page_title: Luís I of Portugal
section_title: Reign
hierarchical_section_title: Luís I of Portugal / Reign
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen Maria Pia and King Luís I of Portugal in a Masked Ball, 1865. Português: A Rainha D. Maria Pia e o Rei D. Luís I de Portugal, num Baile de Máscaras, 1865.
context_page_description: Dom Luís I, known as The Popular was a member of the ruling House of Braganza, and King of Portugal from 1861 to 1889. The second son of Queen Maria II and her consort, King Ferdinand, he acceded to the throne upon the death of his elder brother King Pedro V.
context_section_description: Luís was a cultured man who wrote vernacular poetry, but had no distinguishing gifts in the political field into which he was thrust by the deaths of his brothers Pedro V and Fernando in 1861. Luís's domestic reign was a tedious and ineffective series of transitional governments called Rotativism formed at various times by the Progressistas (Liberals) and the Regeneradores (Conservatives), the party generally favoured by King Luís, who secured their long term in office after 1881.  Despite a flirtation with the Spanish succession prior to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Luís's reign was otherwise one of domestic stagnation as Portugal fell ever further behind the nations of western Europe in terms of public education, political stability, technological progress and economic prosperity.  In colonial affairs, Delagoa Bay was confirmed as a Portuguese possession in 1875, whilst Belgian activities in the Congo (1880s) and a British Ultimatum in 1890 denied Portugal a land link between Portuguese Angola and Portuguese Mozambique at the peak of the Scramble for Africa.
caption: Luís I and Maria Pia of Savoy at a masquerade ball, 1865.
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