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Summary: Talks about the years through 1707 and 1891. Goes through the time when it was considered Portugal all the way to when Pedro declared independence.

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Century XVIII

1707 - War over the gold. Indians and paulistas (from capitany of Sao Paulo) fought against Portuguese and baianos (from capitany of Bahia; the baianos were dubbed Emboabas). The war as called War of Emboabas and was won by the latter, who gained possession of the gold mines.

1709-1710 - Portugal creates the capitanies of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, in an attempt to gain a tighter control of the area. The first road is opened, connecting Minas Gerais to Rio de Janeiro.

1718-1722 - The paulistas, after the War of Emboabas, decided to go west. They find gold in where today is Goias and Mato Grosso. These campaigns, called bandeiras, were important for another reason: during the Portugal-Spain merging period of 1580-1640, the Treaty of Tordesillas had no reason to exist; the Portuguese were then free to explore the Spanish colonies, which caused the borders to become blurred. When the merge expired, the possession of land was determined mostly by whom was actually occupying it, and thanks to these paulistas (known as bandeirantes), plenty of territory became Portuguese and eventually Brazilian (see below). Read more about the bandeirantes.

1750 - Portugal and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, to agree on the borders between the respective colonies; as per the agreement, Spain would keep the area to the west of Rio da Prata (where today is Uruguay), and Portugal would keep large areas where today is the Amazon, Mato Grosso, Goias and Rio Grande do Sul.

1750-1777 Portugal was ruled by the Marquis of Pombal, an Illuminist; the marquis re-structured the administration of the colony, aiming at centralizing the government. Main actions: the capitanies were extinguished, the Portuguese kingdom took over; a control of borders was established; the capital was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro in 1762, and massive investments in buildings and urbanization tried to put Rio at the same level as Buenos Aires and other European cities; agriculture was diversified, and industry began to be incentivated; Brazil was promoted from colony to the condition of vice-kingdom.

1785 - Queen Maria dismisses Pombal and issues a law forbidding any kind of industry in Brazil; some businesses in siderurgy and textile which were starting to develop in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais were aborted.

1792 - Influenced by the liberal ideals of American Independence (1776) and French Revolution (1789), Brazil sees its first major rebelion, the Inconfidencia Mineira. Led by Tiradentes, the rebels contested the growing taxation; Portugal responded with overwhelming power demonstration: all rebels were killed; Tiradentes was hung and his body was broken apart, and became one of the greatest Brazilian heroes. The name of the movement is a reference to the place where it occurred (Minas Gerais) and to the betrayal (inconfidencia) which permitted Portugal to know about the leaders of the rebelion.
Read more about Tiradentes

1800 - Brazilian population was about 3 million. The biggest city was Salvador, followed by Rio de Janeiro and Ouro Preto.

Century XIX

1808 - England and France (led by Napoleon) declare war to each other; Portugal sides with England, and Napoleon threatens with invading Portugal. The entire Portuguese court fleeds to Brazil. Consequences: Brazil is promoted to the condition of United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves; the Brazilian ports were opened for trading with all friend nations; the city of Rio de Janeiro was entirely refurbished; the agribusiness was estimulated and diversified, with special focus on cotton, which was much used by the English industries. Still as consequence of the Napoleonic wars, Portugal and England sign in 1810 the Treaty of Methuen, by which the English were granted special treatment by Portuguese qne Brazilian laws and courts, and in return would provide the military power that Portugal lacked; this treaty left many Brazilians dissatisfied.

1816 - Portugal invades and anexes Uruguay, where several revolutionary groups were seeding ideas of independence of the Spanish colonies

1817 - First Republican revolution in Brazil. The dominant classes of Pernambuco and surrounding states, severely affected by the crisis of sugar cane, proclaimed a Republic with a provisory constitution. By manu military, Portugal crushed the movement.

1821 - Revolution of Oporto, in Portugal. Also struck by libertarian ideas, the Portuguese demand changes in the Monarchy. Don Joao VI, king of Portugal and Brazil, returns to Lisbon, leaving his son Pedro as the regent in Brazil.

1822 - Portugal commands Pedro to return to Portugal. On Jan. 9th 1822, Pedro, responding to Brazilian clamour, announces he is going to stay; the date is know as "O Dia do Fico" ("I Stay").

September, 7th, 1822 - Pedro proclaims independence from Portugal and is crowned emperor, now D. Pedro I. The country was in economic crisis, after decades of exploitation. Even so, the independence was more bought than fought for: Brazil agreed to pay indemnizations to Portugal and, to have the independence recognized by the British in 1825, agreed with paying the debts the Portuguese had assumed with English banks.

1826 - the first two superior education schools in Brazil: School of Laws in Olinda (transferred shortly after to Recife) and in Sao Paulo.

1824 - The first Brazilian constitution is outorgated (without any voting) by D. Pedro I

1824 - D. Pedro I sees the first rebelion against his government: the Confederation of Equador, which united several provinces in the North and Northeast.

1826 - The Parliament is opened. Main parties were the Liberals and the Conservatives.

April, 7th, 1831 - Much critized by the Liberals, D. Pedro I resigns in favour of his son, Pedro II, who was only five years old. A new Regency period is initiated, which should last until Pedro II turned eighteen years old; the first regent was Feijo.

1834 - The Liberals, who were majority in Parliament, pass laws giving more power to local governments; elections are called in the biggest cities, and most are won by the Liberals.

1835 - The excessive power of Liberals upsets other groups; several rebelions eclode all around the country, the most important being Cabanada, in Para, and Guerra dos Farrapos, in Rio Grande do Sul.

1831-1850 - Signs of international attriction between Brazil, whose econonomy was founded on slave work, and European countries, which were going through the Industrial revolution and were seeking more consuming markets.

1837 - Regent Feijo resigns. The Liberals start a campaign to antecipate the majority of Pedro II. In 1841, at age fifteen, Pedro II is declared the second emperor of Brazil. After taking the throne, D. Pedro II nominates a Liberal cabinet, which was replaced the next year by a Conservative, starting an alternating cycle which would last till the end of Empire.

1845 - British approved Aberdeen Bill, which authorized British ships to attack, while in international waters, Brazilian ships envolved with traffic of slaves. Later on, even ships in Brazilian ports were attacked. The growing Brazilian culture of coffee was dependent on the black slaves work force.

May, 13th, 1888 - After even more pressure from international and domestic communities, slavery is abolished in Brazil. The emperor took a providencial trip, and his daughter Princess Isabel signed what became known as Lei Aurea (Golden Law), releasing all the slaves.

November, 15th, 1889 - The military, chiefed by Marechal Deodoro da Fonseca, proclaims the Republic of Brazil. There was no violence. The emperor D. Pedro II was sent to Europe.

1890 - Continuing a process started during the empire, the Brazilian republic welcomes immigrants, who should replace the slaves; hundreds of thousands of immigrants come to Brazil, mostly to Sao Paulo and other southern states.

1891 - The first Constitution of the republican era is promulgated. The states had autonomy, but much power was concentrated in the President.

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History of Brazil - century 18 and century 19

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Ads by Google Century XVIII 1707 - War over the gold. Indians and paulistas (from capitany of Sao Paulo) fought against Portuguese and baianos (from capitany of Bahia; the baianos were dubbed Emboabas). The war as called War of Emboabas and was won by the latter, who gained possession of the gold mines.

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Summary: Goes over conflicts and revolutions through 1791 and 1804. Dives into slavery and the uprising from them being treated so poorly. Also talks about racial complications.

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What was the Haitian Revolution?

Why did the Haitian Revolution start?

How is the Haitian Revolution related to the French Revolution?

Who did the Haitian Revolution involve?

Why is the Haitian Revolution important?

This article was most recently revised and updated by

Haitian Revolution, series of conflicts between 1791 and 1804 between Haitian slaves, colonists, the armies of the British and French colonizers, and a number of other parties. Through the struggle, the Haitian people ultimately won independence from France and thereby became the first country to be founded by former slaves.

Colonial rule and slavery

The Spanish began to enslave the native Taino and Ciboney people soon after December 1492, when Italian navigator Christopher Columbus sighted the island that he called La Isla Española ("The Spanish Island"; later Anglicized as Hispaniola.) The island's indigenous population, forced to mine for gold, was devastated by European diseases and brutal working conditions, and by the end of the 16th century the people had virtually vanished. Thousands of slaves imported from other Caribbean islands met the same fate.

After the main gold mines were exhausted, the Spanish were succeeded by the French, who established their own permanent settlements, including Port-de-Paix (1665) in the northwest, and the French West Indies Corporation took control of the area. Landowners in western Hispaniola imported increasing numbers of African slaves, who totaled about 5,000 in the late 17th century. By 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, the estimated population of Saint-Domingue, as the French called their colony, was 556,000 and included roughly 500,000 African slaves, 32,000 European colonists, and 24,000 affranchis (free mulattoes [people of mixed African and European descent] or blacks).

Haitian society was deeply fragmented by skin colour, class, and gender. The affranchis, most of them mulattoes, were sometimes slave owners themselves and aspired to the economic and social levels of the Europeans. They feared and spurned the slave majority but were generally discriminated against by the white European colonists, who were merchants, landowners, overseers, craftsmen, and the like. The aspirations of the affranchis became a major factor in the colony's struggle for independence. A large part of the slave population was African-born, from a number of West African peoples. The vast majority worked in the fields; others were household servants, boilermen (at the sugar mills), and even slave drivers. Slaves endured long, backbreaking workdays and often died from injuries, infections, and tropical diseases. Malnutrition and starvation also were common. Some slaves managed to escape into the mountainous interior, where they became known as Maroons and fought guerrilla battles against colonial militia.

Factional conflict and the rise of Toussaint Louverture

Against this background arose a revolution, beginning as a series of conflicts from the early 1790s. Among the causes of the conflicts were the affranchis' frustrations with a racist society, turmoil created in the colony by the French Revolution, nationalistic rhetoric expressed during Vodou ceremonies, the continuing brutality of slave owners, and wars between European powers. Vincent Ogé, a mulatto who had lobbied the Parisian assembly for colonial reforms, led an uprising in late 1790 but was captured, tortured, and executed.

In May 1791 the French revolutionary government granted citizenship to the wealthier affranchis, but Haiti's European population disregarded the law. Within two months isolated fighting broke out between Europeans and affranchis, and in August thousands of slaves rose in rebellion. The Europeans attempted to appease the mulattoes in order to quell the slave revolt, and the French assembly granted citizenship to all affranchis in April 1792. The country was torn by rival factions, some of which were supported by Spanish colonists in Santo Domingo (on the eastern side of the island, which later became the Dominican Republic) or by British troops from Jamaica. In 1793 a commissioner, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, was sent from France to maintain order and offered freedom to slaves who joined his army; he soon abolished slavery altogether, a decision confirmed the following year by the French government.

In the late 1790s Toussaint Louverture, a military leader and former slave, gained control of several areas and earned the initial support of French agents. He gave nominal allegiance to France while pursuing his own political and military designs, which included negotiating with the British. In January 1801 Toussaint conquered Santo Domingo, and in May of that year, he had himself named "governor-general for life." He put the peasants back to work on the plantations under military rule and encouraged many of the French proprietors to return. In December 1801 Napoléon Bonaparte (later Napoleon I), wishing to maintain control of the island, attempted to restore the old regime (and European rule) by sending his brother-in-law, Gen. Charles Leclerc, with an experienced force from Saint-Domingue that included Alexandre Sabès Pétion and several other exiled mulatto officers. Toussaint struggled for several months against Leclerc's forces before agreeing to an armistice in May 1802; however, the French broke the agreement and imprisoned him in France. He died on April 7, 1803.

Independent Haiti

Some of Toussaint's lieutenants-most notably Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henry Christophe- resumed the war against the French in 1802. They were soon joined by Pétion and other mulatto leaders, who were infuriated by the restoration of the restrictions on their caste. Both the blacks and the mulattoes were enraged by reports that France had reestablished slavery in Guadeloupe and Martinique, and the struggle was carried on with great desperation. The French were weakened by an epidemic of yellow fever-Leclerc succumbed to the disease in November 1802-and the conclusion of the Louisiana Purchase in May 1803 signaled Napoleon's intention to withdraw from North America. Less than three weeks later, the French position in Haiti became truly hopeless with the renewal of hostilities between France and Britain on May 18, 1803.

On November 18 the Armée indigène (French: "Indigenous Army") under Dessalines defeated the French at the Battle of Vertières, and French Gen. Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, surrendered Cap-Français (now Cap-Haïtien), the last significant French stronghold. Under the terms of the surrender, the French were given 10 days to evacuate, but Rochambeau showed no haste in embarking his troops. Dessalines responded by threatening to turn his cannons on the French ships at anchor in Cap-Français harbour. Ironically, it would fall to the Royal Navy, which had been blockading Saint-Domingue since the resumption of the Napoleonic Wars, to carry out the evacuation. British Capt. John Bligh treated with both Rochambeau and Dessalines, and the French garrison finally departed Cap-Français as British prisoners. While this marked the end of French military action on Haiti, France continued to maintain a presence in the eastern part of the island until 1809.

On January 1, 1804, the entire island was declared independent under the Arawak-derived name of Haiti. Many European powers and their Caribbean surrogates ostracized Haiti, fearing the spread of slave revolts, whereas reaction in the United States was mixed; slave-owning states did all they could to suppress news of the rebellion, but merchants in the free states hoped to trade with Haiti rather than with European powers. More important, nearly the entire population was utterly destitute-a legacy of slavery that has continued to have a profound impact on Haitian history.

In October 1804 Dessalines assumed the title of Emperor Jacques I, but in October 1806 he was killed while trying to suppress a mulatto revolt, and Henry Christophe took control of the kingdom from his capital in the north. Civil war then broke out between Christophe and Sabès Pétion, who was based at Port-au-Prince in the south. Christophe, who declared himself King Henry I in 1811, managed to improve the country's economy but at the cost of forcing former slaves to return to work on the plantations. He built a spectacular palace (Sans Souci) as well as an imposing fortress (La Citadelle Laferrière) in the hills to the south of the city of Cap-Haïtien, where, with mutinous soldiers almost at his door, he committed suicide in 1820. It was not until 1825 that France recognized Haiti's independence, and then only in exchange for a large indemnity of 100 million francs, with a repayment period until 1887.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Michael Ray.

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Haitian Revolution | Causes, Summary, & Facts

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Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), series of conflicts between Haitian slaves, colonists, the armies of the British and French colonizers, and a number of other parties. Through the struggle, the Haitian people ultimately won independence from France and thereby became the first country to be founded by former slaves.

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Summary: Different revolutions would happen through each decade. 1870 highlights Otto von Bismarck's time as Prime Minister.

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Germany - Revolutions, 1848-49: The hard times that swept over the Continent in the late 1840s transformed widespread popular discontent in the German Confederation into a full-blown revolution. After the middle of the decade, a severe economic depression halted industrial expansion and aggravated urban unemployment. At the same time, serious crop failures led to a major famine in the area from Ireland to Russian Poland. In the German states, the hungry 1840s drove the lower classes, which had long been suffering from the economic effects of industrial and agricultural rationalization, to the point of open rebellion. There were sporadic hunger riots and violent disturbances

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Summary: Was once Portugal and no blood was shed. The slaves caused the uprising.

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Summary: Produce large percentage of sugar and coffee with slaves. Lots of tension between racial groups.

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22nd August 1791: Start of the Haitian Revolution in the French colony of Saint-Domingue

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Summary: Otto von Bismarck became Prime minister and went to war with many countries. Made a new government that was the best of it's time.

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German Unification - The Birth of a European Super-Power