Silva Maia: the trader that the Atlantic revolutions made a journalist

Abstract

We present here the trajectory of José Joaquim da Silva Maia, a liberal trader and journalist who worked in Brazil and Portugal, getting directly involved in the war of independence of Baía, on the Portuguese side; in the liberal campaigns that stirred Portugal between 1826 and 1828 in favor of the constitution and against  D. Miguel and, finally, in the last year of the reign of  D. Pedro I, from Brazil, defending in Rio de Janeiro, in the name of the ideas of political and economic liberalism, the involvement of the Emperor and his government in the problems of Portuguese succession. A unique example of decisive action on both sides of the Atlantic, especially through the newspapers he published, Silva Maia's case is rich in analytical possibilities for understanding the possible appropriations of constitutionalist ideals in a context of intense transformations.