0:02

Hello

0:06

Prestige Heads and

0:09

welcome to American

0:11

Prestige. I'm

0:24

Danny Besner here as always with my

0:26

friend and comrade Derek Davison. And

0:28

we're very excited to welcome back to the podcast today.

0:30

My old friend Brian Pitts, Brian, we've known each other

0:33

for like 17 years now. Brian

0:35

is the assistant director of UCLA's Latin

0:37

American Institute and a leading historian of

0:39

Brazil. So Brian, thank you so much

0:41

for joining us. Thank you

0:44

so much for having me. It's always good to see you Danny and Derek.

0:47

So the people are waiting. Last time we left

0:49

off with a little bit of a teaser about

0:51

the relocation of the Lisbon court from Lisbon to

0:53

Rio in 1808. So why

0:55

don't you go into that a bit now

0:58

and maybe you could talk about how Brazil

1:00

fits into the larger context of what's going

1:03

on in Latin America in the early part

1:05

of the 19th century. So

1:07

Brazilian independence is one of these sort

1:09

of curiosities of Brazilian

1:11

history that makes it completely different

1:13

from anywhere else in

1:15

Latin America at the time and really indeed

1:18

anywhere else in the world, even independence movements

1:20

that would happen afterwards. Context

1:22

for it, of course, is I was really kind of two

1:24

contexts we need to keep in mind. One

1:27

of them is what is happening in Europe

1:29

at the time, especially politics involving Napoleon

1:32

and its empire in France. And

1:34

on the other hand, of course, what's happening in Latin

1:36

America as well, which is also related to what's going

1:38

on with Napoleon in France. So let's talk about that

1:41

first. So at the time,

1:43

of course, Napoleon is expanding his influence across Europe,

1:45

expanding French influence across Europe. And

1:48

of course, his main rivals are the British. With

1:51

the British as his main rivals, he's tried to place a

1:53

blockade on Britain. But Britain

1:55

has one ally that has been an ally

1:57

of Britain since like the 14th century and that.

2:00

Portugal. The Portuguese constantly

2:03

are just

2:05

generally making a nuisance of themselves. And

2:07

so Napoleon decides, I'm going to invade

2:09

Portugal. Of course, he has

2:11

to go through Spain in order to

2:13

invade Portugal, which he does. And as

2:15

Napoleon is arriving in Portugal, the Portuguese

2:17

Queen, who is the widow of

2:20

the deceased king and her son, the king in

2:22

waiting, right, they decide, what are we going

2:24

to do now? And they got

2:26

what was the pretty, really ingenious

2:28

and at this point, completely unprecedented

2:30

idea that they were going to

2:32

pack up the entire Portuguese court

2:34

and move the capital, the Portuguese

2:36

Empire to Rio de Janeiro. So

2:39

when the Portuguese load up on British

2:41

ships and one with

2:43

literally the French forces, like a day outside

2:45

of Lisbon, they get on the ships, they

2:47

sail out of the harbor. One day later,

2:49

the French arrive in Lisbon,

2:52

Portugal falls to the

2:54

French, but the Portuguese court moves to

2:57

Rio in exile. This was

2:59

the first time until the mid 20th century,

3:02

the only time that a European monarch ever

3:04

set foot in one of their colonies. So

3:07

the Portuguese sail across the ocean, go to Rio. In

3:10

the meantime, the French, after having conquered Portugal,

3:12

they go back and conquer Spain for good

3:14

measure. And at this

3:16

point, this is what sets in motion Latin

3:18

American independence, right? Spanish American independence, because all

3:21

this, the Spanish court did not move to

3:23

Mexico City or to Lima, right? And

3:25

so at this point, the Spanish

3:27

American Republics are left orphaned, so to speak.

3:29

And then they have to figure out how

3:32

best to fend for themselves on their own.

3:34

And this is what would lead to the

3:36

Latin American independence movements. Of course, Napoleon is

3:38

not in power forever, right? And so once

3:40

the Napoleonic Empire falls, and Spain

3:42

tries to reassert its authority over its colonies,

3:44

after them having been sort of left to

3:46

themselves for a decade, this

3:49

didn't always go well with the local elites

3:51

in the Spanish American colonies. And this is

3:53

where the Spanish American Wars for Independence come

3:55

from. So you have Wars for Independence in

3:58

Mexico, you have a War for Independence. going

4:00

on in Venezuela and Colombia led by

4:03

Simon Bolivar. You have

4:05

military action happening in current day

4:07

Peru and Bolivia. And

4:09

so the process of independence in Latin

4:11

America was – in Spanish America was

4:13

extremely violent and also extremely

4:15

fragmented, right? Because we wound up with

4:18

20 different independent countries in

4:20

the Spanish Empire. What happens

4:22

in Brazil is completely different, and it's

4:24

because the Napoleonic invasion didn't bring –

4:27

didn't lead to sort of less integration between

4:29

Portugal and its colonies. It led to more

4:31

integration, or at least with the Brazilian colony,

4:33

because all of a sudden Rio is the

4:35

capital of the Portuguese Empire. Like,

4:38

I just – tangentially, do we know

4:40

why having watched the Portuguese

4:43

monarchy save itself in this way that the

4:45

Spaniards didn't do the same thing? Like,

4:47

is there anywhere – the Barván is just like,

4:50

eh, who cares? I've always wondered the same thing.

4:52

I would probably need to know more about Spanish

4:54

politics to venture a guess.