Texto: por que as colônias portuguesas na América permaneceram como um único país enquanto as colônias espanholas se fragmentaram em diversos países

 Texto autoral, originalmente publicado na plataforma Quora (em inglês). Como não é uma publicação acadêmica, linguagem coloquial e humorística foi utilizada, porém fundamentada em fatos históricos.

link para acesso à publicação original aqui.

texto:

Because of this guy:

Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Dom Pedro IV of Portugal, both pictured above, because history is complicated

Not only does he looks ridiculous by today’s standards (probably by that time standards as well), but he also single handedly caused the colonial Brazil to evolve into independent Brazil, without territorial losses.

You see, it was the 19 century, the Napoleonic era, which, surprisingly as it may seem, takes it’s name from Napoleon. And Napoleon enjoyed the thrill of invading countries and winning battles. So after Portugal refused Nap’s polite request to unfriend Britain on Facebook, Napoleon decided to have some fun invading Portugal, and to take a break from French Wine and baguette to drink Poruguese wine and sardines (actually, the sardines were most likely eaten).

So in order to flee from h̶i̶t̶l̶e̶r̶ Napoleon, the Portuguese royal family moved to Brazil. And that guy above sporting a highly questionable choice of facial hair happened to be the son of the Portuguese king. And someday he would become regent ruler of the colony, and very soon after he would decide that being the king of a colony does not bear well with the noble ladies, so he decided to declare independence, and now we have Brazil. Also, he decided that he should be addressed as Emperor instead of King, because Emperor is soo much cool (and of course you and I agree with him).

And the reason why Spanish America fragmented is that there was never any event like what I described. Instead, various regions decided, at different times, to show the finger to Spain and declare independence.