Portuguese royal family flee to Brazil after the French invasion.

In November 1807, the Braganzas, the Portuguese royal family, with its court and bureaucracy sailed with British naval escort from Portugal to Brazil. With the seat of the Portuguese government in Rio de Janeiro, many of the old restrictions on trade and commerce disappeared. Most important, the government opened Brazil's ports to British trade and merchants, manufacturing was encouraged, schools and institutions of higher education were constructed, and a new army was formed. (Everything changed again when Napoleon was defeated in 1815. Many Brazilian men and women were initially optimistic when Portugal granted Brazil coequal status as a kingdom in 1816, but Portuguese in Portugal gradually reconstructed their country and demanded that mercantilism be restored and that King João return to Portugal in 1821. Both João and his son, Pedro, recognized that too much had changed to return to the days when Brazil was a colony. Thus, as he left for Portugal, João advised his son to be ready to seize the crown of Brazil if demands for independence accelerated. Under pressure from the Portuguese Côrtes and Portuguese troops in Brazil, Pedro issued his "fico" or declaration that "I am staying" on January 9, 1822. He created a new government with some Brazilian advisors then announced "Independence or Death" on September 7, 1822. Three months later he was crowned Pedro I and became a more-or-less constitutional Emperor, who, nonetheless, had the power to dissolve the national assembly.)