page_title: History of Portugal (1777–1834)
section_title: 1820 Revolution
hierarchical_section_title: History of Portugal (1777–1834) / Liberal Revolution / 1820 Revolution
caption_attribution_description: Copy of a lost original by Domingos Sequeira (ca. 1802).
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: A report was sent from the Regency to John VI on 2 June 1820, stating:
  "Portugal has arrived at a crisis in which it will suffer a revolution of fortunes, of order, an anarchy, and other ills that will bring a complete reduction of public credit...".
  Portugal's neighbor Spain, during its resistance to the Napoleonic invasions, had approved a liberal Constitution when King Ferdinand VII was in exile, but it was quickly abrogated on his return, and he reigned as absolute monarch. The Spanish model also served as an example for the Portuguese: a popular uprising in the provinces against absolutism forced the Spanish monarch to reinstate the 1820 Constitutional monarchy.
  The significance of events in Spain was not lost on a small group of politically like-minded bourgeoisie in Porto; two years earlier, Manuel Fernandes Tomás, José Ferreira Borges, José da Silva Carvalho and João Ferreira Viana had founded the Sinédrio, a clandestine liberal group who debated the political evolution of Spain and Portugal and  would influence subsequent events. The Sinédrio's members were a mixture of merchants, property-owners, the military and noblemen, whose liberalism was based not on personal economic circumstances but on their exposure to international literature and philosophies at university or in the masonic lodges. The common people were rural, almost totally illiterate and lived in a culture of tradition and religion guided by the clergy. The ideological differences between the doctrinairism of the liberal movement and the dogmas of religion would bring the two groups into conflict eventually. In the meantime, however, the rhetoric of the liberal intellectuals had influenced those soldiers in the northern garrisons who on 24 August 1820, first  proclaimed in Porto a revolution against the absolute monarchy of Portugal. A colonel read out the declaration:
  "Let's join our brothers-in-arms to organize a provisional government that will call on the Cortes to draw-up a Constitution, whose absence is the origin of all our ills."
  The Regency in Lisbon attempted to gather forces to oppose the revolt, but on 15 September they too joined the movement.
  The administration of William Beresford was swiftly replaced by a Provisional Junta, and the "General Extraordinary and Constituent Cortes of the Portuguese Nation", whose deputies were chosen by indirect election, was summoned on 1 January 1821 to draft a written Constitution. This constitutional assembly was composed of diplomatic functionaries, merchants, agrarian burghers, and university-educated representatives who were usually lawyers. Most of all these were ideological romantics, later referred to as Vintistas for their audacious radicalism. State censorship of the press and literary productions was lifted, and the Portuguese Inquisition was extinguished; a general amnesty for those involved in anti-liberal movements was also ordered. On 26 April 1821, John VI departed for Lisbon, arriving on 3 July of the same year, and communicated to the Cortes the establishment of a Regency in Brazil in the name of his heir-apparent, Pedro I of Brazil. The deputies did not recognize the King's authority to designate regents, nor support the Bragança Agreement, which stipulated that the Portuguese Crown should pass to Prince Pedro if Brazil gained its independence.
caption: The Prince-Regent, who would become King John VI of Portugal, was not interested in returning to mainland Portugal immediately after the Peninsular War
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