ABSTRACT
France and Spain demand that Portugal abandon its alliance with Britain in 1801 January. The Portuguese failure to respond leads to Spanish invasion and beginning of the 'War of the Oranges' in May. An ultimatum is received from Spain and France requiring a declaration of war on Britain, the confiscation of British goods, and the arrest of British men on Portuguese territory in August 1807. Junot declares that the House of Braganza has ceased to rule and that the government of Portugal has passed to Napoleon represented in his person 1808, February 1. In 1817, May a liberal plot is unearthed in Lisbon led by General Gomes Freire, a masonic leader who had commanded Portuguese troops fighting for Napoleon in Russia. In January-February 1821, similar disorders in Brazil lead John VI to return to Portugal leaving his son, Pedro, in Brazil. John returns to find a constitutional system established as a result of the revolution.
