Kingdom of Brazil


The Kingdom of Brazil was a constituent kingdom of United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves.

Creation

The legal entity of the Kingdom of Brazil was created by a law issued by Prince Regent John of Portugal, Prince of Brazil, Duke of Braganza, in name of his mother, Queen Maria I of Portugal, on 16 December 1815, which elevated the State of Brazil to the rank of a Kingdom within the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves.
By a decree issued on 22 April 1821 ahead of his departure from Brazil to Portugal, King John VI appointed his firstborn son and heir, Prince Pedro of Braganza, the Prince Royal of the United Kingdom, as Prince Regent of the Kingdom of Brazil, with delegated powers to discharge the "general government and entire administration of the Kingdom of Brazil" as the King's placeholder, thus granting the Kingdom of Brazil a devolved administration within the United Kingdom.

Dissolution

On 7 September 1822, Prince Pedro, Prince Royal of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, Regent of Brazil, declared the Brazilian Independence. On 12 October 1822, Prince Pedro became the first Emperor of the newly independent country, thus founding the Empire of Brazil. Brazil's independence was only recognized with the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, in 1825, by which the Kingdom of Brazil, within the larger United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, was formally dissolved and Brazil's independence was recognized and granted by the Kingdom of Portugal.
On 8 September 1822, in the first day after the Proclamation of Independence, Prince Pedro issued a decree to adopt for the Kingdom of Brazil a new flag and coat of arms, replacing the Portuguese colours, then white and blue, with new colours, green and yellow ; those new symbols would later pass to the Empire of Brazil when it was founded on 12 October 1822. The new, post independence symbols, replaced the original flag of the Kingdom of Brazil and its original coat of arms, that had been designed in 1815. Of course, after independence, upon the adoption of the new flag and coat of arms on 8 September 1822, the coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, adopted in 1815, also ceased to be used.
As per one of the clauses of the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, King John VI of Portugal and the Algarves, formerly King John VI of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, was granted the personal title of titular Emperor of Brazil, thus having stayed monarch of Brazil, in title, until his death in 1826.