Independence of Brazil - The Independence War

The Independence War

The war between the Brazilians and Portuguese lasted from February 1822, with the burst of first skirmishes between militias, to November 1823, when the last Portuguese garrisons surrendered. In land and naval combats it involved both regular forces and civilian militia on both sides.

In the newly created Army and Navy the Brazilians had forced enlistment including foreign immigrants. They also made use of slaves in militias as well as freeing slaves to enlist them in army and navy. The land and naval combats covered the territories of Bahia, Cisplatina, Rio de Janeiro and the vice-kingdom of Grão-Pará. Maranhão and Pernambuco (which then embraced also what today are the States of Ceará, Piauí and Rio Grande do Norte) were also places where fighting occurred.

Fights between militias took the streets of the main cities of the mentioned territories in 1822 and in land, despite the arrival of additional forces from Portugal along the year of 1822 but the last quarter; the Portuguese forces although had neutralized the home-born militians in some cities like Salvador, Montevideo and São Luís, failed to defeat the militias in most of cities as well the guerrilla forces in the country side and when came 1823, while the Brazilian army had enlarged replacing its losses of men and supplies; the remaining Portuguese forces, already then on the defensive, were shortened of men and means, found themselves compelled to restrict their sphere of action to resist in some province capitals, that were also strategic sea ports, as for example Belém beyond the already mentioned Montevideo, Salvador & São Luís do Maranhão.

At sea, the Brazilian action was led by Thomas Cochrane. There was a shaky beginning due to sabotage done by the significant number of Portuguese in the crews. By 1823 the navy was reformed and the Portuguese members were replaced by Brazilians (released slaves and white men under forced enlistment) and foreign mercenaries (British and Americans). The Brazilian navy succeeded in clearing the coast of the Portuguese presence and isolating the last Portuguese land troops. By the end of that year they had pursued the remaining naval colonial forces across the Atlantic as far as the shore of Portugal.

There are still today no reliable statistics related to the numbers of, for example, the total of the war casualties. However based upon historical registration and contemporary reports of some battles of this war as well as upon the admitted numbers in similar fights that happened in these times around the globe, and considering how long the Brazilian independence war lasted (22 months), estimates of all killed in action on both sides are placed from around 5,700 to 6,200.