The Transfer of the Portuguese Court and Ideas of Empire

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2007

Journal Title

Portuguese Studies Review

Volume

15

Number

1-2

Publisher

Baywolf Press

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which the Portuguese empire was redefined in the wake of the transfer of the royal court to Rio de Janeiro in 1808. Using official archival documentation from members of the royal cabinet concerned with imperial affairs (from the National Archive, Rio de Janeiro), and pamphlets and books published by the Royal Press established in Rio following the court's arrival, the article examines the ways in which contemporaries, especially the Brazilian-born statesman Jose da Silva Lisboa, used the Anew science" of political economy to envision an imperial future following the establishment of a new capital at Rio de Janeiro and the opening of Brazil's ports, decreed in 1808 upon the Portuguese sovereign's arrival at Brazil. Along with the creation of a "United Kingdom" (1815), an economy of open ports was cast as having dismantled colonial hierarchies to provide the basis for unity and a truly empire-wide prosperity.

Comments

Published August 2009.

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