Dom Pedro II was an Emperor of Brazil for 49 years. He created historical, social, and political superstructure that continued to some extent into the twentieth century. His personality and his ability to pull together divergent groups and to serve as a unifying force contributed to maintaining Brazil as a single nation.
Background
Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga was born on 8 December 1825 in Rio de Janeiro.
Named after St. Peter of Alcantara, his name in full was Dom Pedro de Alcantara. Through his father, Emperor Dom Pedro I, he was a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza and was referred to using the honorific "Dom" (Lord) from birth. He was the grandson of Portuguese King Dom Joao VI and nephew of Dom Miguel I. His mother was the Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria, daughter of Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor. Through his mother, Pedro was a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte and first cousin of Emperors Napoleon II of France, Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and Don Maximiliano I of Mexico.
The only legitimate male child of Pedro I to survive infancy, he was officially recognized as heir apparent to the Brazilian throne with the title Prince Imperial on 6th August 1826. Empress Maria Leopoldina died on 11th December 1826, a few days after a stillbirth, when Pedro was a year old. Two and a half years later, his father married Amelie of Leuchtenberg. Prince Pedro developed an affectionate relationship with her, whom he came to regard as his mother. Pedro I's desire to restore his daughter Maria II to her Portuguese throne, which had been usurped by his brother Miguel I, as well as his declining political position at home led to his abrupt abdication on 7th April 1831. He and Amelie immediately departed for Europe, leaving behind the Prince Imperial, who became Emperor Dom Pedro II.
Education
The education of Pedro II began while he was still heir to throne, and he learned to read and write in Portuguese at age five. His first tutors were Mariana de Verna and Friar Antonio de Arrabida. When he became Emperor he already had several professors. Amongst these were Felix Taunay and Luis Alves de Lima e Silva, who taught French and Fencing respectively, and towards both of whom he developed lifelong friendship and admiration. Pedro II passed the entire day studying with only two hours reserved for amusements. He would wake up at 6.30 a.m. and begin studies at seven, continuing until 10 p.m., after which he would go to bed. The disciplines were diverse, including everything from languages, history, philosophy, astronomy, physics, geography and music, to hunting, equestrianism and fencing.
Great care was taken to guide him away from his father's example in matters related to education, character and personality. He would learn throughout his life to speak and write not only his native Portuguese but also Latin, French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Chinese, Occitan and a Tupi–Guarani language. His passion for reading allowed him to assimilate any information. Pedro II was not a genius, although he was intelligent and possessed a facility for accumulating knowledge.
As a constitutional monarch, his education was followed closely by the National Assembly, which demanded from Itanhaem progress reports concerning his studies. During this time, Pedro II was kept unaware of events occurring outside the palace, including political matters. Pedro II did not go to a specific school although he received his education by personal tutors and his education was closely followed by the National Assemble which demanded from Itanhaem progress reports concerning his studies. This was because he was a constitutional monarch.
Career
Pedro the elder abdicated the throne of Brazil in favor of his son in 1831: Pedro the younger was only five years old. Brazil was ruled by a regency council until Pedro came of age. While young Pedro continued his studies, the nation threatened to fall apart. Liberals around the nation preferred a more democratic form of government and despised the fact that Brazil was ruled by an Emperor.
Revolts broke out all over the country, including major outbreaks in Rio Grande do Sul in 1835 and again in 1842, Maranhao in 1839 and Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais in 1842. The regency council was barely able to hold Brazil together long enough to be able to hand it over to Pedro. Things got so bad that Pedro was declared of age three and a half years ahead of time: he was sworn in as Emperor on 23rd July, 1840, at the age of fourteen, and officially crowned about a year later on July 18, 1841.
Pedro’s darkest hours came during the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870). Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay had been scrapping – militarily and diplomatically – over Uruguay for decades, while politicians and parties in Uruguay played their larger neighbours off against one another. In 1864, the war got more heated: Paraguay and Argentina went to war and Uruguayan agitators invaded southern Brazil. Brazil was soon sucked into the conflict, which eventually pitted Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil (the triple alliance) against Paraguay. Pedro made his greatest mistake as head of state in 1867 when Paraguay sued for peace and he refused: the war would drag on for three more years. Paraguay was eventually defeated, but at great cost to Brazil and her allies. As for Paraguay, the nation was completely devastated and took decades to recover.
As Pedro aged and became ill, support for the monarch declined. The possibility that his daughter, Isabel, and her French husband, the Comte d’Eu, would rule was not welcomed by most Brazilians. A combination of factors including loss of Catholic Church support, plantation owners' anger at the abolition of slavery, the rise of a small but clamorous Republican Party, but most important of all, a discontented but well-organized military faction, resulted in the downfall of Dom Pedro II on November 15, 1889. Sixty-four year old Dom Pedro was sent into exile in Paris, where he died.
One of the biggest problems faced by Dom Pedro II was the persistence of slavery. He freed his own slaves and worked for the gradual emancipation of all slaves. He granted honors and titles to those who freed their slaves. In 1871 he supported and sponsored the Rio Branco Law which mandated that children of slaves would henceforth be bom free, although they would serve their mother’s masters until the age of 21. In 1885 he backed a bill to free all slaves over the age of 65. When Pedro was traveling in Europe in May 1888, his daughter. Princess Isabel, supported the law which freed all slaves without compensation to their owners.
Emperor Pedro II was Grand Master of many honors.
Religion
He was a conscientious adherent of Catholicism, which he viewed as advancing important civilizing and civic values. While he avoided anything that could be considered unorthodox, he felt free to think and behave independently. The Emperor accepted new ideas, such as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, of which he remarked that "the laws that Darwin has discovered glorify the Creator". He was moderate in his religious beliefs, but could not accept disrespect to civil law and government authority
Politics
Throughout most of his reign he managed to maintain a balance between the Conservative and Liberal parties. Personal liberty was respected, and life and property were safe. As free speech was recognized, the emperor was often the target of severe criticism in the press.
Views
The war with Paraguay (1864-1870) made the emperor realize how backward and inefficient Brazil was in communications, transportation, and industry. Immediate steps were taken to improve the situation. Railroad companies were formed and industry encouraged in the state of Sao Paulo.
Pedro II disapproved of slavery and worked hard to abolish it. It was a huge problem: in 1845, Brazil was home to about 7-8 million people: five million of them were slaves. Slavery was an important issue during his reign: Pedro and Brazil's close allies the British opposed it (Britain even chased slavers ships into Brazilian ports) and the wealthy landowner class supported it. During the American Civil War, the Brazilian legislature quickly recognized the Confederate States of America, and after the war a group of southern slave owners even relocated to Brazil. Pedro, stymied in his efforts to outlaw slavery, even set up a fund to buy freedom for slaves and once purchased the freedom of a slave on the street. Still, he managed to whittle away at it: in 1871 a law was passed which made children born to slaves free. Slavery was finally abolished in 1888: Pedro, in Milan at the time, was overjoyed.
Membership
Pedro II became a member of the Royal Society, the Russian Academy of Sciences, The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium and the American Geographical Society. In 1875, he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences, an honor previously granted to only two other heads of state: Peter the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Royal Society
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium
American Geographical Society
French Academy of Sciences
1875
Personality
Pedro was tested early and often as Emperor and consistently proved able to deal with his nation’s problems. He showed a firm hand with the continuing revolts in different parts of the country. Brazil saw many improvements during his reign, such as railways, water systems, paved roads and improved port facilities. A continued close relationship with Great Britain gave Brazil an important trading partner. During his long reign, Pedro became one of the greatly admired statesmen of the nineteenth century. His friendships stretched from French philosophers to men of science such as Alexander Graham Bell. He studied and spoke many languages, wrote poetry, experimented in science, and was a liberal in his religious beliefs. He was considered a “philosopher king” by many observers as he governed Brazil with honesty, integrity, and moderation.
His power as ruler was kept in check by an aristocratic Senate and en elected Chamber of Deputies: these legislative bodies controlled the nation, but Pedro held a vague poder moderador or "moderation power:" in other words, he could affect legislation already proposed, but could not initiate much of anything himself. He used his power judiciously, and the factions in the legislature were so contentious among themselves that Pedro was able to effectively wield much more power than he supposedly had. Pedro always put Brazil first, and his decisions were always made on what he thought was best for the country: even the most dedicated opponents of monarchy and Empire came to respect him personally. Pedro’s modesty, simplicity, and democracy; tenacity of high purposes; devotion to duty as he saw it; unwearied enthusiasm for learning; subordination of material values to intellectual and spiritual ones; his integrity, magnanimity, understanding pity, and enduring kindness made him one of the finest personalities of modern times.
Sometime around 1850, Pedro II began having discreet affairs with other women. The most famous and enduring of these relationships involved Luísa Margarida Portugal de Barros, Countess of Barral, with whom he formed a romantic and intimate, though not adulterous, friendship after she was appointed governess to the emperor's daughters in November 1856. Throughout his life, the Emperor held onto a hope of finding a soulmate, something he felt cheated of due to the necessity of a marriage of state to a woman for whom he never felt passion. This is but one instance illustrating his dual identity: one who assiduously carried out his duty in the role of emperor which destiny had assigned to him and another who considered the imperial office an unrewarding burden and who was happier in the worlds of literature and science.
Physical Characteristics:
Pedro II of Brazil had dark brown eyes, grey hair and an average body size.
Quotes from others about the person
“I did not note in the emperor’s face the slightest sign of resentment or anger. His words, as sober as usual, were the same at the end as at the start. He questioned, he listened, he reflected, and he maintained himself unmoved.”
"Prince whom the general opinion holds as the foremost of his era because of his gifted mind, and due to the constant application of that gift to the sciences and culture." - Alexandre Herculano.
Connections
Teresa Cristina of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Pedro II were married by proxy in Naples on 30 May 1843. Upon seeing her in person, the Emperor was noticeably disappointed. Teresa Cristina was short, a bit overweight and though not ugly, neither was she pretty. He did little to hide his disillusionment. One observer stated that he turned his back to Teresa Cristina, another depicted him as being so shocked that he needed to sit, and it is possible that both occurred. That evening, Pedro II wept and complained to Mariana de Verna, "They have deceived me, Dadama!" It took several hours to convince him that duty demanded that he proceed. The Nuptial Mass, with the ratification of the vows previously taken by proxy and the conferral of the nuptial blessing, occurred on the following day, 4 September.
The marriage between Pedro II and Teresa Cristina started off badly. With maturity, patience and their first child, Afonso, their relationship improved. Later Teresa Cristina gave birth to more children: Isabel, in 1846; Leopoldina, in 1847; and lastly, Pedro, in 1848. However, both boys died when very young, which devastated the Emperor.
