ABSTRACT
After lasting for three centuries, the Portuguese and Spanish colonial empires in the New World collapsed at the beginning of the nineteenth century. While the liberation of the Spanish colonies involved fifteen years of civil war from 1810 to 1825, the same outcome in Brazil occurred much less traumatically in barely one year of fighting. This relatively peaceful and speedy transition owed much to the influence of diplomatic and military events in Europe beginning with the unexpected transfer of the royal family from Portugal to Brazil in 1807. Under Dom João, the prince regent 1 and future King João VI, Portugal adopted an ambivalent stance in the succession of wars that afflicted Europe after the 1789 French Revolution. In 1806, however, the French emperor, Napoleon, devised the Continental System, a strategy of economic warfare that aimed to prohibit all trade between continental Europe and Britain. Portugal was given an ultimatum to comply, but prevaricated. Dom João's characteristically indecisive response reflected a fear of France mixed with reluctance to damage his country's close commercial relationship with Britain. In retaliation, French forces, under the command of General Andache Junot, invaded Portugal in November 1807.
