page_title: History of Portugal (1777–1834)
section_title: To Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: History of Portugal (1777–1834) / To Civil War
context_page_description: The history of the kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, from the First Treaty of San Ildefonso and the beginning of the reign of Queen Maria I in 1777, to the end of the Liberal Wars in 1834, spans a complex historical period in which several important political and military events led to the end of the absolutist regime and to the installation of a constitutional monarchy in the country.
  In 1807, Napoleon ordered the invasion of Portugal and subsequently the royal family and its entire court migrated to Brazil, Maria I declaring the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in 1815. This would be one of the causes for the declaration of Brazilian independence by Pedro I of Brazil in 1822, following a liberal revolution in Portugal.
  The liberal period was stormy and short as Miguel of Portugal supported an absolutist revolution endeavoring to restore all power to the monarchy. Pedro eventually returned to Portugal and fought and defeated his brother in the Liberal Wars in which liberalism prevailed and Portugal became a constitutional monarchy.
context_section_description: The death of King John VI sparked a constitutional crisis, as his rightful successor, Prince Pedro, was the Emperor of Brazil. To absolutists, the proclamation of Brazilian independence created a foreign nation, thus revoking Pedro's citizenship and his right of succession to the throne. John had left his daughter Princess Isabel Maria as regent. Prince Miguel was also an undesirable option for the liberals; he had been exiled due to several attempts he made to overthrow his own father, and supported the traditionalist politics of his mother, Queen Carlota, whom most of the liberals and moderates feared. Pedro accepted the throne of Portugal as King Pedro IV on 10 March 1826, after the regency deemed him the legitimate heir to the throne and sent a delegation to offer him the crown.
  In Brazil, Pedro faced other challenges to his newborn country; the people clearly did not wish to return to colonial status and subservience to the politics and economy of the much smaller kingdom of Portugal. The Brazilian constitution prohibited the Emperor from subsuming another crown; this fact obliged Pedro to choose between Portugal or Brazil. Pedro, a pragmatic politician, tried to find a solution that would reconcile the desires of the liberal, moderate and absolutist elements in the debate, and eventually chose to abdicate as king of Portugal (28 May 1826) in favor of his eldest daughter Princess Maria da Glória, who was seven years old at the time. The abdication was conditional: Portugal should receive a new Constitution, i.e., the 1826 Charter, and his brother Miguel, exiled in Vienna, was to marry the Princess when she came of age. The Constitution was not popular with the absolutists (who wanted Prince Miguel to govern as an absolute monarch), but the liberal Vintistas also did not support the Charter (which was imposed by the King); moderates bided their time as a counter-revolution was slowly building.
caption: Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, established the 1826 Portuguese Constitution, considered by some to be too pragmatic for the time
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