Araucaria (Jan 2011)
Transição do Brasil Império à República Velha
Abstract
This paper analyzes the transition undergone by the Brazilian Empire to the Old Republic. The slave-based monoculture and export-driven latifundium (large agricultural estate) has characterized Brazil as a colony. The major activity was in fact conducted in the rural areas. During the fi rst Reign, Brazil was raised to the condition of Kingdom (1815). Upon transition into a representative government, which begins with the Porto Revolution (1820), one has attempted to reintroduce the previous institutional condition to Brazil, virtually pushing us to Independence, eventually proclaimed on September 7th 1822. The period covered by the second Reign at least chronologically encompasses the Regency, between April 1831, upon D. Pedro I's abdication, and the declaration of his son D. Pedro II's legal age and inauguration (on July 24th 1840). The mostsignifi cant fact occurred in the second reign was unquestionably the slavery traffic abolition in 1850. The revolution of 1930 marked the fall of the fi rst republican Constitution.
