Outrageous

The reason the Brazilians were able to hold off the joint offensive of three nations in the south, aside from the complex terrain and harsh weather, was inextricably linked to the support of the Austrian Empire.

Although Pedro II is known as the greatest Brazilian in history, as an emperor who reigned for fifty-nine years, his actual accomplishments were truly lackluster.

He reigned for roughly the same amount of time as the Kangxi Emperor, Louis XIV (the Sun King), Victoria, Shapur II (the famous restorer of Persia), or Basil II (the final glory of the Byzantine Empire).

Of course, history also features a ruler of a major power who lived longer than Pedro II and ended up with an even worse outcome: Franz Joseph I (the architect of World War I).

At this time, Pedro II was still very young. After taking the throne, a series of his policies directly offended the landlords and nobles who supported him, especially his abolitionist stance, which essentially pushed him to the opposite side of the nation.

In 1844, he even rejected the British "Trade and Navigation Agreement," which would have allowed British goods to be exported to Brazil with only a 25% ad valorem tax.

Pedro II's reasoning for this might differ from the modern mainstream view of protecting domestic industry and commerce, as Brazil at the time had almost no industry to speak of; it was entirely a massive plantation.

However, the Brazilian treasury was empty at the time, and its precious metal reserves were severely depleted. His decision to raise import tariffs was largely to prevent the outflow of silver and to alleviate the fiscal crisis brought on by the war.

The Brazilian Civil War was mentioned previously in this book, so I will not dwell on it here. In short,