Maria I of Portugal in the context of "José, Prince of Brazil"

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.

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 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.

Portugal had only two queens regnant: Maria I and Maria II (and, arguably, two more: Beatriz for a short period of time in the 14th century; and Teresa, in the 12th century, which technically makes her the first ruler and first queen of Portugal).

The other queens were queens consort, wives of the Portuguese kings. Many of them were highly influential in the country's history, either ruling as regents for their minor children or having a great influence over their spouses.

From the House of Braganza restoration in 1640 until the end of the reign of the Marquis of Pombal in 1777, the Kingdom of Portugal was in a transition period.Having been near its height at the start of the Iberian Union, the Portuguese Empire continued to enjoy the widespread influence in the world during this period that had characterized the period of the Discoveries. By the end of this period, however, the fortunes of Portugal and its empire had declined, culminating with the Távora affair, the catastrophic 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and the accession of Maria I, the first ruling Queen of Portugal.

The opulent use of Brazilian gold, the absolutist regime, the movement toward the independence of Brazil, the Methuen Treaty and the Lisbon earthquake contributed to the decline of Portugal's position in Europe and the world. These events, those at the end of the Aviz dynasty, and the period of the Iberian Union forced Portugal to depend more on its colonies, first India and then Brazil. This shift from India to Brazil was a natural consequence of the rise of the Dutch as well as the British Empire. A similar shift occurred after Brazil gained independence, leading Portugal to focus more on its possessions in Africa.

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, Maria I declaring the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in 1815. 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.