The death of King Joseph in 1777 forced the accession of Princess Maria Francisca, his eldest daughter, to the throne of Portugal; she succeeded her father as the first Queen regnant of the 650-year-old country, which was still recovering from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

[9] John VI's regency was a complex political period that saw Portugal attempting to remain neutral in spite of the combative intransigence of its neighbors and contentious forces within the country that favored either liberal or traditional policies.

Although Manuel de Godoy was initially hesitant to invade Portugal, due to the royal family having relatives in both countries, the French remained anxious to break the Anglo-Portuguese alliance in order to close Portuguese ports to British shipping.

The Spanish army quickly penetrated the Alentejo region in southern Portugal and occupied Olivença, Juromenha, Arronches, Portalegre, Castelo de Vide, Barbacena and Ouguela without resistance.

[11] As part of the peace settlement, Portugal recovered all of the strongholds previously conquered by the Spanish, with the exception of Olivença and other territories on the eastern margin of the Guadiana, and a prohibition of contraband was enforced near the border between the two countries.

[16] In 1806, after Napoleon's victory over the Prussians, he considered the problem of the resistance of the English, who had broken the peace in 1803 to challenge the Continental system imposed by the French, and realized that the situation in Portugal impeded his plan for reform in Europe.

In this pact, Northern Lusitania, a territory between the Minho and Douro rivers, would be a principality governed by the sovereign of the extinct Kingdom of Etruria (then Maria Luisa, daughter of Charles IV of Spain).

Approximately 10,000 people, including the entire governmental administration and the judiciary, joined the royal family as they moved to Brazil, a possession of Portugal, and established the capital of the Portuguese Empire in Rio de Janeiro.

[20] Once he arrived, Junot promoted himself as a reformer come to liberate the oppressed people of Portugal, promising progress, the construction of roads and canals, efficient administration, clean finances, assistance and schools for the poor.

[24] The following year, a British force commanded by Arthur Wellesley (future Duke of Wellington) disembarked in Galiza with the intent of supporting the Spanish, but later advanced on Porto and landed at Figueira da Foz on 1 August.

The third invasion, the last effort of the Peninsular War on Portuguese soil, was commanded by Marshal André Massena, and divided into three parts under Jean Reynier, Claude Victor-Perrin and Jean-Andoche Junot, and comprised 62,000 men and 84 canon.

In 1816, and as a result of the increasing influence of the Liga Federal, the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves invaded and conquered the Banda Oriental, annexing it under the name of Província Cisplatina in 1821.

[37] The moving of the Portuguese capital to Rio de Janeiro accentuated the economic, institutional and social crises in mainland Portugal, which was administered by English commercial and military interests under William Beresford's rule in the absence of the monarch.

The influence of liberal ideals[37] was strengthened by the aftermath of the war, the continuing impact of the American and French revolutions, discontent under absolutist government, and the general indifference shown by the Portuguese regency for the plight of its people.

This damaged the mother country's commercial interests and aggravated social problems there, while benefiting the United Kingdom, as Portugal was governed by the increasingly despotic British general William Beresford in the absence of the Cortes.

A report was sent from the Regency to John VI on 2 June 1820, stating: Portugal's neighbor Spain, during its resistance to the Napoleonic invasions, had approved a liberal Constitution when King Ferdinand VII was in exile, but it was quickly abrogated on his return, and he reigned as absolute monarch.

The Sinédrio's members were a mixture of merchants, property-owners, the military and noblemen, whose liberalism was based not on personal economic circumstances but on their exposure to international literature and philosophies at university or in the masonic lodges.

The administration of William Beresford was swiftly replaced by a Provisional Junta, and the "General Extraordinary and Constituent Cortes of the Portuguese Nation", whose deputies were chosen by indirect election, was summoned on 1 January 1821 to draft a written Constitution.

The deputies did not recognize the King's authority to designate regents, nor support the Bragança Agreement, which stipulated that the Portuguese Crown should pass to Prince Pedro if Brazil gained its independence.

[50] The separatist movement rose from the conflict between the Regency of Prince Pedro meant to rule frugally and started by cutting his own salary, centralizing scattered government offices and selling off most of the royal horses and mules.

He issued decrees eliminating the royal salt tax to spur the output of hides and dried beef; he forbade arbitrary seizure of private property; required a judge's warrant for arrests of freemen; and banned secret trials, torture, and other indignities.

[52] Pedro formed a new government headed by José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva, a former royal official and professor of science at the University of Coimbra who was a formative figure in Brazilian nationalism, and known as the "Patriarch of Independence".

In mid-February 1822, Brazilians in Bahia revolted against the Portuguese forces there, but were driven into the countryside, where they began guerrilla operations, signaling that the struggle in the north would not be without loss of life and property.

More confident now, in early August he called on the Brazilian deputies in Lisbon to return, decreed that Portuguese forces in Brazil should be treated as enemies, and issued a manifesto to "friendly nations" that read like a declaration of independence.

Returning from an excursion to Santos, Pedro received messages from his wife Princess Maria Leopoldina and Andrade e Silva that the Portuguese Cortes had declared his government traitorous, and were dispatching more troops.

With this oath, repeated by the assembled crowd, he announced: "Brazilians, from this day forward our motto will be...Independence or Death"[55] John VI had no pretensions to the throne until his older brother Joseph, Prince of Beira, died from smallpox at the age of 27.

During his reign as king, John promoted the arts (mainly literature), commerce and agriculture, but being forced to return to Europe and to keep track of the court intrigues that arose following the independence of Brazil made him an unhappy man, and he died soon after the Abrilada in 1826.

[66] In Brazil, Pedro faced other challenges to his newborn country; the people clearly did not wish to return to colonial status and subservience to the politics and economy of the much smaller kingdom of Portugal.

[63] Pedro, a pragmatic politician, tried to find a solution that would reconcile the desires of the liberal, moderate and absolutist elements in the debate, and eventually chose to abdicate as king of Portugal (28 May 1826) in favor of his eldest daughter Princess Maria da Glória, who was seven years old at the time.

[63] The Constitution was not popular with the absolutists (who wanted Prince Miguel to govern as an absolute monarch), but the liberal Vintistas also did not support the Charter (which was imposed by the King); moderates bided their time as a counter-revolution was slowly building.