The Emperor's Beard: Dom Pedro II and the Tropical Monarchy of Brazil

The reign of Brazil's last monarch aptly illustrates Machiavelli's admonitions against philosopher kings. A bookish, reluctant emperor, Dom Pedro II nevertheless led Brazil--bloodlessly--through the abolition of slavery and conversion from a monarchy to a republic. (In the United States, the same reforms required two great wrenching wars.) The Brazilian monarchy began in 1808 when the Portuguese royal family, fleeing Napoleon, settled in the Americas to control their empire from Rio de Janeiro. Dom Pedro, born in 1825, was to be the final flower of royalty in Brazil. He was exiled in 1889 and died in Paris, impoverished and heartbroken, in 1891. Schwarcz relates this history, and a few decades following it, colorfully and unconventionally. She devotes chapters to ""How to Be Brazilian Nobility,"" ""Dom Pedro's Residences"" and ""The Daguerreotype Revolution in Brazil."" The result is a fascinating study of Brazil's peculiar amalgam of European nobility, African tribal culture and indigenous Indian tradition. Unlike other colonists, white Brazilians romanticized and adopted aspects of the African and Indian cultures with which they coexisted, rather than eradicating or dominating them. Dom Pedro himself became conversant in the indigenous Tupi and Guarani languages. Schwarcz suggests that Dom Pedro's disinterest in politics (allowing his palaces and processions to become shabby so he could divert imperial funds to education) may have led to the fall of the monarchy. Unfortunately, his virtues were recognized only after his death, when, as a ghost, he finally became a popular hero: ""The Martyr of Brazil.""