| Description |
The new world has generally been quite hostile to the institution of nobility. During colonial times, titles and honors were usually restricted to governmental administration who rarely entered the mainstream of American life. With independence, nobility was generally rejected. Brazil, however, presents a most striking exception to this rule. Traditionally, Portuguese nobility was a weak, bureaucratic, urban class that was dependent upon the monarchy for both wealth and power. True feudalism did not appear in Lusitania. Lines between the various strata of nobility were blurred and upward mobility was easy for the wealthy. This unique tradition was transplanted to Brazil in toto but it did not adapt well. The bureaucracy (generally the higher, titled nobility - representatives of the central government) clung to the urban centers along the coast. There they tried to maintain the same life they had known at the court. The wild American interior demanded a sturdy, adventurous type, however, and gradually a side branch developed. An entirely different, truly Brazilian aristocracy resulted. As a rule, this new breed of nobility originated, not from among the courtiers and title holders, but from among the lesser fidalgos who, suffering dire financial straights in Europe, emmigrated but fro among the lesser fidalgos who, suffering dire financial straights in Europe, emmigrated to Brazil in the hope of restoring their wealth and position. In the absence of mineral wealth, these turned to the land, The crown encouraged them in this by granting extensive land concessions, accompanied by near sovereign powers to homens de qualidade. Soon, worked by slave labor, these plantations were producing vast amounts of sugar and later coffee. The extensive land requirements of monoculture and the nature of Brazilian georaphy kept the landlord and his following of agregados isolated in small population clusters. Thus remote from centralized power, the patriarch was the only effective authority. As was traditional, public office remained the private field of nobility; so it was in the rural patriarch and his family that civil, military, economic, religious and judicial power rested. This nobility became extremely independent of centralized authority. They were wealthy and respected. They even dictated terms to crown representatives. Their plantations took on the aspects of quasi-feudal manors. The rural nobility reigned supreme until mid-eighteenth century. At that time Brazil's mineral wealth became known and agriculture lost its place as the only avenue to wealth and noble status. With the development of mining, Brazil took on new importance and the central government suddenly felt the need to establish effective control over the vast interior. Gradually the rural patriarchate was robbed of its power. Subjected to unprecedented restrictions and humiliation, the native nobility rebelled, united behind the independence movement and completely severed all ties with Portugal. But independence did not prove to be the solution of the problem. Since popular feelings among the urban dwellers demanded "democracy" within the nobility, the rural patriarchate was temporarily supressed while more plebian elements were raised to noble status. The old meaning of nobility was further modified by the 1824 constitution which revoked all noble privileges and reduced titles to mere honorary designations. with the coming of the second empire in 1840, the agricultural nobility was partially restored to actual power but this return was ephemeral. An irreversible trend. When the republic was proclaimed in 1889, the enfeebled nobility succumbed. |
