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The Feeling of Nationhood |
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The role of Portugal during the period it ruled Brazil was essentially that of intermediary between the colony as producer and the European economic centres as consumers. The fact that England remained Portugal's principal trading partner during this period is important. Various commercial treaties were signed between the two Governments (1642; 1654; 1661; 1703; 1810; 1826), highly favourable to English mercantilism development through the share of Portuguese colonial trade thereby obtained. Monopolising all trade with Brazil, Portugal retained a substantial part of the profits, and this led to growing discontent among the settlers. Ever since the Dutch and French invasions of the northeast region at the beginning of the 17th century, the colonists had been developing a feeling of nationalism because of the fight to expel the invaders.
The stirrings of unrest stemming from the urge to secure political freedom began in earnest in the second half of the 18th century. Although the concept of independence was generally shared, some movements against the Portuguese authorities were clearly regional in scope. The Minas Conspiracy (Conjuração Mineira), the most significant of these isolated movements, took place in the centre of what was then the gold mining region. Its enthusiastic leader was a youthful cavalry officer, Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, nicknamed Tiradentes. Tiradentes had found support mainly among intellectuals seized with the same libertarian ideals that had inspired the French Encyclopedists and the leaders of the American Revolution. The conspiracy was uncovered and its leaders received very harsh sentences. Tiradentes was hanged in a public square in Rio de Janeiro. Other incidents, some of which had wide support, occurred in Pernambuco and Bahia, where the decline of the sugar economy aggravated the problems created by the country's subordination to Portugal. None of them, however, was important enough to seriously undermine the Portuguese domination at the time.
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