with only four lots successfully occupied: Pernambuco, São Vicente (later called São Paulo), Captaincy of Ilhéus, and Captaincy of Porto Seguro. The captaincies gradually reverted to the Crown and became provinces and eventually states of the country.

Starting in the 16th century, sugarcane grown on plantations called engenhos along the northeast coast became the base of Brazilian economy and society, with the use of slaves on large plantations to make sugar for export to Europe. At first, settlers tried to enslave the natives as labor to work the fields. The initial exploration of Brazil's interior was largely due to paramilitary adventurers, the bandeirantes, who entered the jungle in search of gold and Native slaves. However, colonists were unable to sustainably enslave Natives, and Portuguese land owners soon imported millions of slaves from Africa. Mortality rates for slaves in sugar and gold enterprises were very high, and there were often not enough females or proper conditions to replenish the slave population. Still, Africans became a substantial section of Brazilian population, and long before the end of slavery in 1888, they began to merge with the European Brazilian population through interracial marriage.

During the first 150 years of the colonial period, attracted by the vast natural resources and untapped land, other European powers tried to establish colonies in several parts of Brazilian territory in defiance of the Treaty of Tordesillas. French colonists tried to settle in present-day Rio de Janeiro from 1555 to 1567 (the so-called France Antarctique episode), and in present-day São Luís from 1612 to 1614 (the so-called France Équinoxiale). Jesuits arrived early and established Sao Paulo, evangelizing the natives. These native allies of the Jesuits assisted the Portuguese in driving out the French.

The unsuccessful Dutch intrusion into Brazil was longer-lasting and more troublesome to Portugal. Dutch privateers began by plundering the coast; they sacked Bahia in 1604, and even temporarily captured the capital Salvador. From 1630 to 1654, the Dutch set up more permanently in the northwest and controlled a long stretch of the coast most accessible to Europe, without penetrating the interior. But the colonists of the Dutch West India Company in Brazil were in a constant state of siege. After several years of open warfare, the Dutch withdrew by 1654. Little French and Dutch cultural and ethnic influence remained of these failed attempts.

The discovery of gold in the early 18th century was met with great enthusiasm by Portugal, which had an economy in disarray following years of wars against Spain and the Netherlands. A gold rush quickly ensued, with people from other parts of the colony and Portugal flooding the region in the first half of the 18th century.

The Napoleonic Wars in Europe, especially the Peninsular War and its resulting treaties, would reshape the political structure of Brazil in the early 19th century from a colony of Portugal to the Kingdom of Brazil.

Key Points

The Portuguese colony of Brazil was centered upon a series of commodity productions: first brazilwood extraction, then sugar production, and finally gold and diamond mining.

Initially, colonists were heavily dependent on indigenous labor, often through capture and coercion, during the early phases of settlement, subsistence farming, and brazilwood production.

The importation of African slaves began midway through the 16th century, but the enslavement of indigenous peoples continued well into the 17th and 18th centuries.

During the Atlantic slave trade era, Brazil imported more African slaves than any other country, with an estimated 4.9 million slaves from Africa coming to Brazil from 1501 to 1866.

Slave labor was the driving force behind the growth of the sugar economy in Brazil, and sugar was the primary export of the colony from 1600-1650.

Gold and diamond deposits were discovered in Brazil in 1690, which sparked an increase in the importation of African slaves to power this newly profitable market.

Gold production declined towards the end of the 18th century, beginning a period of relative stagnation of the Brazilian hinterland.

Key Terms

brazilwood: A genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used to make bows for stringed instruments. The wood also yields a red dye called brazilin, which oxidizes to brazilein. Starting in the 16th centuries, this tree became highly valued in Europe and quite difficult to get.

Xica da Silva: A Brazilian woman who became famous for becoming rich and powerful despite being born into slavery. Her life has been a source of inspiration for many works in television, film, theater, and literature. She is popularly known as the slave who became a queen.

Triangular trade: A historical term indicating trade among three ports or regions, especially the transatlantic slave trade. This operated from the late 16th to early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, Caribbean or American colonies, and the European colonial powers, with the northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the role of Europe.

During the first 300 years of Brazilian colonial history, the economic exploitation of the territory was based on brazilwood extraction (16th century), sugar production (16th-18th centuries), and finally gold and diamond mining (18th century). Slaves, especially those brought from Africa, provided most of the working force of the Brazilian export economy after a brief period of Indian slavery. The boom and bust economic cycles were linked to export products. Brazil's sugar age, with the development of plantation slavery (merchants serving as middle men between production sites, Brazilian ports, and Europe) was undermined by the growth of the sugar industry in the Caribbean on islands that European powers had seized from Spain. Gold and diamonds were discovered and mined in southern Brazil through the end of the colonial era. Brazilian cities were largely port cities and the colonial administrative capital was moved several times in response to the rise and fall of export products' importance.

Brazilwood Production

After European arrival, the land's major export was a type of tree the traders and colonists called pau-Brasil (Latin for wood red like an ember) or brazilwood from whence the country got its name. This large tree ( Caesalpinia echinata) has a trunk that yields a prized red dye, and was nearly wiped out as a result of exploitation. Starting in the 16th centuries, brazilwood became highly valued in Europe and quite difficult to get. A related wood from Asia, sappanwood, was traded in powder form and used as a red dye in the manufacture of luxury textiles, such as velvet, in high demand during the Renaissance.

When Portuguese navigators discovered present-day Brazil on April 22, 1500, they immediately saw that brazilwood was extremely abundant along the coast and in its hinterland along the rivers. In a few years, a hectic and very profitable operation for felling and shipping all the brazilwood logs they could get was established as a crown-granted Portuguese monopoly. The rich commerce that soon followed stimulated other nations to try to harvest and smuggle brazilwood contraband out of Brazil and corsairs to attack loaded Portuguese ships in order to steal their cargo. For example, the unsuccessful attempt in 1555 of a French expedition led by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, vice-admiral of Brittany and corsair under the King, to establish a colony in present-day Rio de Janeiro (France Antarctique) was motivated in part by the bounty generated by economic exploitation of brazilwood.

The Sugar Age (1530-1700)

Since the initial attempts to find gold and silver failed, the Portuguese colonists adopted an economy based on the production of agricultural goods to be exported to Europe. Tobacco, cotton and other crops were produced, but sugar became by far the most important Brazilian colonial product until the early 18th century. The first sugarcane farms were established in the mid-16th century and were the key for the success of the captaincies of São Vicente and Pernambuco, leading sugarcane plantations to quickly spread to other coastal areas in colonial Brazil. Initially, the Portuguese attempted to utilize Indian slaves for sugar cultivation, but shifted to the use of black African slave labor.

The period of sugar-based economy (1530 - c. 1700) is known as the sugar age in Brazil. The development of the sugar complex occurred over time with a variety of models. The dependencies of the farm included a casa-grande (big house) where the owner of the farm lived with his family, and the senzala, where the slaves were kept.

Portugal owned several commercial facilities in Western Africa, where slaves were bought from African merchants. These slaves were then sent by ship to Brazil, chained and in crowded conditions. The idea of using African slaves in colonial farms was also adopted by other European colonial powers in tropical regions of America (Spain in Cuba, France in Haiti, the Netherlands in the Dutch Antilles, and England in Jamaica).

The Portuguese attempted to severely restrict colonial trade, meaning that Brazil was only allowed to export and import goods from Portugal and other Portuguese colonies. Brazil exported sugar, tobacco, cotton, and native products and imported from Portugal wine, olive oil, textiles, and luxury goods - the latter imported by Portugal from other European countries. Africa played an essential role as the supplier of slaves, and Brazilian slave traders in Africa frequently exchanged cachaça, a distilled spirit derived from sugarcane, and shells for slaves. This comprised what is now known as the triangular trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas during the colonial period.

Merchants during the sugar age were crucial to the economic development of the colony as the link between the sugar production areas, coastal Portuguese cities, and Europe. Merchants initially came from many nations, including Germany, Italy, and modern-day Belgium, but Portuguese merchants came to dominate the trade in Brazil.

Even though Brazilian sugar had a reputation for quality, the industry faced a crisis during the 17th and 18th centuries when the Dutch and the French started producing sugar in the Antilles, located much closer to Europe, causing sugar prices to fall.

The Sugar Age: View of a sugar-producing farm (engenho) in colonial Pernambuco by Dutch painter Frans Post (17th century).

Gold Rush

The discovery of gold was met with great enthusiasm by Portugal, which had an economy in disarray following years of wars against Spain and the Netherlands. A gold rush quickly ensued, with people from other parts of the colony and Portugal flooding the region in the first half of the 18th century. The large portion of the Brazilian inland where gold was extracted became known as the Minas Gerais (General Mines). Gold mining in this area became the main economic activity of colonial Brazil during the 18th century. In Portugal, the gold was mainly used to pay for industrialized goods (textiles, weapons) obtained from countries like England and especially during the reign of King John V, to build magnificent Baroque monuments like the Convent of Mafra. Apart from gold, diamond deposits were also found in 1729 around the village of Tijuco, now Diamantina. A famous figure in Brazilian history of this era was Xica da Silva, a slave woman who had a long term relationship in Diamantina with a Portuguese official; the couple had 13 children and she died a rich woman.

Minas Gerais was the gold mining center of Brazil during the 18th century. Slave labor was generally used for the workforce. The discovery of gold in the area caused a huge influx of European immigrants and the government decided to bring in bureaucrats from Portugal to control operations. They set up numerous bureaucracies, often with conflicting duties and jurisdictions. The officials generally proved unequal to the task of controlling this highly lucrative industry. In 1830, the Saint John d'El Rey Mining Company, controlled by the British, opened the largest gold mine in Latin America. The British brought in modern management techniques and engineering expertise. Located in Nova Lima, the mine produced ore for 125 years.

Gold production declined towards the end of the 18th century, beginning a period of relative stagnation of the Brazilian hinterland.

Diamond Mining: Slaves mine for diamonds in Minas Gerais (ca. 1770s). Gold and diamond deposits were discovered in Brazil in 1690, which sparked an increase in the importation of African slaves to power this newly profitable market.

Key Points

In 1807, at the time of the first invasion of Portugal by Napoleon's forces, the King of Portugal, João VI, fled to Brazil.

When French forces were finally defeated in Europe in 1815, King João decided to continue ruling from Brazil, founding the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, leaving a strong British presence in Portugal.

Many people resented British influence and began a movement to reestablish the monarchy in Portugal, specifically a liberal, constitutional monarchy.

In 1820, the constitutionalists rose up in revolution, created a constitution, and forced the return of the Portuguese King.

King João returned to Portugal in April 1821, leaving behind his son and heir, Prince Dom Pedro, to rule Brazil as his regent.

On September 7, 1822, Prince Dom Pedro declared Brazil's independence from Portugal, founding the Empire of Brazil, which led to a two-year war of independence.

Formal recognition came with a treaty signed by both Brazil and Portugal in late 1825.

Key Terms

Constitutionalist Revolution: A Portuguese political revolution that erupted in 1820. It began with a military insurrection in the city of Porto, in northern Portugal, that quickly and peacefully spread to the rest of the country. The Revolution resulted in the return in 1821 of the Portuguese Court to Portugal from Brazil, where it had fled during the Peninsular War, and initiated a constitutional period in which the 1822 Constitution was ratified and implemented.

United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves: A monarchy formed by the elevation of the Portuguese colony of Brazil to the status of a kingdom and by the simultaneous union of that Kingdom of Brazil with the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of the Algarves, constituting a single state consisting of three kingdoms. It was formed in 1815 after the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil during the Napoleonic invasions of Portugal and continued to exist for about one year after the return of the Court to Europe. It was de facto dissolved in 1822 when Brazil proclaimed its independence.

Brazilian war of independence: A war waged between the newly independent Empire of Brazil and United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves which had just undergone the Liberal Revolution of 1820. It lasted from February 1822, when the first skirmishes took place, to March 1824, when the last Portuguese garrison of Montevideo surrendered to Commander Sinian Kersey.

Napoleonic Wars and Constitutionalist Revolution

From 1807 to 1811, Napoleonic French forces invaded Portugal three times. During the invasion of Portugal (1807), the Portuguese royal family fled to Brazil, establishing Rio de Janeiro as the de facto capital of Portugal. From Brazil, the Portuguese king João VI ruled his trans-Atlantic empire for 13 years.

The capital's move to Rio de Janeiro accentuated the economic, institutional, and social crises in mainland Portugal, which was administered by English commercial and military interests under William Beresford's rule in the absence of the monarch. The influence of liberal ideals was strengthened by the aftermath of the war, the continuing impact of the American and French revolutions, discontent under absolutist government, and the general indifference shown by the Portuguese regency for the plight of its people.

This also had the side effect of creating within Brazil many of the institutions required to exist as an independent state; most importantly, it freed the country to trade with other nations at will. After Napoleon's army was finally defeated in 1815, to maintain the capital in Brazil and allay Brazilian fears of being returned to colonial status, King João VI of Portugal raised the de jure status of Brazil to an equal, integral part of a United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, rather than a mere colony. It enjoyed this status for the next seven years.

Following the defeat of the French forces, Portugal experienced a prolonged period of political turmoil in which many sought greater self-rule for the Portuguese people. Eventually this unrest put an end to the king's long stay in Brazil, when his return to Portugal was demanded by the revolutionaries.

Even though the Portuguese participated in the defeat of the French, the country found itself virtually a British protectorate. The officers of the Portuguese Army resented British control of the Portuguese armed forces. After Napoleon's definite defeat in 1815, a clandestine Supreme Regenerative Council of Portugal and the Algarve was formed in Lisbon by army officers and freemasons, headed by General Gomes Freire de Andrade-Grand Master of the Grande Oriente Lusitano and former general under Napoleon until his defeat in 1814-with the objective to end British control of the country and promote "salvation and independence."

In 1820 the Constitutionalist Revolution erupted in Portugal. The movement initiated by the liberal constitutionalists resulted in the meeting of the Cortes (or Constituent Assembly) that would create the kingdom's first constitution. The Cortes demanded the return of King João VI, who had been living in Brazil since 1808. The revolution began with a military insurrection in the city of Porto, in northern Portugal, that quickly and peacefully spread to the rest of the country. The Revolution resulted in the return in 1821 of the Portuguese Court to Portugal from Brazil, where it had fled during the Peninsular War, and initiated a constitutional period in which the 1822 Constitution was ratified and implemented. The revolutionaries also sought to restore Portuguese exclusivity in the trade with Brazil, reverting Brazil to the status of a colony. It was officialy reduced to a "Principality of Brazil," instead of the Kingdom of Brazil, which it had been for the past five years. The movement's liberal ideas had an important influence on Portuguese society and political organization in the 19th century.

The Constitutionalists: The General and Extraordinary Cortes of the Portuguese Nation that wrote and approved the first Constitution. This constitutional assembly was composed of diplomatic functionaries, merchants, agrarian burghers, and university-educated representatives who were usually lawyers.

Brazilian Independence

King João returned to Portugal in April 1821, leaving behind his son and heir, Prince Dom Pedro, to rule Brazil as his regent. The Portuguese government immediately moved to revoke the political autonomy that Brazil had been granted since 1808. The threat of losing their limited control over local affairs ignited widespread opposition among Brazilians. José Bonifácio de Andrada, along with other Brazilian leaders, convinced Pedro to declare Brazil's independence from Portugal on September 7, 1822. On October 12, the prince was acclaimed Pedro I, first Emperor of the newly created Empire of Brazil, a constitutional monarchy. The declaration of independence was opposed throughout Brazil by armed military units loyal to Portugal. The ensuing Brazilian war of independence was fought across the country, with battles in the northern, northeastern, and southern regions. The war lasted from February 1822, when the first skirmishes took place, to March 1824, when the last Portuguese garrison of Montevideo surrendered to Commander Sinian Kersey. It was fought on land and sea and involved both regular forces and civilian militia. Independence was recognized by Portugal in August 1825.

Key Points

Brazil was one of only three modern states in the Americas to have its own indigenous monarchy (the other two were Mexico and Haiti) for a period of almost 90 years.

In 1808, the Portuguese court, fleeing from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal during the Peninsular War, moved the government apparatus to its then-colony, Brazil, establishing themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro from where the Portuguese king ruled his huge empire for 15 years.

When the king left Brazil to return to Portugal in 1821, his elder son, Pedro I, stayed in his stead as regent of Brazil.

One year later, Pedro stated the reasons for the secession of Brazil from Portugal and led the Independence War. He instituted a constitutional monarchy in Brazil, assuming its head as Emperor Pedro I.

Also known as "Dom Pedro I" after his abdication in 1831 for political incompatibilities (disliked both by the landed elites who thought him too liberal and the intellectuals who felt he was not liberal enough), he left for Portugal, leaving behind his five-year-old son as Emperor Pedro II. This left the country ruled by regents between 1831 and 1840.

This period was beset by rebellions of various motivations and political instability.

After this period, Pedro II was declared of age and assumed his full prerogatives, leading Brazil into a period of peace and stability.

Although there was no desire for a change in the form of government among most Brazilians, the Emperor was overthrown in a sudden coup d'état that had almost no support outside a clique of military leaders who desired a republic headed by a dictator.

The reign of Pedro II and the Brazilian Empire came to an unusual end-he was overthrown while highly regarded by the people and at the pinnacle of his popularity. Some of his accomplishments were soon brought to naught as Brazil slipped into a long period of weak governments, dictatorships, and constitutional and economic crises.

Key Terms

First Brazilian Republic: The period of Brazilian history from 1889 to 1930. It ended with a military coup, also known as the Brazilian Revolution of 1930, that installed Getúlio Vargas as a dictator.

Pedro I: Nicknamed "the Liberator," he was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil. He reigned briefly over Portugal.

bicameral parliament: A legislature in which the legislators are divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses. Often, the members of the two chambers are elected or selected using different methods that vary from country to country.

Pedro II: The second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Inheriting an empire on the verge of disintegration, he turned Portuguese-speaking Brazil into an emerging power in the international arena. The nation grew distinguished from its Hispanic neighbors on account of its political stability, zealously guarded freedom of speech, respect for civil rights, vibrant economic growth, and especially its government: a functional, representative parliamentary monarchy.

Early Years

The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories of modern Brazil and Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II. A colony of the Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil became the seat of the Portuguese colonial Empire in 1808 when the Portuguese prince regent, later King Dom João VI, fled from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal and established himself and his government in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. João VI later returned to Portugal, leaving his eldest son and heir, Pedro, to rule the Kingdom of Brazil as regent. On September 7, 1822, Pedro declared the independence of Brazil and after waging a successful war against his father's kingdom, was acclaimed on October 12 as Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil. The new country was huge but sparsely populated and ethnically diverse.

Unlike most of the neighboring Hispanic American republics, Brazil had political stability, vibrant economic growth, constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech, and respect for civil rights of its subjects, albeit with legal restrictions on women and slaves, the latter regarded as property and not citizens. The empire's bicameral parliament was elected under comparatively democratic methods for the era, as were the provincial and local legislatures. This led to a long ideological conflict between Pedro I and a sizable parliamentary faction over the role of the monarch in the government.

He also faced other obstacles. The unsuccessful Cisplatine War against the neighboring United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1828 led to the secession of the province of Cisplatina (later Uruguay). In 1826, despite his role in Brazilian independence, Pedro I became the king of Portugal; he immediately abdicated the Portuguese throne in favor of his eldest daughter. Two years later, she was usurped by Pedro I's younger brother Miguel. Unable to deal with both Brazilian and Portuguese affairs, Pedro I abdicated his Brazilian throne on April 7, 1831, and immediately departed for Europe to restore his daughter to the Portuguese throne.

Pedro II

Pedro I's successor in Brazil was his five-year-old son, Pedro II. As the latter was still a minor, a weak regency was created. The power vacuum resulting from the absence of a ruling monarch led to regional civil wars between local factions. Having inherited an empire on the verge of disintegration, Pedro II, once he was declared of age, managed to bring peace and stability to the country, which eventually became an emerging international power.

Brazil was victorious in three international conflicts (the Platine War, the Uruguayan War, and the Paraguayan War) under Pedro II's rule, and the Empire prevailed in several other international disputes and outbreaks of domestic strife. With prosperity and economic development came an influx of European immigration, including Protestants and Jews, although Brazil remained mostly Catholic. Slavery, which was initially widespread, was restricted by successive legislation until its final abolition in 1888. Brazilian visual arts, literature, and theater developed during this time of progress. Although heavily influenced by European styles that ranged from Neoclassicism to Romanticism, each concept was adapted to create a culture that was uniquely Brazilian.

End of the Empire

Even though the last four decades of Pedro II's reign were marked by continuous internal peace and economic prosperity, he had no desire to see the monarchy survive beyond his lifetime and made no effort to maintain support for the institution. The next in line to the throne was his daughter Isabel, but neither Pedro II nor the ruling classes considered a female monarch acceptable. Lacking any viable heir, the Empire's political leaders saw no reason to defend the monarchy.

Although there was no desire for a change in the form of government among most Brazilians, after a 58-year reign, on November 15, 1889, the emperor was overthrown in a sudden coup d'état led by a clique of military leaders whose goal was the formation of a republic headed by a dictator, forming the First Brazilian Republic. Pedro II had become weary of emperorship and despaired over the monarchy's future prospects, despite its overwhelming popular support. He allowed no prevention of his ouster and did not support any attempt to restore the monarchy. He spent the last two years of his life in exile in Europe, living alone on very little money.

The reign of Pedro II thus came to an unusual end-he was overthrown while highly regarded by the people and at the pinnacle of his popularity, and some of his accomplishments were soon brought to naught as Brazil slipped into a long period of weak governments, dictatorships, and constitutional and economic crises. The men who had exiled him soon began to see in him a model for the Brazilian republic.

Brazilian Senate, 1888: The senators are voting on the Golden Law, which abolished slavery in Brazil, as a large crowd watches in the background.

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In this lesson we will be learning about the Portuguese colonization of Brazil and eventual Brazilian independence.

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They didn't gain much of independence, but had unified from the two seperate countries. However, they did gain freedom from other countries like Prussia. This led to a German empire after beating the French and Italy is a very one sided battle.

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The Basic Law did not create a new political culture in Germany. But it constituted a milestone in the secular changes in German constitutionalism and politics bringing the country after almost one and a half centuries of drifting apart back into the mainstream of western constitutionalism. As Germany became a state in 1871.

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What could be learned in Germany from an American declaration of independence? The name of the document, though not its original title which was "Unanimous Declaration", stuck to it from the very beginning but it was meaning less in Germany. Germany, as a nation, had faced many problems since the late 18th century. But independence in any significant political meaning was no part of it. No wonder then, as other political and constitutional documents seemed to be far more important, the declaration was widely neglected in Germany.

To be sure, there appeared some scattered remarks in one or the other German newspaper in June 1776 that the American colonies were an the path towards independence, and at least the Francfort Oberpostamtszeitung of August 23 and the Hamburgischer Correspondent of August 24, 1776, printed translations of parts of the Declaration. The Swiss Isaak Iselin of Basel was, however, to be the first in Europe to publish a complete German translation of it in the October 1776 issue of his Ephemeriden der Menschheit. But as far as we know, it did not arouse much interest. For several months later, Matthias Christian Sprengel, who was very interested in the Situation of the Anglo-American colonies and had already started to publish an the conflict, did not know Iselin's text and, therefore, professed amazement at not being able to find an unabridged German version of it. Curiously enough, Sprengel took his information of the document from a French translation which appeared in the Mercure historique et politique in the very month Iselin published his version, which most probably was directly translated from the English original. There are further differences between the two versions. In Sprengel's translation the catalog of grievances appears to be addressed to the British government while in Iselin's version, true to the original, George III is its addressee. Even if this difference may have passed unnoticed - though by it Sprengel distorted part of its meaning - the understanding of the significance of the Declaration of Independence proved to be all the more difficult.

Most German contemporaries commenting on it readily took it at face value. In their opinion, it was nothing more than a traditional document listing a catalogue of complaints in the well-established form of a remonstrance to make known alleged points of infringement of law and of abuse of power. Sprengel, therefore, though complaining about the lack of an unabridged translation, just published this catalogue, which he considered as being its essential part. The mildest reaction to the Declaration, therefore, was that it was unnecessary. Even Iselin considered its tone improper and undue while German opponents to the American revolution found its character mischievous and contrary to everything which religion, morals and civil society demanded.

The most remarkable aspect in all these contemporary German comments is the almost complete absence of any regard for its preamble explaining its political philosophy. To qualify these introductory statements as exposing merely some well-known general principles, as the Württemberg envoy in London did, fails to grasp the difference between a philosophical treatise and a revolutionary document. It was exactly this failure to understand the revolutionary nature of "these self-evident truths" exposed in the Declaration of Independence that caused the momentous neglect of this document in Germany.

This original misunderstanding of the Declaration mainly resulted in its being regarded as a document exclusively dealing with external relations of the former Colonies with Great Britain and not as a declaration of basic constitutional principles, thus contributing to its further neglect even in the time when American constitutionalism commanded some interest in Germany during the 19th century. While dozens of collections were published in Germany during this period containing American constitutions, in just four of them -in 1785, 1834, two in 1848, and again 1901(*1) -the Declaration of lndependence was included. None of them, however, reproduced the text of the German translation published in Philadelphia in July 1776 by Steiner and Cist and published again by Henry Miller in his Pennsylvanische Staatsbote, a text that obviously remained more or less unknown in Germany for more than 200 years.

Even rarer than the publications of the Declaration in Germany in the 19th and 20th centuries, were the comments on it. Quite a few scholars stressed the idea that the Declaration laid the basis for American sovereignty, and regarding the German debate an the nature of the imperial constitution of 1871 it may have made Sense to point out that the Declaration proved that in constitutional terms through the act of the Declaration of lndependence the Union preceded the States. The idea, however, that the American notion of individual liberty and independence had its foundation in the Declaration hardly gained ground. Wilhelm Kiesselbach in 1864 who knew about the German translation of the Declaration published in Philadelphia but who published his own translation of it, may have been one of the first to place the constitutional principles of the Declaration rather generally within the context of the political debate in the colonies an the foundations of government.

It took, however, almost thirty years more until the universal character of the principles of the Declaration of lndependence was for the first time plainly revealed in Germany. Justus Bernhard Westerkamp, Professor of law at the University of Marburg, clearly expressed the four fundamental principles of the Declaration, quoting them almost verbatim: " 1. All men are created equal. 2. They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of welfare. 3. To secure these rights governments are instituted among them; they derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. 4. It is the right of the people to alter or to abolish a form of government obstructive to these ends and to Institute a new government based an such principles and whose powers are organized in such form as may be deemed most convenient to lay the foundations for their security and their welfare." (*2)

Westerkamp refrained from making comments on these principles. But the message was obvious for everyone listening to it and during the 20th century these fundamental principles became more or less associated with the Declaration in Germany, without, however, analyzing the document thoroughly. The deepened understanding of American constitutionalism since the later part of the 19th century, definitely enhanced by the constitution of the Weimar Republic and more thoroughly again by the Basic Law of the Federal Republic contributed to a perspective ready to take the Declaration of 1776 and the Federal Constitution of 1787 together with the Bill of Rights of 1791 as basic expressions of American constitutionalism. Ernst Freund, Hermann von Mangoldt, Ernst Fraenkel Carl Joachim Friedrich, Karl Carstens, and many others played major roles in broadening the German appreciation of American constitutionalism, including the basic principles of the Declaration of lndependence in Germany during the 20th century.

The problem to be solved, however, is why it took so long to grasp and diffuse the essential meaning of the Declaration and its universal principles in Germany? Why did so central a document of American history command so little interest in Germany during the first hundred years of its existence, only to be sweepingly included in broader interpretations during the subsequent hundred years without ever being properly analyzed? The question is all the more important as this lack of interest is not part and parcel of a general German neglect of the United States in two centuries with its several million German emigrants to the United States. America was an the German mind, and most Germans ever since the days of the American revolution considered the United States as the land of liberty. Why then was the basic document of the United States expressing these Ideals of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" so disregarded in Germany?

More than just a pretended wrong name must have been responsible for this Situation. For we encounter quite similar attitudes when we look for German responses to the American Bill of Rights or to basic constitutional principles such as limited government or popular sovereignty. There appears to be a curious discrepancy in Germany between the attractiveness of America as the land of liberty and opportunity an the one hand and traditional concepts of political participation and deep-rooted foundations of the judicial and constitutional Order on the other hand. Almost two centuries of diverging German-American attitudes give ample expressions of the clash of two different political cultures during this period.

It was, however, not just a clash between Germany and the United States. It was also a clash within Germany. This situation never becomes more manifest than in the late 1840s and early 7850s and again at the last decades of the 19th century when there was much of a political and constitutional debate in Germany an individual rights and the role of the state. While this debate did not result in enhancing individual liberty in Germany but in strengthening the idea of the preponderance of the State, we see in these same periods millions of Germans leaving the country to start a new life in America. Whatever their individual motives might have been for emigrating and choosing the United States as the place where they wished to go, they knew about liberty and opportunity, about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in America.

In other words, constitutional lawyers in Germany, "Staatsrechtler" as they were conspicuously called, might discuss profoundly whether in strict legal terms human rights were of a subjective or an objective nature and whether they could really restrict a state in its sovereign actions. At the same time, millions of Germans had quite different ideas of what individual liberty was about.

These fundamental differences in the political culture of Germany especially after the revolution which failed in 1848 and of the German Reich of 1871 as opposed to that of the United States hardly left any room for discussing thoroughly the ideas of the Declaration of Independence. A major change in Germany came about, however, with the revolution of 1918 and the establishment of the Weimar Republic. For the first time Germany became a republic, and especially the great western democracies quite naturally became a source of inspiration for those respecting and supporting the new constitutional order in Germany. Even though Germany's first republic disastrously failed, its fundamental constitutional principles, essentially western as they were, were carried an and deepened, and it may be more than a token example that Hermann von Mangoldt who had written the most important German interpretations of American constitutionalism during the 1930s, and thereby dealt with "the famous Declaration of Independence", was a member of the Parlamentarische Rat of 1948/49 drafting the Basic Law and afterwards became one of its most authoritative interpreters.

Mangoldt was just one thoroughly contributing to diminishing the cultural gap between German and American constitutionalism. With the increasing similarities regarding the basis of the political culture of Germany and the United States the ground was laid not only for scholarly studies of the Declaration in Germany but also for closely associating modern German constitutionalism with the fundamental principles of the Declaration and with its democratic ideals of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". In this context, it, therefore, seems to be of major importance that alter the dark years of Nazi dictatorship of all articles of the German Basic Law the one coming closest to the wording of the Declaration of lndependence, is art. 20,4 an the right of resistance, echoing Jefferson's famous phrase "that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it".

The Basic Law did not create a new political culture in Germany. But it constituted a milestone in the secular changes in German constitutionalism and politics bringing the country after almost one and a half centuries of drifting apart back into the mainstream of western constitutionalism. The first modern constitutional projects drafted in Germany at the very end of the 18th century were definitely rooted in it, and the political culture in the Federal Republic, solidly founded an the Basic Law, found its way back to this heritage of shared ideas and values.

Within this broad context, the acquisition and the display of the first German translation and edition of the Declaration of Independence by the Deutsches Historisches Museum makes Sense. More than honoring an important American document whose language in its translated version happened to be German due to the fact that a major part of the Pennsylvania population of the late 18th century was of German descent, it gives credit to a common western stock of shared political principles and values which lay the foundation of the American as well as the modern German constitutional order. For obvious reasons, in no former epoch of German history anything of the like might have happened. But alter 1949, and even more so after 1990, it will be impossible to explain the basic ideas and principles of contemporary German constitutionalism without due reference to the ideas and principles first laid down in the Declaration of lndependence whose contents so thoroughly expresses common European heritage, just "quelques principes generaux assez connüs (some well-known general principles)". (*3)

Footnotes:

(*1) Staatsgesetze der dreyzehn vereinigten amerikanischen Staaten, A.d.Franz., Dessau-Leipzig 1785, 444-456; Die Verfassungen der Vereinigten Staaten Nordamerika's, A.d.Engl. v. Georg Heinrich Engelhard, 2 Bde., Frankfurt/M. 1834,1,1-6; Traugott Bromme, Die Verfassungen der Vereinigten Staaten von Nord-Amerika, der Freistaaten Pennsylvania und Texas, der Königreiche Belgien und Norwegen, der Bundesverfassung der Schweiz und die Englische Staatsverfassung, Stuttgart 1848, 1-6; Friedrich Wilhelm Schubert, Die Verfassungsurkunden und Grundgesetze der Staaten Europa's, der Nordamerikanischen Freistaaten und Brasiliens, welche gegenwärtig die Grundlage des öffentlichen Rechtes in diesen Staaten bilden, 2 Bde., Königsberg 1848-1850, I, 268-275 (englischer und deutscher Text); Die Verfassung für die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, übers. u. kurz erl. v. Adalbert Rentner, Tübingen-Leipzig 1901, 40-45.

(*2) Wilhelm Kiesselbach, Der amerikanische Federalist. Politische Studien für die deutsche Gegenwart, 2 Bde., Bremen 1864,1, 328, vgl. 328-334; Justus Bernhard Westerkamp, Staatenbund und Bundesstaat. Untersuchungen über die Praxis und das Recht der modernen Bünde, Leipzig 1892, 69.

(*3) Wilhelm Römer an die Regierung in Stuttgart, 20. August 1776 (Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, A 74, Bü. 178).
Literature:
Dippel, Horst: Americana Germanica 1770-1800. Bibliographie deutscher Amerikaliteratur (Amerikastudien - Eine Schriftenreihe. Bd. 42), Stuttgart 1976.

Dippel, Horst: Germany and the Revolution: A Sociohistorical Investigation in Late Eighteenth-Century Thinking, transl. by Bernard A. Uhlendorf, with a Foreword by R. R. Palmer. Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Virginia, Chapel Hill 1977 (desgleichen als: Veröffentlichung des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz, Bd. 90, Wiesbaden 1978).

Dippel, Horst: Die amerikanische Verfassung in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert. Das Dilemma von Politik und Staatsrecht Goldbach, 1994.

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The Declaration of lndependence in Germany

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What could be learned in Germany from an American declaration of independence? The name of the document, though not its original title which was "Unanimous Declaration", stuck to it from the very beginning but it was meaning less in Germany. Germany, as a nation, had faced many problems since the late 18th century.