k
in the same region had been suppressed, the more difficult task of
satisfying all parties by a constitution had to be undertaken. There
were partisans of monarchy and advocates of republicanism, men of
conservative and of liberal sympathies; disagreements, also, between the
Brazilians and the native Portuguese residents were frequent. So far as
possible Pedro desired to meet popular desires, and yet without imposing
too many limitations on the monarchy itself. But in the assembly called
to draft the constitution the liberal members made a determined effort
to introduce republican forms. Pedro thereupon dissolved that body and
in 1826 promulgated a constitution of his own.

The popularity of the Emperor thereafter soon began to wane, partly
because of the scandalous character of his private life, and partly
because he declined to observe constitutional restrictions and chose his
ministers at will. His insistent war in Portugal to uphold the claims
of his daughter to the throne betrayed, or seemed to betray, dynastic
ambitions. His inability to hold Uruguay as a Brazilian province, and
his continued retention of foreign soldiers who had been employed in the
struggle with the Argentine Confederation, for the apparent purpose of
quelling possible insurrections in the future, bred much discontent. So
also did the restraints he laid upon the press, which had been infected
by the liberal movements in neighboring republics. When he failed
to subdue these outbreaks, his rule became all the more discredited.
Thereupon, menaced by a dangerous uprising at Rio de Janeiro in 1831, he
abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Pedro, then five years of age,
and set sail for Portugal.

Under the influence of Great Britain the small European mother country
had in 1825 recognized the independence of its big transatlantic
dominion; but it was not until 1836 that the Cortes of Spain authorized
the Crown to enter upon negotiations looking to the same action in
regard to the eleven republics which had sprung out of its colonial
domain. Even then many years elapsed before the mother country
acknowledged the independence of them all.

CHAPTER V. THE AGE OF THE DICTATORS

Independence without liberty and statehood without respect for law are
phrases which sum up the situation in Spanish America after the failure
of Bolivar's "great design." The outcome was a collection of
crude republics, racked by internal dissension and torn by mutua