“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

Sovereign Proclamations and Renewed Conflicts in the 1820s
With the social revolution in the borderlands vanquished, the early 1820s offered a
brief moment of relative calm throughout the stormy Río de la Plata. With the imperial
court established in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil had managed to navigate the first revolutionary
decade without experiencing the widespread violence, political fragmentation and social
disruptions of the former Spanish colonies. Following their final victories over Artigas,
Brazilian leaders had formally annexed the Banda into the empire as the Cisplatine Province
in 1821. Imperial ambitions to extend Portuguese (and later Brazilian) dominions to their
“natural” border at the mouth of the Río de la Plata had finally been achieved. However,
beneath the triumphant façade, the decade-long wars in the Río de la Plata borderlands had
badly strained imperial resources. Soaring inflation resulting from the costs of the war
angered the local merchant community in Rio de Janeiro. As imperial resources sagged,
tensions on the peripheries increased. The Portuguese empire was at a crossroads.
As they had in the Spanish territories, events across the Atlantic finally led to the
collapse of the Portuguese imperial structure in the early 1820s. A liberal revolution erupted
in Portugal. Reformers in Lisbon demanded a new constitution, a provisional government
and most importantly the return of the Portuguese court to its “proper” place at the center
of a European empire. The Portuguese Emperor, João, departed for Lisbon. He left his son
Pedro as regent in Rio de Janeiro. Intended to placate the growing revolutionary movement
in Portugal, the return of the emperor to the old imperial core only accelerated the rupture
between the American and European segments of the empire. Although Portuguese
reformers included Brazilian delegates in the new constitutional convention, they
represented a decided minority. The assembly quickly adopted a pro-European agenda,
drafting a series of measures designed to return Portugal to the center of the imperial
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