Today we’re going to talk about Pedro I’s successor, his son, Pedro II. He will rule the Empire of Brazil for 58 years, until its demise in 1889—making him one of the longer ruling monarchs in all of history. e will guide Brazil through a series of revolts to prosperity then through a devastating war and beyond. Like many of his peers in this group, he became a monarch young, at age 5.

Photos

Portrait of Teresa Cristina. c1843.

Teresa Cristina at age 55, 29 March 1877

Map of the conjunction of Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina and the contested territories at the time of the Paraguayan War.

Leopoldina, Pedro II, Teresa Cristina (around age 41) and Isabel, c. 1863

Sources

Brazil: Five Centuries of Change by Thomas Skidmore

Brasil: Uma Biografia by Lilia Moritz Schwarcz and Heloisa Murgel Starling