The Emperor of Brazil hovered between life and death. Pedro II was admitted to a hospital in Milan while traveling through Europe and had already received the last ointment when, on May 22, 1888, he received the news that slavery had been abolished in his country. With moist eyes he said: “Demos grace a Deus. Grand povo! Grand povo!” (We thank God. Great people! Great people!) Not much later he rose from his sickbed and traveled back to Brazil, where he was showered with the affection of his countrymen. Only the large landowners and the army disagreed with their emperor, as it soon became clear.
The second Pedro was the son of Pedro I, the first emperor of Brazil. His mother died when he was one year old and his father abdicated in 1831 and died three years later. Pedro junior was therefore on his own from an early stage, although he was initially assisted by regents. He was declared an adult at the age of fourteen, after which he took power in Brazil himself.
He did this out of a sense of duty, but not wholeheartedly. Throughout his life, Pedro II would have a difficult relationship with his office, despite the fact that he did his job well according to his compatriots and had exemplary progressive views even by today’s standards. He was in favor of freedom of speech, in favor of a constitutional monarchy and in favor of the abolition of slavery. He also corresponded with the great minds of his time, men such as Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alexander Graham Bell and Louis Pasteur. Victor Hugo called him the “grandson of Marcus Aurelius,” the second-century Roman philosopher-emperor. Pedro’s nickname o Magnânimo (the Magnanimous) was therefore amply deserved.
His fight for the abolition of slavery lasted decades. From an early age he intended to put an end to this abuse. As early as 1850 he threatened to resign if the supply of new slaves from overseas was not stopped. He got his way, but anyone born on Brazilian soil to an unfree mother still faced the prospect of life as a slave.
Pedro asked parliament to put an end to this practice, and this finally happened in 1871. He made quite a few enemies, people who were convinced that the Brazilian economy would implode without slave labor. Meanwhile, the emperor himself became increasingly bored with his work.
The complete abolition of slavery in 1888 was therefore not the crowning achievement of his regime, but the beginning of the end. The army staged a coup a year later. Pedro did not resist, despite pleas from his supporters. “I’ve been working too hard and I’m tired. I am going to rest.”
The emperor left for Paris, where he lived in poverty and died after two years. In Brazil it quickly became clear how important he had been as a connecting factor. The country entered decades of bloody political unrest.
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