A major factor in Brazil’s independence was economics. The post 1750 economics of Portugal had been struggling to say the least, while Brazil was the world’s richest source of gold and diamonds. Portugal assumed that its wine and olive oil trade would be secure to trade for manufactured goods, and at the same time they could rely on Brazil for its gold and diamond trade. This didn’t exactly work as well as planned. The throne was said to have spent large sums of money on the maintenance of its court and the costly construction of new pala

Six years later another plan was created, this time in the port city of Salvador. This was later described as Brazil’s first social revolution, because it was a conspiracy organized by artisans, soldiers, sharecroppers, and school teachers. This was a very different type of plan though, and the majority of the conspirators were mulatto, and this reflected the predominant socioeconomic order, they were not the elite but definitely not on the lower end of society. In August of 1798 they posted hand-written manifestos on walls and public places, they demanded the end of the ‘detestable metropolitan yoke of Portugal’, and the abolition of slavery and equality of all citizens, especially mulattoes and blacks. They wished their government to be ‘democratic, free and independent’.

However, the governor learned of their plot and ordered their movements monitored. The most dedicated conspirator was a man by the name of Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier. He was an amateur dentist and was commonly referred to as Tiradentes, which means ‘tooth-puller’. He was the only non-aristocrat among the group, and when the punishment came his more distinguished coconspirators were quick to cover up and deny their involvement in the conspiracy. After a show trial, the six defendants were sentences to be hanged, and Tiradentes became the fall guy. The remaining five were granted clemency and banished to a prison in Angola, but Tiradentes faced the gallows on April 21, 1792. After being hanged, his head was decapitated and displayed on a pole in the center of Ouro Preto. To drive home the message even further, the remainder of his body was quartered, with pieces displayed around the city; his house was demolished; and his grounds were salted to make sure the land would be barren.

The main regoion to send students to Coimbra was the mining province, Minas Gerais. These Brazilians were the sons of the wealthiest class, who had benefited greatly from the gold mines and had also brought back Enlightenment ideas and spread them around. One of the most influential authors was a Frenchman Abbe Raynal, he criticized the economic policies of both Portugal and England and called for Brazil’s ports to be thrown open.

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