Brazilian students in Coimbra: The Academic volunteer Battalion and the defense of liberalism in Portugal (1826–1828)

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to discuss the participation of Brazilian students enlisted in the Academic volunteer Battalion of Coimbra (1826-1828). Starting from the analysis of nominative lists, correspondence, registry books from the General Police Superintendency’s Office, memories, among others – documentation deposited at the National Archive of Torre do Tombo, National Library of Portugal, and at the Historical Archive of the University of Coimbra – we intend to investigate the bonds that brought together Portuguese and Brazilian in defense of the Constitutional Charter and the legitimacy of Don Pedro I (IV of Portugal) to the Portuguese throne. The letters from Sátiro Mariano Leitão, from Maranhão, suggest that the Brazilian students enlisted in the Battalion to defend liberalism more than to, necessarily, suggest projects of union between the two crowns, even though there were interests in that direction. Thus, it was necessary to defend a monarch who could guarantee the constitutional regime and stop the advance of absolutism embodied, in this Portuguese scenario, in Don Miguel.

Keywords

• liberalism
• brazilian students
• academic volunteer battalion of Coimbra
• constitutional charter
• miguelite counter-revolution