PORTUGAL (HISTORY.) 



653 



enemies of Spain, now attacked the defenceless 

 Portugal, the wealth of which promised so rich a 

 booty, and whose possessions were now gradually 

 torn away. The old heroic spirit of the nation was 

 quenched in the last days of its independence, and 

 the Portuguese had made themselves so much hated 

 by their arrogance and severity, that the oppressed 

 princes and people of Asia were eager for any 

 change. Spain made no exertions in favour of a 

 nation which she had involved in her own declining 

 fortunes. The Dutch conquered the Moluccas (q. v.), 

 and, in 1624, half of Brazil, which had been dis- 

 covered (1500) through a fortunate accident, in the 

 flourishing period of the reign of John II., by 

 Alvarez de Cabral. They took possession of the 

 settlements on the coast of Guinea in 1637, and 

 forced their way into the rich markets of India, 

 where they pressed hard upon the Portuguese. To 

 these losses was added the rapacity of the Spaniards, 

 who alienated the finest domains of the Portuguese 

 crown. The Portuguese nobility, exasperated by 

 this oppression, ana the contemptuous conduct of 

 Olivarez, minister of Philio IV., entered into a con- 

 spiracy, which was planned and executed with 

 great art, and, December 1, 1640, placed on the 

 throne John IV., duke of Braganza, a descendant 

 of the old royal family. 



3. Portugal under the House of Braganza, and 

 dependent on the Policy of England (1640 1820). 

 In justification of this revolution, which restored 

 the independence of Portugal, the cortes of 1641 

 issued a manifesto, addressed to the powers of 

 Europe. The war with Spain, which was the 

 result of this measure, was terminated by a treaty 

 of peace in 1668, and a renunciation, on the part 

 of Spain, of her claims to the Portuguese crown. 

 A treaty of peace was also concluded with Holland, 

 under English mediation, by Alphonso VI., suc- 

 cessor of John, and Pedro II. (who, in 1667, had 

 deposed his brother Alphonso), by which Brazil 

 was restored to Portugal ; but its former greatness 

 could not now have been restored, even had the 

 princes of this line displayed as much vigour and 

 wisdom as some of them showed good intentions. 

 A commercial treaty had been concluded with 

 England under the first Braganza prince, and, in 

 1703, a new treaty was concluded by the English 

 ambassador, Mr Methuen, which secured to Eng- 

 land the advantages of the newly discovered gold 

 minds in Brazil. From this time the relations with 

 England continued to become more intimate, until 

 Portugal was no longer in a condition to maintain 

 an independent attitude in European politics. The 

 cortes, in the ordinance for assembling which the 

 king had expressly required, that the third estate 

 should send as deputies no persons who held offices 

 in the department of finance, in the judiciary, 

 the army or the navy, was not summoned after 1697. 

 During the long reign of John V. (1707 30), some 

 vigour was exerted in regard to the foreign rela- 

 tions, and something was attempted for the promo- 

 tion of the national welfare at home (the restrictions 

 on the power of the inquisition, and the foundation 

 of an academy of Portuguese history, for example) ; 

 but, in the former case, without decisive consequen- 

 ces, and, in the latter, without a completion of the 

 plans proposed, while the sumptuous monastery at 

 Mafra, and the dear-bought permission to institute 

 a patriarch of Lisbon, exhausted the resources o! 

 the country. Under his son and successor, Joseph 

 I., the marquis of Poinbal (q. v.), a vigorous re- 

 former, such as Portugal required, adininisteret 

 the government. He attacked the Jesuits and the 

 nobility, who, during the preceding reigns, had ex 

 ercised a secret influence in the government. .The 



xposure of the power of the Jesuits in Paraguay, 

 heir conduct at the time of the earthquake in Lis- 

 ><>ii (in 1755), and the conspiracy against the life 

 f the king (1759), led to the suppression of the 

 rder, in 1757, they had been deprived of the post 

 f confessors to the royal family, and forbidden the 

 court. Two years after, all the Jesuits were bru- 

 shed the kingdom, and their estates were confis- 

 cated. The brave Count of Schauenburg Lippe, 

 o whose services against Spain (1760) Portugal 

 as so much indebted, likewise reformed the Portu- 

 _uese army ; but, soon after his departure, the effects 

 of his improvements disappeared. On the accession 

 of Maria Francisca Isabella, eldest daughter of 

 Joseph (in 1777), Pombal lost the influence which lie 

 lad possessed for twenty-five years. To him POP 

 tugal owed her revival from her previous lethargy ; 

 and although many of his useful regulations did 

 not survive his fall, yet the enlightened views which 

 le introduced, and the national feeling which he 

 awakened, were not without permanent effects. 

 During the reign of Maria, the power was in the 

 lands of an ignorant nobility, and a not less igno- 

 ant clergy. In 1792, on account of the sickness 

 of the queen, Juan (John) Maria Joseph, prince of 

 Brazil (the title of the prince-royal until 1816), was 

 declared regent (see John FJ.J, and, in 1799, her 

 malady having terminated in a confirmed mental 

 alienation, the prince was declared regent with full 

 regal powers, but made no change in the policy of 

 ;he government. His connexions with England 

 involved him in the w*rs of that power against 

 France ; and the Portuguese troops distinguished 

 themselves, by their valour in the peninsular cam- 

 paigns. But commercial distress, the accumulat- 

 ing debt, and the threatening language which 

 Spain was compelled by France to adopt, led to a 

 peace with France in 1797. The disasters of the 

 French arms, in 1799, encouraged the regent to 

 renew hostilities, in alliance with England and 

 Russia ; but after general Bonaparte had estab- 

 lished his authority, Spain was obliged to declare 

 war against Portugal (1801), which, however, was 

 terminated the same year by the treaty of Badajoz, 

 by which Portugal was obliged to cede Olivenza, 

 with the payment of a large sum of money to Spain. 

 Portugal, meanwhile, preserved a mere shadow 

 of independence by the greatest sacrifices, until at 

 last Junot entered the country, and the house of 

 Braganza was declared, by Napoleon, to have for- 

 feited the throne (on account of the refusal of the 

 prince to seize the English merchandise in his do- 

 minions). The regent now threw himself entirely 

 into the arms of the English, and, Nov. 29, 1807, 

 embarked for Brazil. Junot entered the capital 

 the next day, and Portugal was treated as a con- 

 quered country. An English force was landed, and, 

 in the northern provinces, numerous bodies of native 

 troops determined to sustain the struggle for free- 

 dom ; a junta was also established in Oporto to 

 conduct the government. After some hard fighting, 

 the decisive battle of Vimeira took place (Aug. 21, 

 1808), which was followed by the convention of 

 Cintra, and the evacuation of the country by the 

 French forces. See Thiebault's Relation de I' Ex- 

 pedition de Portugal (Paris, 1817). The Portu- 

 guese now took an active part in the war for 

 Spanish independence. (See Spain.) On the 

 death of Maria, John VI. ascended the throne of 

 Portugal and Brazil. This transference of the court 

 of Lisbon into an American colony was followed by 

 important consequences : firstly, that Brazil attempt- 

 ed to withdraw itself from dependence on England, 

 and, secondly, that the colony gradually became a 

 separate state ; in Portugal, on the contrary, the 



