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The history of the kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves, from the First Treaty of San Ildefonso and the beginning of the reign of Queen Maria I in 1777, to the end of the Liberal Wars in 1834, spans a complex historical period in which several important political and military events led to the end of the absolutist regime and to the installation of a constitutional monarchy in the country. In 1807, Napoleon ordered the invasion of Portugal and subsequently the royal family and its entire court migrated to Brazil, John I declaring the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in 1816. This would be one of the causes for the declaration of Brazilian independence by Pedro I of Brazil in 1822, following a liberal revolution in Portugal. The liberal period was stormy and short as Prince Michael of Portugal (Pedro's brother) supported an absolutist revolution endeavoring to restore all power to the monarchy. Pedro eventually returned to Portugal and fought and defeated his brother in the Liberal Wars in which liberalism prevailed and Portugal became a constitutional monarchy. ==Queen Maria I== The death of King Joseph in 1777 forced the accession of Princess Maria Francisca, his eldest daughter, to the throne of Portugal; she succeeded her father as the first Queen regnant of the 650-year-old country, which was still recovering from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Before becoming queen, Princess Maria and her husband, the Infante Pedro, lived on the sidelines of politics, but were clearly unsympathetic to her father's former Prime Minister, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, the Marquis of Pombal, who had been the ''de facto'' ruler of the kingdom for the past 27 years.〔José Hermano Saraiva, (2007), p.260〕〔Marcus Cheke (1969), p.3〕 During her father's last few years, she had been the Marquis' fiercest detractor; once in power, she eagerly dismissed him and then exiled him to Pombal.〔Her dislike for Pombal was so great that she issued one of the world's earliest restraining orders, commanding that Pombal should never be closer than to her; in situations where the Queen was close to his estates, he was compelled to remove himself from his house to fulfill the royal decree. She is also reported to have had tantrums at the slightest reference to her father's former Prime Minister.〕 Although the queen retained many of the Marquis' other ministers, she restored most of the privileges of the nobility and clergy, and released many of Pombal's political prisoners.〔〔José Hermano Saraiva, (2007), p.260-261〕 The economy was reorganized and Pombaline monopolies were abandoned. However, international conditions favored the economic situation in Portugal as the balance of trade was positive, helped by wine exports and a decrease of British imports.〔José Hermano Saraiva, (2007), p.261〕 The period was, while tainted by political instability, a time of cultural renovation, marked by the completion of the Palace at Queluz, the beginnings of the Ajuda Palace, the São Carlos Theatre, the Estrela Basilica and the immense Convent of Santa Clara in Vila do Conde.〔José Hermano Saraiva, (2007), p.262-263〕 In 1789, the French Revolution caused great social upheaval in Europe. The eventual Portuguese reaction was to land forces in Catalonia, and together with the Spanish forces attack the French in the Pyrenees in the War of Roussillon (1794).〔José Hermano Saraiva, (2007), p.263〕 The war did not go well, and by 1795, Spain had privately sued for peace, signed an alliance and aligned its external politics against Great Britain.〔José Hermano Saraiva, (2007), p.264〕 Even as Portugal was politically divided between continuing its old alliance with Britain, its people were also divided. The French Revolution, as seen by intellectuals and progressives, was romanticized: Bocage and the ''Partido Francês'' (French Party) believed the French could usher in a liberal revolution in Europe. The French represented a threat to the traditionalist nobility who were returning to prominence and were very willing to fight them externally or internally.〔 It was at about this time that Queen Maria, already possessed of a religious mania, began to show signs of mental illness.〔José Hermano Saraiva, (2007), p.265〕 When after 1799 she became incapable of handling state affairs, her son, Infante John of Braganza, began to use the title of Prince-Regent. The traditionalist adversaries of France, however, did not look to John, but rather to his wife Carlota Joaquina for support, and at one point attempted a coup against the prince.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Portugal (1777–1834)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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