The province of Pernambuco in the context of independence

Abstract

This article presents the peculiarities of the independence process in a Pernambuco marked by two revolutions, in 1817 and in 1824. The great wealth of the old captaincy provided by the abundant production of sugar and cotton, caused the dissatisfaction of the producing classes with the excess of taxes destined for Rio de Janeiro and with the permanence, even after the elevation of Brazil to the Kingdom, of a form of colonial government. Thus, Pernambuco's accession to the Constitutional Revolution of 1820 had as its objective the conquest of more autonomy, especially fiscal, for that province. The breakup of D. Pedro with the courts and the rise of João Bonifácio to the ministry, identified by Pernambuco as averse to constitutionalism, created the fear that a setback was being plotted in the rights included in the bases of the constitution. Pernambuco's resistance to adhering to the convening of the Council of Prosecutors and, in a second moment, the violent reaction it had in the face of the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly by D. Pedro I, would mark the rupture and emergence of the Confederation of Ecuador.