John VI of Portugal in the context of "Pedro I of Brazil"

The independence of Brazil comprised a series of political and military events that led to the independence of the Kingdom of Brazil from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves as the Brazilian Empire. It is celebrated on 7 September, the date when prince regent Pedro of Braganza declared the country's independence from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves on the banks of the Ipiranga brook in 1822 on what became known as the Cry of Ipiranga. Formal recognition by Portugal came with the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, signed in 1825.

In 1807, the French army invaded Portugal, which had refused to participate in the continental blockade against the United Kingdom. Unable to resist the invasion, the Portuguese royal family and government fled to Brazil, which was then the richest and most developed of the Portuguese colonies. The installation of the House of Appeals and other public bodies of the Portuguese government in Rio de Janeiro represented a series of political, economic and social transformations that led to then prince regent John of Braganza (later king John VI of Portugal), to elevate the State of Brazil to the status of a kingdom on 16 December 1815, united with its former metropolis.

Rio de Janeiro, and also known as Rio, is the capital of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the second-most-populous city in Brazil after São Paulo and the sixth-most-populous city in the Americas.

Founded in 1565, the city was initially the seat of the Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a domain of the Portuguese Empire. In 1763, it became the capital of the State of Brazil. In 1808, when the Portuguese Royal Court moved to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro became the seat of the court of Queen Maria I of Portugal. Under the leadership of her son, prince regent John of Braganza, Maria raised Brazil to the dignity of a kingdom, within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and Algarves. Rio remained as the capital of the pluricontinental monarchy until 1822, when the Brazilian War of Independence began. This is one of the few instances in history that the capital of a colonizing country officially shifted to a city in one of its colonies. Rio de Janeiro subsequently served as the capital of the Empire of Brazil, until 1889, and then the capital of republican Brazil until 1960 when the capital was transferred to Brasília.

French and Spanish forces invaded Portugal from 19–30 November 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars, sparking the Peninsular War. The Franco-Spanish invasion force was led by General Jean-Andoche Junot, while the Portuguese were under the nominal command of Prince Regent John, the future King John VI of Portugal. French and Spanish troops swiftly occupied the country in the face of little resistance due to the poor state of the Portuguese military.

Prior to the invasion, Napoleon had issued an ultimatum to the Portuguese government, which reluctantly acceded to most of his demands. Nevertheless, Napoleon ordered Junot to invade Portugal together with three Spanish Army divisions. Paralyzed by fear and indecision, the Portuguese authorities offered no resistance. Junot's troops occupied Lisbon on 30 November 1807, only to find that John and many of the leading families had escaped to Brazil aboard an Anglo-Portuguese fleet. The French quickly occupied the entire country and appropriated or disbanded the Portuguese Army. The following year saw the Portuguese revolt against their French occupiers, leading to the Battle of Évora in July 1808.

The Portuguese royal court transferred from Lisbon to the Portuguese colony of Brazil in a strategic retreat of Queen Maria I, Prince Regent John (the future King John VI), the Braganza royal family, its court, and senior officials, totaling nearly 10,000 people, on 27 November 1807. The embarkment took place on 27 November, but due to weather conditions, the ships were only able to depart on 29 November. The Braganza royal family departed for Brazil just days before Napoleonic forces invaded Portugal on 1 December 1807. The Portuguese crown remained in Brazil from 1808 until the Liberal Revolution of 1820 led to the return of John VI of Portugal on 26 April 1821.

For thirteen years, Rio de Janeiro functioned as the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in what some historians call a metropolitan reversal (i.e., a colony exercising governance over the entirety of an empire). The period in which the court was located in Rio brought significant changes to the city and its residents, and can be interpreted through several perspectives. It had profound impacts on Brazilian society, economics, infrastructure, and politics. The transfer of the prince regent and the royal court "represented the first step toward Brazilian independence, since the prince regent immediately opened the ports of Brazil to foreign shipping and turned the colonial capital into the seat of government."

The Brazilian War of Independence (Portuguese: Guerra de Independência do Brasil) was an armed conflict that led to the separation of Brazil from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. The war was fought across various regions of Brazil, including Bahia, Maranhão, Pará, Piauí, and Cisplatina (present-day Uruguay), with naval battles occurring along the Atlantic coast. Brazilian forces, consisting of regular troops, local militias, and a hastily assembled fleet, defeated the Portuguese garrisons to establish the Empire of Brazil under emperor Pedro I. The war formally ended with the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro in 1825, in which Portugal recognized Brazil's independence.

After the outbreak of the Liberal Revolution in 1820, which forced king John VI to return to Portugal in 1821 after more than a decade in Rio de Janeiro, tensions between local Brazilian elites and the Portuguese Cortes arose. During his stay in Brazil, John VI had elevated the colony to the status of a kingdom in union with Portugal. The changes allowed Brazil to have its own government institutions and directly trade with the rest of the world, which many elites sought to preserve. Efforts by the Portuguese Cortes to restore Brazil to its former colonial status and reduce its political autonomy were met with resistance in various provinces. The tensions culminated in prince regent Pedro of Braganza's proclamation of independence on 7 September 1822, in what became known as the Cry of Ipiranga. Northern provinces, such as Bahia, Maranhão, and Pará, which maintained stronger ties with Portugal than the government in Rio de Janeiro, resisted Brazilian sovereignty, with Portuguese garrisons keeping control of key cities such as Salvador, São Luís, Belém, and Montevideo, in the South.

Dom Miguel I (26 October 1802 – 14 November 1866), known by several nicknames, was the King of Portugal between 1828 and 1834. He was the son of King John VI and Queen Carlota Joaquina.

Following his exile as a result of his actions in support of absolutism in the April Revolt (Abrilada) of 1824, Miguel returned to Portugal in 1828 as regent and fiancé of his niece who was Queen Maria II. As regent, he claimed the Portuguese throne in his own right, since according to the so-called Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom his older brother Pedro IV and therefore the latter's daughter had lost their rights from the moment that Pedro had made war on Portugal and become the sovereign of a foreign state (Brazilian Empire). This led to a difficult political situation, during which many people were killed, imprisoned, persecuted or sent into exile, and which culminated in the Portuguese Liberal Wars between authoritarian absolutists and progressive constitutionalists. In the end, Miguel was forced out from the throne and lived the last 32 years of his life in exile.

The monarchs of Brazil (Portuguese: monarcas do Brasil) were the imperial heads of state and hereditary rulers of Brazil from the House of Braganza that reigned from the creation of the Brazilian monarchy in 1815 as a constituent kingdom of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves until the republican coup d'état that overthrew the Empire of Brazil in 1889.

The coast of the territory which would become known as Brazil was first explored by Portuguese navigators on 22 April 1500. This territory was subsequently colonized by the Portuguese crown. Since the transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil in 1808, colonial rule had de facto ended. On 16 December 1815, Prince Regent John, the future king John VI, raised Brazil to the status of a kingdom, thus making his mother, Maria I, the reigning queen, the first monarch of Brazil. The next year, 20 March 1816, John succeeded his mother as king of the united Luso-Brazilian monarchy. Having proclaimed independence of the Kingdom of Brazil from Portugal in 1822, Pedro I, son of John VI, was acclaimed the first emperor of Brazil on 12 October 1822. He was later succeeded on 7 April 1831 by his son Pedro II, deposed along with the 74-years-old monarchy on 15 November 1889 in a bloodless and unpopular military coup d'état.