Loading summary
Transcript335 lines
- [00:01]
Dominic
This episode is brought to you by Lloyds Business and Commercial Banking.
- [00:06]
Tom
One of the great things about finance is that it may result in you having to pay tax. And this was a constant grumble in Anglo Saxon England, which was the most heavily taxed country in the whole of Christendom. And just when the Anglo Saxons thought it couldn't get any worse, they got conquered by King Canute and Canute imposed a tax rate that was effectively 100%.
- [00:33]
Dominic
Yeah, well, that was one very big change, Tom. But another tax change is upon us and this is the advent of Making Tax Digital for income tax. And if you're at all concerned about it, this is where Lloyds come in. Because they're here to help make that change much simpler for you with a useful HMRC recognized accounting tool that will help you stay in line with all the Making Tax Digital rules requirements.
- [00:59]
Tom
And the brilliant thing about this is that it is free for Lloyds business account customers. So when it is time to digitize your income tax, you can bank on Lloyds. Search Lloyds business accounts to find out more. This Father's Day, do more with dad and spend less with low prices guaranteed
- [01:21]
Dominic
at the Home Depot.
- [01:22]
Tom
Get him fired up with a new grill and accessories like the next Grill 5 burner for just $299 so you can spend more time while he becomes the grill master he was always meant to be. Or build memories with savings on top brand power tools so you can tackle projects side by side, gift more and do more together.
- [01:40]
Dominic
This Father's Day with help from the Home Depot, exclusions apply.
- [01:44]
Tom
Seehomedepot.com Pricematch for details.
- [01:47]
Dominic
So good, so good, so good. New markdowns up to 70% off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Stock up and save big on shoes, tops, dresses, accessories and more must haves for summer. Join the NordicLub to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack.
- [03:38]
Tom
Hello everyone. So that was the national anthem of Brazil, one of the great World cup teams. And we haven't actually had any Brazilian history, I think, since the last World cup, so it is great to have them back. And Brazil, of course, more closely associated with the World cup perhaps than any other team. They've won it a record five times. And the team that won in 1970 in Mexico, the team with Pele and everybody often seen as the greatest national side of all time. Even though Dominic, I think World cup history specialists generally agree that England would have won that tournament had the CIA not poisoned Gordon Banks, the England world keeper.
- [04:25]
Dominic
I don't think they do.
- [04:26]
Tom
I think they probably do. Anyway, that's by the by.
- [04:28]
Dominic
We lost to Brazil, as you will recall. Time in the groups. Remember that game?
- [04:32]
Tom
I don't because I was only two at the time.
- [04:34]
Dominic
Yeah.
- [04:34]
Tom
Anyway, enough about football. Let's move on to more important things, such as Dom Pedro ii, the last emperor of Brazil. And I mentioned him because he's very much a friend of the show, isn't he?
- [04:45]
Dominic
He is.
- [04:45]
Tom
He ruled from 1831 to 1889. But that's a kind of peripheral detail. What matters about Don Pedro is that he has a sensational beard. He loves the library, he loves music, he loves scientific, kind of all kinds of stuff. Meteorite. Yeah. Because he's sending. He was always sending people off on mad expeditions to recapture meteorites from the depths of the jungle and things. I think that's what you want from a Brazilian emperor.
- [05:10]
Dominic
Yeah. Well, we've got him back today.
- [05:12]
Tom
Oh, brilliant.
- [05:13]
Dominic
Yes. So, hi, everybody. Our first foray into Brazilian history since the last World Cup. Last time, as Tom says, we did Don Pedro ii. This time we're doing the anthem and Don Pedro II is returning.
- [05:24]
Tom
That's great to hear.
- [05:25]
Dominic
So a cameo appearance. We've also got the first man to see the Southern Cross, or certainly the first European to see the Southern Cross anyway.
- [05:32]
Tom
And the Southern Cross is a star. Isn't it a constellation?
- [05:34]
Dominic
It's a constellation. We have a. Some great characters. We've got a Jewish, half Jewish, half Creole pianist from New Orleans. And we have the Brazilian captain of the 1982 World cup, who Tom, you will admire because he had the excellent name.
- [05:47]
Tom
Yeah, top philosopher.
- [05:48]
Dominic
Socrates. Exactly.
- [05:50]
Tom
Yeah.
- [05:50]
Dominic
We've gained one or two listeners since the 2022 World Cup. And since we haven't done any Brazilian history before, and since Brazil's history is actually largely unknown outside Brazil, we should do a little bit of a sort a panorama, a tour de reason. Brazil, of course, is one of the world's biggest countries. It's the fifth biggest in size and the seventh in population.
- [06:10]
Tom
And it's presumably the country with the largest rainforest.
- [06:12]
Dominic
Yeah, undoubtedly. But its history, oddly for such a vast country, is almost completely unknown outside the Portuguese speaking world. So to give you a sense of Brazil's story, until the 16th century, you've got this vast forested landscape, tropical landscape, where you have about 7 million indigenous people, semi nomadic people, the Tupi, the Guarani and so on. Then in 1500, the first European fleet arrives under the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Alvarez Cabral. And Cabral called it the area that he found. He called it the island of the true Cross, the Ilhea de Vera Cruz. Once they discovered it wasn't an island, they called it the Terra de Santa Cruz, the land of the Holy Cross. But within about a decade. So by the 1510s, people started to call it the Terra do Brasil.
- [07:00]
Tom
But.
- [07:00]
Dominic
And that's after the Brazil wood that they find there, which is a wood that gives you this red dye, this rich red dye.
- [07:06]
Tom
But if they hadn't had that rich red dye, they might have been called Vera Cruz.
- [07:10]
Dominic
It would be. It would probably be called or Santa Cruz or something of that kind. Yeah, exactly. So under the Treaty of Tordesillas, which we've talked about before, when we were doing episodes about the conquistadors, the New World is divided between Portugal and Spain. And because of miscalculations on the part of the Spanish, they don't realize how far into the Atlantic. Basically, Brazil projects eastwards and Brazil falls under the jurisdiction of Portugal. And this really is your classic example of what historians of imperialism called kind of extractive colonialism. So they treat Brazil, the Portuguese, as a massive cash cow, and they are using it for its natural resources of sugar, gold and coffee.
- [07:50]
Tom
There's an issue, isn't there? Because there aren't the kind of huge populations that are necessary to do this extraction.
- [07:57]
Dominic
Not at all. A lot of the indigenous people, of course, die. They die of disease. Vast numbers of them die. And so the solution, as elsewhere in the New World, but on a much greater scale than anywhere else, is slavery. This is the defining institution of Brazilian history, much more so than the United States, where we often think about slavery, we think about the United States, but Brazil looms, are much larger. So almost half of the West African slaves transported across the Atlantic ended up on Brazilian plantations. So we're talking about 4 to 5 million people. And Brazil was actually the last country in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery in 1888. And today at least 60% of Brazilians, probably more, are descended from African slaves. There's a brilliant history, basically the only real, really good English language history. Brazil by Leela Schwartz and Eloisa Starling, which I'm. I think I mentioned in the Don Pedro second episode four years ago. And in their book, they joke. I think it's a quite a common joke in Brazil that Brazil is the world's second largest African country after Nigeria and Dominic.
- [08:59]
Tom
Can I ask you.
- [09:00]
Dominic
Yes.
- [09:01]
Tom
Imagine you're a Slave being taken across the Atlantic.
- [09:03]
Dominic
Yeah.
- [09:03]
Tom
Would you rather go to the United States or Brazil? Where would. Where would be worse?
- [09:07]
Dominic
I think, no question you'd rather go to the United States. Slavery in Brazil is hell on earth. It's awful. And what makes it so hellish, it's extremely violent. There's no abolitionist movement in Brazil or a very small abolitionist movement compared with that in the United States. It's much later.
- [09:22]
Tom
And is it also that the white exploitative class is much smaller relative to the number of slaves, so therefore they're more frightened.
- [09:30]
Dominic
Exactly. More insecure. So even by the standards of the New World, slavery in Brazil is extraordinarily cruel. And actually, it's a great question. Where would you rather go? And there's a very simple answer. Most people, the single thing you want to do as a human being is to prolong your own life. And in the United States, as a slave, you die at the age of 35. As a slave in Brazil, you die at the age of 25. So there's your answer.
- [09:55]
Tom
Okay.
- [09:55]
Dominic
And slave revolts, because it's very violent, because central authority is so weak, because institutions, so colonial institutions are so fragile. Slave revolts are much more common in Brazil. So you have gigantic slave uprisings in the 18th and 19th centuries, which then provoke violent repression in their turn. So in their book on Brazilian history, Schwarz and Stalin describe the Brazilian plantations as, quote, hell on earth. A frenzy of cruelty. A world world of violence rooted in the figure of the master and his supreme power under the law, the marks of which were constantly registered on the bodies of his slaves. Now, why do I say all this when we're talking about the national anthem? Because the national anthem never mentioned slavery at all. Obviously.
- [10:35]
Tom
It's not the kind of thing you would sing about, is it?
- [10:37]
Dominic
No. The answer is that, as we've discussed in previous episodes, Germany, the United States, the Dutch Republic, and so on, a national anthem tells a story about a country and about the sort of the idea of the nation as a united family. It's very difficult to do that in Brazil because there's a fundamental instability that runs right through Brazilian history. Weak central authority. The legitimacy of authority was being questioned. A constant tension between the capital and the provinces. A sense that the next colossal rebellion is just around the corner. It's hard to tell a collective story about Brazil's history behind which everybody can unite. And that explains why for so long, the national anthem didn't have any lyrics. And that wasn't a deliberate choice. It was because they couldn't actually agree on what story they were going to tell.
- [11:24]
Tom
I mean, I suppose if we think about so many of the anthems that we've done, the idea of kind of liberty and freedom is, I mean, a fairly common theme. And obviously that's impossible, isn't it, in
- [11:34]
Dominic
the context of Exactly Brazil? Well, you need an enemy, often with an anthem. So for the Americans, it was the British. For the Dutch, it was the Spanish. You know, even though their anthem is quite ambiguous about their relationship with the Spanish, the Germans, it was actually the French. And for the British, it's the Spanish and the French. There's almost always an adversary. And in Brazil, as we'll come to it, is at first the Portuguese. So let's get to the story of why Brazil needs an anthem in the first place. So we start at the beginning of the 19th century. So in 1808, the government general of Brazil, as it's called, is the biggest state in Portugal's colonial empire. It's got about two and a half million people, so it's slightly smaller than Portugal itself. And a third of those people are slaves. There are two big cities, Rio and Salvador, and there the slave population is actually bigger, probably half in Rio, three quarters and Salvador. There's a sort of Wild west vibe to these places. So people who visit, say streets are potholed, they're full of rubbish. It's all very chaotic and very violent. And one British visitor called Rio one of the dirtiest congregations of human beings under the sun. If you're a refined, elegant Portuguese courtier, Rio is basically the last place in the world that you would ever want to live. However, you are going to have to live there, because in the summer of 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte had lost patience with Portugal's refusal to join his continental system. So this is the blockade, the embargo against Britain to try and drive Britain out of the Napoleonic Wars. And the French and The Spanish, in November 1807, invaded Portugal and they basically stormed towards Lisbon. By the time they got to Lisbon, they found that the entire Portuguese royal family, the whole of the court, most of the political elite, had gone. They had embarked on British ships under Sir Sydney Smith. We're talking about almost 15,000 people. And they had sailed off to Brazil, an absolutely unprecedented moment, you know, the entire court fleeing across the Atlantic.
- [13:34]
Tom
So it's a bit like the plans that were made to remove the British royal family in 1930 to Canada in
- [13:39]
Dominic
the U.S. exactly, yeah. And chief among them are the Queen of Portugal, Donna Maria, who is kind of out of public life. She's got massive depression and mental illness. And her son and regent, who is Joao and his son Pedro. So three generations, and off they all go. And they establish their court in Rio, and here they run their empire in exile. So this is the first time in history that an empire has been governed not from the metropolis, but from a colony that is in both the western and the southern hemisphere. So it's a sort of really interesting kind of transfer of power from Europe to the Americas. Anyway, 1815, Napoleon's beaten at Waterloo, and a year later, Donna Maria, who is the sort of nominal queen of Portugal, dies. So now her son Joao is Dom Joo vi, King of Portugal, but he's still in Brazil. And he's still in Brazil. He's still in Rio. So Dom Joao is a very shy man. He's very religious. He basically spends all his time listening to sacred music, so.
- [14:44]
Tom
Listening to anthems.
- [14:45]
Dominic
Yeah, he listens to anthems. Exactly. He's got constant panic attacks. He's always depressed. He wears the same coat all the time, even in bed. He loves this coat.
- [14:55]
Tom
I mean, I've got to say, he does not sign the kind of man. He could have taken on Napoleon.
- [14:59]
Dominic
No, no, no. He's done well getting out to Rio. Yeah. And he is in no hurry to go back to Portugal. If he went back to Lisbon, the nobility, the political elite, political reformers, liberal constitutionalists would just be badgering him the whole time.
- [15:13]
Tom
But what about all the potholes in Rio and the rubbish?
- [15:16]
Dominic
He doesn't mind the potholes because Rio also has lovely birds and he's a big nature lover. So he goes on expeditions to the countryside to look at the nature. Nice trees and plants, tropical shrubs.
- [15:28]
Tom
Is he a fan of volleyball?
- [15:30]
Dominic
Exactly. I don't think they're doing volleyball at this point. So at the end of 1815, he elevates Brazil to the same level as Portugal. So he now rules a kingdom called the United Kingdom of Portugal. Brazil and the Algarves. I don't know exactly why the algarves are plural. Maybe listeners could explain that to me. Now, back in Portugal, the sort of liberal elites in Porto and Lisbon understandably hate this. They like, why on earth, if we ceded first place, why was sharing it with these upstarts in Brazil? Also, Portugal's in a massive mess after the Napoleonic Wars. Their harvests have failed, their economies in ruins. They're no longer really top dog in their own empire. They're very cross. And the spring of 1821, they sent Dom Joao an ultimatum and they said, come back to Portugal or else, basically. And he said, oh, fine, very disconsolately. And before he left, he called in his 22 year old son Pedro. So this is the future Don Pedro the First. And he says to Pedro, I'd like you to stay in Rio. You're going to be my regent in Brazil. Now he and Pedro don't get on at all, but this is the only time they have ever have any connection because Joao says to Pedro, Pedro, if Brazil breaks away, it would be better that it is by your hand than by the hand of some adventurer.
- [16:45]
Tom
Oh, essentially the King of Portugal. And Brazil is basically telling his own son to lead a secessionist movement.
- [16:52]
Dominic
Kind of. Yeah.
- [16:53]
Tom
That's unexpected.
- [16:54]
Dominic
You could say he's being farsighted.
- [16:55]
Tom
That's another first for Portugal.
- [16:57]
Dominic
Yeah, he's being farsighted. He's basically saying, probably Brazil is going to try and break away. I would like it to stay in the family. If it looks like it's going to break away, you'd be on the right side, you know, so it would be
- [17:07]
Tom
a bit like the Prince Regent being the Governor of New York or something
- [17:11]
Dominic
and leading the revolution and George III being summoned back by angry mercantile elites in London and saying to the Prince Regent before he leaves, if these, if the colonists refuse to pay their taxes, put yourself on their. And then it'll stay in the family.
- [17:25]
Tom
So an alternative history in which the first leader of the United States is the Prince Regent.
- [17:30]
Dominic
What could have been. I mean, he's got his own teeth, which is something you could say for him.
- [17:33]
Tom
Yes, that's true.
- [17:34]
Dominic
So now we have the very strange situation where Joo has gone back to Lisbon, but Pedro is the top dog in Rio. And Pedro is an interesting character. He's very intelligent, he's very well read, he loves all the new liberal ideas. He's been reading Voltaire, he's been reading Edmund Burke. He's also, you know, as is so often the way, spoiled, impulsive, erratic.
- [17:55]
Tom
But he's not hiding out in bed wearing a coat.
- [17:57]
Dominic
No, he's not wearing his coat anymore.
- [17:58]
Tom
He's more proactive.
- [17:59]
Dominic
He's a bit of a lecher, actually. He's a hit with the ladies. So his coat would not come in handy because he's grown up and spent so much of his life in Rio. He cares much more about Brazil than he does about Portugal. And the local politicians recognize this and they say, well, if we work on this guy, we can use him as a figurehead to get independence. Who wants to be pushed around by a load of People who make port and corks or whatever they're making back in Portugal. Who cares about them? We can pursue our own destiny. In December 1821, the Portuguese, who have kind of got wind of all this, they asked Pedro to come back to Lisbon as well. Because they thought, you know, him staying in Brazil is just encouraging separatism. And then the Brazilians presented him with a petition signed by 8, 000 people. This is a very famous moment in Brazilian history. Tom, I'm sure you're over it. This was a reception at the Royal palace in Brazil in January 1822. He gets given this petition. He's very touched. And he says, as it is for the good and for the general happiness of the nation, I am ready. Tell the people I will stay. Hurrah.
- [18:58]
Tom
Hurrah.
- [18:59]
Dominic
Everyone in Rio is very pleased. They can see what's coming. So eight months go by, and then on 28 August, 1522, a ship arrives in Rio from Lisbon and the ship has a message. The Portuguese parliament, which is called the Cortesh, has ordered Pedro to come home immediately. And they've accused his ministers in Brazil of treason. So the breach has come. The Ministerial council in Rio send a messenger off to find Pedro. Pedro has gone off actually to visit Sao Paulo, and he's on his way back. So the messengers don't catch up with him until the morning of the 7th of September, 1822. Tom. The most consequential date in Brazilian history.
- [19:40]
Tom
Wow.
- [19:41]
Dominic
So they find Pedro in a village outside Sao Paulo, not in very glamorous circumstances. He's riding this sort of ragged, beaten down old horse. He's wearing a very plain, unadorned military uniform. He's recently drunk some dirty water and is suffering intense diarrhea.
- [20:02]
Tom
It's what, two weeks since we had all that dysentery on Gallipoli? So, yeah, great to have dysentery back on the show.
- [20:09]
Dominic
It's very Gallipoli. He keeps having to get off his horse and relieve himself. He cuts a terrible figure.
- [20:13]
Tom
Why? I mean, he's basically the ruler of Brazil. Why isn't he looking a bit more glamorous? Why hasn't he got trumpets and glamorous uniforms and things and an escort? Why is he just wandering around like Don Quixote?
- [20:24]
Dominic
To be honest, I think Brazil is a little bit more Wild west at this point.
- [20:28]
Tom
Okay.
- [20:28]
Dominic
Than you're imagining. I think it's hard to wear gold braid and epaulettes when you are out in the jungle. Yeah, you're out in the badlands. Of Sao Paulo. And you're crippled by intense stomach discomfort.
- [20:41]
Tom
Yes, I suppose.
- [20:41]
Dominic
Anyway, a bloke comes up to him with the message, the demand that he go back to Lisbon. Pedro reads the message and he throws it on the ground. And he stamps on it, and his confessor is with him. And Pedro says to his confessor, what shall I do? And the priest says, if your majesty does not make himself king of Brazil, he will be taken prisoner by the Kodesh and will probably be disinherited. There is no other path except for independence and separation.
- [21:06]
Tom
That's punchy stuff from the priest. Yeah.
- [21:07]
Dominic
And Pedro, to be fair to him, even though he's in a bad way, he responds excellently. He says, if this is what they want, this is what they'll get. The Cortes are persecuting me. They refer to me with contempt as a wretched boy and a Brazilian. Well, they will see what this wretched boy can do. And then he tears from his hat the white and blue Portuguese ribbon. At this point, white and blue are the colors of the Portuguese monarchy. And he draws his sword and he shouts unimprovably, the time has come. Independence or death.
- [21:38]
Tom
That is so South American, isn't it?
- [21:40]
Dominic
It's very South American. And people may doubt this because they may say, surely this didn't happen. But actually, there are three separate eyewitness accounts that say that it did.
- [21:49]
Tom
Yeah. And it's exactly the kind of thing a romantically inclined young prince in South America is exactly what he'd say, even
- [21:56]
Dominic
if suffering horrendous stomach cramps.
- [21:59]
Tom
Yes.
- [22:00]
Dominic
So he returns to Rio a few days later, and he's in very good spirits.
- [22:04]
Tom
So he's recovered from his dysentery.
- [22:05]
Dominic
He's recovered. He's recovered. And he's already wearing new colors. Instead of the blue and white of the Portuguese royal family, he's now wearing green and yellow. And the reason he's wearing green and yellow. We'll talk about the flag a little bit in the second half when we talk more about anthems. The green comes from his father's Braganza dynasty. Green is their color, and he is married to a Habsburg. So the yellow is the House of Austria.
- [22:30]
Tom
So the yellow in the Brazilian flag is Habsburg.
- [22:33]
Dominic
Yeah.
- [22:34]
Tom
Wow.
- [22:34]
Dominic
The green and yellow in the Brazilian flag are the colors of House of Braganza and the House of Habsburg.
- [22:39]
Tom
You get the sense with Maximilian the Habsburg, last Emperor of Mexico.
- [22:44]
Dominic
The Habsburgs are not at their best in the New World.
- [22:46]
Tom
No, not in their best in the
- [22:48]
Dominic
New World, but clearly not no, the whole of the New World should belong to the Habsburgs, I think. Except for the northern bit, which should be British. All be British. So on the 20th of September, the Rio newspapers published the news that he has declared independence. The headline says, independence or death. This is the cry that unites all Brazilians. Brazil has awoken from her lethargy and has resolved with dignity to shake off the weight that has oppressed her. And two days later, he writes his father the most famous letter in Brazilian history. A very overwrought letter. I, as the Prince regent of the Kingdom of Brazil and its perpetual defender, declare null and void all the decrees and all else that has been imposed on Brazil by these factious, abhorrent, Machiavellian, chaotic, depraved and pernicious Cortes.
- [23:37]
Tom
He loves an adjective.
- [23:38]
Dominic
That's the Portuguese Parliament. He does. They are no more than a gang of villainous anti monarchists and murderers who are holding your majesty in the most ignominious captivity. Brazilian independence triumphs and will triumph or we will die defending it. So quite.
- [23:53]
Tom
Prince Harry to Charles iii.
- [23:55]
Dominic
Prince Harry. Yes. Gosh, if he could go, he could go to Canada or something and declare.
- [23:59]
Tom
Yeah.
- [23:59]
Dominic
I mean, Canada is independent, I suppose, but he could cast off the British monarchy and set himself up as a rival Canadian monarch, I suppose.
- [24:06]
Tom
I think you'd be quite suited to Canada, Prince Harry. Yeah.
- [24:09]
Dominic
No, yeah, the Canadians are quite hardy people.
- [24:13]
Tom
Harry's fought in Afghanistan.
- [24:15]
Dominic
The Canadians wouldn't do all that business with Elizabeth Arden cream, surely, when they got frostbites.
- [24:19]
Tom
Of course they would.
- [24:20]
Dominic
No, they wouldn't.
- [24:21]
Tom
Canadians are both. They're kind of, you know, Mounties. They like kind of galloping around.
- [24:25]
Dominic
I'm just thinking about to. Suddenly. I've just thought about Justin Trudeau and I think you might be right.
- [24:28]
Tom
Yeah, exactly. But also, they're very, very kind of woke and stuff.
- [24:31]
Dominic
They're very woke. Not all of them, though.
- [24:33]
Tom
The Prince Harry Ford in Afghanistan ticks one box and the woke stuff ticks another box.
- [24:37]
Dominic
Appeals to both. Appeals to both. Mark Carney and Poilievre or something. A man who looks like a Tory MP from a casting agency.
- [24:45]
Tom
And all the truck drivers.
- [24:46]
Dominic
Yes, the truck. The Alberta people. Alberta oil men, I don't think Alberta Orman. Surely have any time?
- [24:53]
Tom
No, sorry, I'm getting the mullet. Bertraman and Mark Carney. Right. He took both. Anyway, listen, well, it's great to have
- [24:59]
Dominic
some Canada on the show.
- [24:59]
Tom
Anyway, well, they are hosting the World cup, so.
- [25:02]
Dominic
Yeah. So Brazil has become independent and Pedro becomes Don Pedro. The first constitutional emperor and perpetual defender of Brazil. And the green and gold, the new green and gold colors are flying everywhere. There's loads of merch, there's fans, there's mugs, there's clocks. There's loads of stuff in these new colors. So it's a very unusual revolution. Schwartz and Starling, in their book, say it's both unique and banal, liberal and conservative. Because on the one hand, they've created a new country. On the other hand, basically, they haven't. There's absolutely no talk, really, of a republic or of a new dawn. It's not like the American Revolution or the French Revolution. It's a new imperial monarchy.
- [25:42]
Tom
And there's no talk of abolitionism, no
- [25:45]
Dominic
hint of abolitionism, no talk of a challenge to slavery. In fact, the people who are leading this revolution are people who often own lots of slaves. They're landowning elite. What the Brazilians want to do, they look at what's going on with the Spanish Empire, which is all completely fallen apart and feuding and, you know, chaos. They want to avoid anything similar. And that's why they go for an empire. They think an empire is the best way to keep this vast, sprawling territory of Brazil intact. And the emperor will function as a focal point, and the emperor will allow us to transcend the regional divisions. It's actually not a bad system. I think it's quite smart.
- [26:22]
Tom
So you've got an emperor, you've got a flag.
- [26:24]
Dominic
Yeah.
- [26:25]
Tom
What about an anthem?
- [26:26]
Dominic
Well, this is the thing. Who would you get to write the anthem of your new country? And the answer is you want somebody who's really invested in it. Somebody who's already shown himself to care a lot about independence. And a man who will defy physical discomfort to do his bit for his country.
- [26:44]
Tom
Does Don Pedro write it?
- [26:46]
Dominic
Don Pedro himself writes the tune for the new anthem, which is called the Hymn of Independence. Now, it's possible, and indeed likely, that he had help from court musicians. But as far as I can tell, there isn't a single Brazilian historian who seriously doubts that he wrote it. He did write it himself.
- [27:02]
Tom
So he's the most musical empress. It's Nero.
- [27:04]
Dominic
Yeah. He didn't write the words, though. So the words were written by a poet and newspaper editor called Evaristo Ferreira de Vega y Barros. And it's incredibly long, this first anthem.
- [27:16]
Tom
How long is it?
- [27:17]
Dominic
It's not as long as the Dutch. It's probably about 8 verses or 10 rather than 14.
- [27:22]
Tom
What's the standard of the lyrics? Poor.
- [27:24]
Dominic
I think really poor. I think actually Don Pedro comes out better than Evaristo Ferreira de Vega Ybarros. Because some of. I'll give you an example of the lyrics. The august royal heir, knowing the vile deceit. In spite of the tyrants Wished to stay in his Brazil. In spite of the tyrants in spite of the tyrants Wished to stay in his Brazil. That's one verse. Pedro, show your face your bold and vira soul. We have in him the worthy chief of this empire of Brazil. We have in him the worthy chief. We have in him the worthy chief of this empire of Brazil. It's not a banger.
- [27:57]
Tom
It's not a banger. But you can see the appeal of it to Don Pedro. I guess if there's going to be an anthem in which he's being praised. For his bold and virile soul.
- [28:04]
Dominic
Exactly. Exactly. For the next nine years. This is the sound of Brazilian freedom. But bad news for fans of Don Pedro the First. All is not well in his Brazil. Because I said at the beginning how violent and unstable it is. Throughout the 1920s, there are a series of revolts. And there's a massive revolt in the northern province of Pernambuco. And the rebels there call for a separatist confederation of the equator. Which has to be put down by the army. I mean, this is so South American. There's then a big blow to his prestige. In 1825. He and his army lose control of their southernmost province. Which is the Spanish speaking province of Cisplatina. And this becomes the independent country of Uruguay. Set up with British protection. Because the British fancied having a friendly port on the River Plate.
- [28:56]
Tom
The first winner of the World cup, of course.
- [28:58]
Dominic
Exactly. First win of the World Cup. I'm actually a big fan of Uruguay. I like Uruguay.
- [29:01]
Tom
I know you are.
- [29:02]
Dominic
And then a year later, 1826. There are two big developments in Dom Pedro's private life. First of all, his father, Dom Joao vi. Dies in his palace outside Lisbon. Back in Portugal. And it's not clear who's going to succeed him. Could Dom Pedro succeed him and become king of both kingdoms? Become emperor and king again? Will somebody else in the family succeed him? Or Don Pedro's preferred solution, his own daughter. So who's called Maria. Will she succeed his father?
- [29:34]
Tom
I'm on the edge of my seat.
- [29:35]
Dominic
Then, in December 1826, the other development. His Habsburg wife, Maria Leopoldina. Dies in childbirth. He has been a very poor husband. He's had loads of affairs. He's been a massive predator. And because of this Rumours sweep Rio that she has died because he has beaten her and been brutal and neglectful and so on. So that's bad for him. And by the end of the decade, the mood in Rio has definitively turned against him. People say he's a selfish brute. His wife died and it was his fault. And all he cares about is getting the Portuguese throne for his daughter Maria, because now there's a kind of civil war going on in Portugal. So on the night of 11th March, 1831, riots break out in the city of Rio. And this is an event known as you will know, Tom, it's called the Night of Bottles.
- [30:28]
Tom
I mean, of course, I do know that. But I'll tell you what, I've always. Why bottles?
- [30:31]
Dominic
People are throwing bottles.
- [30:32]
Tom
Okay.
- [30:33]
Dominic
Of course, pretty. It's pretty straightforward, to be honest. Right. So the night of bottles unusually last for five days.
- [30:39]
Tom
The nights of bottles usually last just one day.
- [30:42]
Dominic
I think a night usually lasts a night. No, you're right, yeah. I think the clue is usually in the name, but not in this case. It's different in the Southern hemisphere and then. And then the New World. So magical realist it is. So there are all these crowds fighting. Liberals are shouting, long live the Constitution, blah, blah, blah. Throwing bottles. The city's Portuguese community, because the city has a Portuguese community. They're shouting for Don Pedro. Weirdly, he was the bloke who abandoned Portugal, but they're very much now on his side. Don Pedro, his cabinet, say to him, okay, well, to shore up your regime, you need to crack down on the Portuguese expat community. They're absolute snakes. Like, you got to crack down on these people, make an example of them. He says, no way. I mean, I'm a Portuguese expat myself. And he sacks all his ministers and appoints a load of cronies. Loads of riots, loads of protests. He tries everything to calm the crowds. But basically it's like, remember we did the Iranian revolution?
- [31:38]
Tom
I do.
- [31:38]
Dominic
It's like that, but sort of jollier and jauntier. So there are, you know, regular demonstrations and riots and stuff. And eventually he thinks, well, if I don't do something decisive, there's going to be a cause for a republic. And that is the last thing we want. So in the early hours of the 7th of April, 1831, Dom Pedro the First, the first Emperor of Brazil, announces that he will abdicate in favor of his son, who is only five years old and is, of course also called Pedro and will become Dom Pedro ii. Yeah, a friend of the show beard, meteorite guy. Yeah, but who's only a little boy at this point. So Don Pedro, I says to one of his courtiers, here you have my act of abdication. I am returning to Europe and leaving a country that I loved very much and still love. Everything is over between me and Brazil.
- [32:26]
Tom
Forever.
- [32:27]
Dominic
Sad. He gets on a British warship. There's always British warships hanging around in this story. He gets on a British warship, he goes back to Portugal, he fights this civil war, he gets the throne for his daughter in the end. And then, precisely the point that he's just got the phone for his daughter, he drops dead of TB, age 35.
- [32:46]
Tom
That's quite convenient, isn't it? For his daughter.
- [32:48]
Dominic
For his daughter. And that is the end of Don Pedro the First. But this raises a huge question for Brazil and for this podcast.
- [32:58]
Tom
Yes. So the anthem, because it's the anthem, is all about him. So what are they going to do now?
- [33:02]
Dominic
Yes, what are they going to do now?
- [33:04]
Tom
Wow. Okay. Well, if you enjoy a national anthem themed cliffhanger, then I guess this is the cliffhanger to beat them all. Come back after the break to find out what the new anthem will be. This episode is brought to you by Lloyds. Now, when you have ambitions, being able to see the bigger picture is just so important. And history definitely teaches us that.
- [33:31]
Dominic
My favorite example, not necessarily a brilliant man, but the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes. He was a visionary, he was an adventurer, but he also grasped that the empire of the Aztecs was vulnerable and he took his men inland and he was able to bring down the Aztecs with just a handful of men.
- [33:48]
Tom
And of course, this isn't just a problem for blood soaked conquistadors. It is true for the rest of us as well, which is where Lloyd's comes in. Their app helps you to see all your finances in one place so that you can feel clearer and more confident about what comes next.
- [34:07]
Dominic
And rather like Cortez, you're managing the micro and the macro. So one moment, you might be managing day to day spending with budgeting insights using the app, or you might be getting guidance if you're thinking about starting a business.
- [34:19]
Tom
So whatever your next move looks like, you can bank on Lloyd. To help you make it with confidence,
- [34:27]
Dominic
visit lloydsbank.com hi, this is Gary Lineker from Goal Hangers. The rest is football. This episode is brought to you by Wise. It's only when you start moving money between currencies that you really think about the exchange rate, the fee, and what might Be hidden away in the small print. Whether you're living abroad, paying someone overseas, or just trying to manage your money across borders, you want a fair exchange rate, an easy transfer, and no surprises along the way. Wise keeps things simple Wise is a smart way to move the currencies you need around the globe. It works in more than 160 countries and with over 40 currencies, most transfers arrive instantly. Wise uses the mid market exchange rate like the one you see on Google, with no markups or hidden fees. So when money needs to move, you can see the rate, know the fee and get on with it. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees by downloading the Wise app today. Be Smart. Get Wise T's and C's Apply
- [35:30]
Tom
this episode is brought to you by Mint Mobile. It's easy to ditch overpriced wireless with Mint Mobile.
- [35:39]
Dominic
Sign up online@mintmobile.com history and get 3 months of premium wireless service for 15 bucks a month, $45 upfront payment required, equivalent to $15 per month month new customers on first 3 month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on a limited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details.
- [36:08]
Tom
Hello everyone and welcome back to our Brazilian themed Rest is History today and the year is 1831. And you join us in a Brazil that is in the midst of of political turmoil, but also musical turmoil because they have kicked out top tunster Pedro the First. So what are they now going to do about this anthem that he's left them, which is basically him of praise to his virility and strength and wisdom and stuff? They kind of proved himself to be useless, hasn't he? So they've got.
- [36:39]
Dominic
And the thing is, they can't use new words for the anthem because he wrote the tune and it would be insane to have a tune written by the bloke you've just kicked out.
- [36:48]
Tom
Well, unless it's really good.
- [36:50]
Dominic
Well, it's not that good.
- [36:51]
Tom
I don't think it's not that good.
- [36:52]
Dominic
I think it's just generic, early 19th century sort of jolly music. But there's good news. A local composer is already on the case. This is one of my favorite Brazilian composers of the 1820s, Francisco Manuel de Silva. Now, Francisco Manuel de Silva actually knew Don Pedro the First because he had played in the chapel orchestra at the Imperial Palace. But clearly he wasn't a fan of the emperor because as soon as the news of the abdication broke, Silva had started writing a celebratory hymn and it took him six weeks to do It. He premiered it at the Sao Pedro Theater, St. Peter Theatre. And then he performed it again at a special gala along with a drama entitled the Fall of the Tyrant.
- [37:34]
Tom
Okay, that's ungrateful.
- [37:36]
Dominic
Very ungrateful. Anyway, he probably never envisaged this as a national anthem. The title is not really very snappy. The title is to the great and Heroic Day of 7th April, 1831, a hymn offered to the Brazilian people by a fellow countryman.
- [37:52]
Tom
I mean, the problem with that is it's going to date fast, isn't it?
- [37:54]
Dominic
It is going to date fast, yeah. Because who's going to care about it? It's not clear at this point whether it has any lyrics or whether it's just instrumental. The lyrics aren't published publicly until two years later. So we don't know really whether they were, you know, sung at the first performance or whether actually written in the next two years. They were written by a liberal judge who was called Ovidio Saraiva de Carvalho y Silva. And the general consensus among historians is that Ovidio Saraiva's lyrics for this anthem are absolutely terrible.
- [38:25]
Tom
Oh, why?
- [38:26]
Dominic
They just babble. They're really overwrought. And the only thing that distinguishes them is their. Their ferocious hostility to the Portuguese, which is not something you often get in song. There are no. Many lusophobic. No lusophobic songs. So to give you a sample of these lyrics. The cannons of tyranny no longer roar in Brazil the monsters that enslaved it no longer thrive among us Barbarians of Jewish and Moorish blood begone. Our homeland is no longer your treasure house. It's hard to imagine in the 21st century, people singing the lyrics, Barbarians of Jewish and Moorish blood. I mean, this is obviously a reference to the sort of, I guess, the Reconquista and. And Portugal's kind of history of religious diversity.
- [39:14]
Tom
Spain famously expelled both the Moors and the Jews. So maybe it's a reference fact that Portugal was distinct from that.
- [39:21]
Dominic
Maybe, maybe. Anyway, even at the time, in the 1830s, a lot of people say, God, these are poor lyrics. And they drop them quite quickly. But they like the tune, Silva's tune. They would play it at public ceremonies without any words. So the years go by. Under Dom Pedro ii, the second emperor, Brazil is very chaotic. There is massive tension between Rio and the provinces. There are endless revolts and rebellions. There's another one on Pernambuco. There's a slave revolt in Baya in 1830. There's an unbelievably bloody Rebellion in the northern state of Para in the late 1830s, in which a third of the population were killed, about 30,000 people.
- [40:01]
Tom
Amazing. Never heard of it.
- [40:02]
Dominic
No. Exactly. And so in 1841, the political elite decided that the only way to try to impose a bit of stability and get a bit of legitimacy for the central government was to bring forward the coronation of. Of the 14 year old boy emperor, friend of the show, Dom Pedro ii.
- [40:20]
Tom
Because why?
- [40:21]
Dominic
I think they just think we want
- [40:23]
Tom
to show, you know, that the state is functioning.
- [40:26]
Dominic
Yeah, yeah, the state is functioning.
- [40:27]
Tom
A bit of braid.
- [40:28]
Dominic
People love a bit of braid.
- [40:29]
Tom
Yeah.
- [40:30]
Dominic
By this point, this anthem by Francisco Manuel de Silva, the one that he had written when Don Pedro was kicked out, this is accepted as the sort of de facto national anthem. So they commission new lyrics for it. The new lyrics are just as bad as the previous lyrics. No?
- [40:47]
Tom
Why are they being horrible about the Portuguese again?
- [40:50]
Dominic
No, they're not. They're just bland and they're just rubbishy. Here we go. When you come auspicious day May happiness dawn among us. We see in Pedro II the adventure of Brazil.
- [41:00]
Tom
That's mad. That's gonna date even faster.
- [41:03]
Dominic
I mean, what if.
- [41:03]
Tom
What happens if he dies or they decide he's rubbish and drive him into a cell? Exactly.
- [41:07]
Dominic
At this point, the authorities basically say, okay, just keep humming. Yeah, just keep humming. So keep playing this hymn by Francisco Manuel de Silva. Whenever the monarch goes to public events, whenever there's military ceremonies, but no lyrics. So for the next 40 years, Brazil has a tune, but it doesn't have any words.
- [41:29]
Tom
Can I just ask, this tune is the tune that they still have to this day. Is it?
- [41:32]
Dominic
Yes, it is.
- [41:33]
Tom
When you see Brazil, the Brazilian team lineup, the music that you hear is the one that they're all humming at this point.
- [41:38]
Dominic
And remember, think about the lyrics they could have had. That's the. That's the question. They brought back a medley of the old lyrics anyway. So for the next 40 years they have a tune but no words. You know, these are very turbulent and interesting. 40 years for Brazil. This is the 40 years when they basically invent Brazilian identity. So they have this idea of a unique tropical culture, distinct from Europe, distinct from Portugal. Brazil actually manages to win a war. One of the bloodiest wars that people have never heard of. The war of the Triple alliance against Paraguay. There was a guy called Lawrence Blair who came on last year to do a bonus episode about this. It's a mad war. So you listen to that. About a million people died in this war. Insane. There are constant slave revolts. They do end up abolishing slavery in
- [42:22]
Tom
1888, but presumably it remains kind of
- [42:25]
Dominic
deeply racist, massively embedded. Even to this day. Even to this day, it's hugely embedded. Now, during all this time, Don Pedro ii, as we described in our previous World cup episode on Brazil in 2022, has been a pretty good emperor. He's very widely admired and respected abroad. He loves art, he loves science, he founds opera houses and things.
- [42:46]
Tom
He's quite a nice guy, isn't he?
- [42:48]
Dominic
He's called the Louis XIV of the tropics.
- [42:51]
Tom
But that's not necessarily a good thing.
- [42:53]
Dominic
Compliments.
- [42:53]
Tom
Yeah. I mean, Louis XIV isn't a very nice man.
- [42:55]
Dominic
No, he's a much nicer guy than Louis.
- [42:57]
Tom
He's a nice guy.
- [42:58]
Dominic
He goes around writing letters, fan letters to, like, Richard Wagner and Louis Pasteur and Victor Hugo and stuff. The one thing he doesn't have is words for his anthem. He doesn't have that. There is one attempt during his reign to do something with the anthem, and this is courtesy of a very unexpected character, an American composer called Louis Moreau. Gottschalk. And Gottschalk. He came from New Orleans. His father was a Jewish immigrant from London and his mother was a Creole from the future Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo. And Gottschalk was a child prodigy who used to play the piano in hotels in New Orleans. He was so talented that when he was 13, his father took him to Paris and the Paris Conservatoire refused to even hear him play. When they found out he was American, the head of the piano faculty at the Paris Conservatoire said, and I quote, there is no point. America is a country of steam engines. So. So they didn't even hear him play. Anyway, what happened to Gotchalk? He traveled the Americas giving piano recitals. He was thrown out of the United Effect. He drummed out of the United States in 1865 after having been accused of having an affair with a student piano student in Oakland, California. He claimed that he had been framed by a rival of the piano manufacturer Chickering and Sons, which was the brand of piano that he used in his tours.
- [44:26]
Tom
And what's the thought on that?
- [44:28]
Dominic
I. I didn't. I mean, who can say? Who can say?
- [44:32]
Tom
I don't know.
- [44:32]
Dominic
I don't even know what the rival was called. The references to the story is so opaque. I don't know who Chickering and Son's great rivals were. I don't know. I don't know how deeply they were embedded in the social life of Oakland, California. Well, quite I have to just, on this subject, skate over ignorance. Yeah, total ignorance. In the summer of 1869, Gottschalk arrived in Rio and he was greeted as a celebrity. Piano prodigies didn't often come to Rio, and Dom Pedro II thought he was brilliant and was all over him. And Gottschalk decided to write two different works inspired by the Brazilian anthem. So he wrote a march that was dedicated to Pedro II and a piano work called the Grand Triumphal Fantasy on the Brazilian national anthem, which was dedicated to Pedro's daughter Isabel. And the Grand Triumphal Fantasy was a massive hit at the time and remains current in Brazil to this day. There was a big sort of hoo ha in the late 20th century about reinterpretations of the national anthem because the military dictatorship of the 60s and 70s tried to stamp them out. And the Grand Triumphal Fantasies, bizarre as it sounds, came very popular on the left of Brazilian politics and was used by the Democratic labor party and its TV ads in the 1980s. So this guy, Gotts Shalk, the guy who possibly disgraced himself in Oakland or being framed by a piano manufacturer, I
- [45:55]
Tom
like to think the second. I like the sound of him.
- [45:58]
Dominic
Anyway, so that's what happened to his Grand Triumph of Fantasy. You can look it up on YouTube and listen to it if that's the. The way you like to spend your time. Gottschalk himself came to a very sad end after he'd finished it. On the 24th of November, 1869, he was playing the piano at a concert in a Teatro Lyrico Fluminense in Rio. He had just finished his own piece, which was unbelievably called Morte Death, when he collapsed.
- [46:24]
Tom
I can't believe you're laughing about this.
- [46:26]
Dominic
Chortling away. It turned out he had yellow fever.
- [46:29]
Tom
Oh, that's even funnier.
- [46:31]
Dominic
And a month later, he died in his hotel. But here's the weird thing. He didn't die of the yellow fever. He died of an overdose of quinine, which he'd presumably taken to combat the yellow fever.
- [46:41]
Tom
Hilarity ensues.
- [46:43]
Dominic
So that's a strange story. Anyway, back to Pedro ii. If you heard our previous podcast about him, you will recall that in the late 1880s, public opinion turned against him. They accused him of being a banana. Didn't they remember that? Yeah, they used to call him Pedro Banana.
- [46:58]
Tom
And the other guy, who is the. The pair?
- [47:01]
Dominic
Yeah, Louis Philippe, some sort of great fruit salad pod.
- [47:04]
Tom
The whole series writes itself. It does.
- [47:06]
Dominic
Okay, so people turn against him. Why? The rich coffee Planters were furious about the abolition of slavery. Liberal intellectuals had swung towards republicanism. They thought that he was old and boring and, you know, an unsuitable figurehead for Brazil. And the army had turned against him. They were obsessed with ideas about progress and modernization, and they thought he and his court were backward and all this. So they basically kicked him out in November 1888, and they replaced him with this, another old man, actually a marshal with a massive beard called Marshal Deodora de Fonseca.
- [47:41]
Tom
Well, what's the point in kicking out an old bloke? He's got a big beard and.
- [47:44]
Dominic
Yeah, mad. Insane. Exactly. Especially as Don Pedro II was basically the best leader Brazil's ever had.
- [47:51]
Tom
Yeah.
- [47:51]
Dominic
Dom Pedro II didn't have the will to fight. He went off into Paris. He died in Paris. And you may remember he had a massive state funeral with basically hundreds of thousands of people turned out.
- [47:59]
Tom
Yeah, because they all loved him.
- [48:01]
Dominic
Exactly. So Brazil is now a republic dominated by the Big Coffee oligarchs and the army. Big Coffee. Big Coffee. Big Coffee is genuinely running Brazil at this point. They. They rip. Give Dom Pedro's name off all the streets and all the buildings. It's the classic story. They changed the image on the banknotes.
- [48:19]
Tom
They're like Philip II then the Dutch revolt.
- [48:21]
Dominic
Exactly. In a Dutch national anthem podcast, they also tweak the flag. They do all sorts of things, but
- [48:27]
Tom
they keep the Habsburg stuff.
- [48:28]
Dominic
Well, as we shall see, they do. They're still the yellow. Right. What color do Brazil playing? They play. They wear yellow shirts. They do need a new anthem.
- [48:36]
Tom
Well, they need new lyrics. Right. Because the tune remains.
- [48:38]
Dominic
Well, they decide at this point they'd like a new tune as well.
- [48:42]
Tom
Okay.
- [48:42]
Dominic
So they have a public contest for a new anthem. They have chosen the words already. They want the anthem to fit the words they've got. They've chosen a poem by a liberal writer called. And they've all got massive names. This writer is called Jose Joaquim do Campos de Castro de Mediro che Albuquerque. And he's written the poem.
- [49:04]
Tom
Please tell me this is good.
- [49:05]
Dominic
It's not great, actually. I mean, you tell me. I think it's probably better than the previous ones. I'll read it to you and you can tell what you think. May this rebel song be an unfurled mantle of light under the vastness of these skies this rebel song that comes to redeem our past from inglorious deeds. Liberty, Liberty above us Spread thy wings through the struggles in the storm Grant that we hear thy voice.
- [49:27]
Tom
It's Better than the previous ones.
- [49:28]
Dominic
It's better than the previous ones.
- [49:29]
Tom
A little gassy.
- [49:31]
Dominic
Yeah, gassy. Exactly, exactly. So these are the lyrics. 29 people enter the competition to write the tune. They have multiple rounds to the Eurovision Song Contest style. There is an ominous sign before the second round. A journalist asks this new president, Marshall Deodoro, with his massive beard, what do you think of the entrance so far? And Deodoro said, I prefer the old anthem.
- [49:55]
Tom
Oh, okay.
- [49:57]
Dominic
So they have the final at the Teatro Lyrico Fluminense, the place where Gottschalk the pianist had died with his yellow fever. They have the final at this theater. They pay the finalists. They pay them all twice. Marshall Deodoro and his ministers are listening in the royal box. Deodoro leaves the royal box to consult. It's like that moment in the Eurovision when you're waiting for the results to come in. Then he comes back into the box with his ministers. They retake their seats. The Interior Minister stands and he reads the result. And he says, after all that, we'll stick with the old anthem after all.
- [50:31]
Tom
Good.
- [50:32]
Dominic
So good. They've stuck with the old anthem, but they haven't got any lyrics for it. Still. Marshall Deodoro falls from power after a year falling out with Congress.
- [50:42]
Tom
Is this because they're crossed with him for not choosing a new.
- [50:44]
Dominic
No, I don't think the anthem plays a massive part in that, actually. Frankly, it'd be nice to claim, and it would make the episode better. Yeah, but it wouldn't be true. The national anthem revolt and Marshall Daredevil's fall, just a year after they've kicked out Don Pedro ii, sets the tone for what follows. So, to quote the Brazilian writer Pedro Vasquez, in the next century, Brazil had 12 states of emergency, 19 military revolutions, two presidential resignations, three presidents prevented from assuming office, four presidents deposed, seven different constitutions, four dictatorships, and nine authoritarian governments, which is a lot.
- [51:17]
Tom
The consequence of that is that it's very difficult to arrive at a consensus for new lyrics for the national.
- [51:22]
Dominic
Precisely. Precisely. Besides priority.
- [51:25]
Tom
No.
- [51:26]
Dominic
Because basically there'll be a coup in another year.
- [51:29]
Tom
Yeah.
- [51:29]
Dominic
And they want their own lyrics, so there's no lyrics. Now the problem for the government is people have started to make up their own lyrics. There are complaints flooding in all the time. A people are singing, will sing the anthem in school. Teachers will get their children, their pupils to sing the anthem, but the teachers will make up their own lyrics. And some regional governments have decided to start imposing their own lyrics, which are generally about their own state so there'll be a. Supposedly a national anthem, but it turns out that the lyrics are all like, oh, this state is absolutely brilliant and the best of all states and the others are useless or whatever.
- [52:02]
Tom
Well, unless you're Bertol Brecht.
- [52:04]
Dominic
Yes, I guess so. Yeah. We're no better than anybody else. Hopefully in the future people won't recoil from us in horror anymore.
- [52:11]
Tom
Yeah.
- [52:12]
Dominic
In 1909, they held yet another contest to write lyrics for the old anthem. And this is one by a man called Osorio Duque Estrada. He is the man who wrote the lyrics that exist today. What's he like, this man who sets his stamp on Brazilian musical history? It's hard to find out anything very interesting about him. He's a sort of generic Early 20th century Latin American intellectual with a sort of curled mustache and a very stiff collar. He shares all the sort of idealistic enthusiasms of the early 20th century. So progress, modernity and so on. By winning this competition, he has landed himself in a world of pain, because for the next decade, his lyrics are constantly being debated in Congress and in the press, and he has to rewrite them nine times. So he must be heartily sick of having won this competition. And this drags on and on and on. But by the early 1920s, the centenary of Brazilian independence. Now you will recall, Tom, the most important date in Brazilian history is 7 September, 1822, when Don Pedro II declared independence. Well, the centenary in 1922 is fast approaching and Rio is going to host a World Expo to celebrate. They do.
- [53:35]
Tom
I have so many World Expos at this time on this.
- [53:38]
Dominic
They do. People love a World Expo. They've got 14 countries coming. A very strange lineup, actually. So the people you'd expect to go, like the us, Britain, France are going. Portugal are going also. Just a little random European countries. Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Norway. But not many South American countries.
- [53:56]
Tom
Is that because they're jealous?
- [53:57]
Dominic
I think they just don't care. Yeah, right. Maybe they are jealous. They've built some absolutely thrilling attractions. So there is. The main thing is a series of pavilions. There's the Statistics Pavilion.
- [54:10]
Tom
Oh, brilliant.
- [54:11]
Dominic
There's the Agriculture and Roads Pavilion. There is the Large Industries Pavilion. There is the Small Industries Pavilion.
- [54:20]
Tom
I'm amazed more people aren't going.
- [54:22]
Dominic
Well, Callum, very foolishly, I think, has said it sounds rather like the Rest is History Festival at Hampton Corp. Yeah,
- [54:29]
Tom
People who come into that are going to love our statistics tend.
- [54:32]
Dominic
But 3 million people go to this Expo in Rio, so that's even more than going to the Rest Is History festival at Hampton Gore Palace. The opening of the small industries and statistics pavilions is fast approaching. They need an anthem. They need the lyrics. So eventually the federal government do a deal with this bloke, Osorio Duquestrada. They say, okay, we're just going to buy. Stop now. Stop changing the lyrics. We're going to buy them off you. They buy them off him for 5 million reish, which is apparently. I just. I learn from some enthusiastic Googling was half the price of a new car in Rio at the time.
- [55:09]
Tom
Oh, so not very much.
- [55:09]
Dominic
Not enormous amount.
- [55:10]
Tom
No. I mean, you have to write another anthem. If you get. What's the rest of the car?
- [55:14]
Dominic
Yeah, to get the rest together as the car. The very first radio broadcast in Brazilian history was the playing of this new anthem. Of that was the old anthem with the new lyrics. On the morning of 7th September, it was broadcast from Corcovado, which is this mountain above Rio, the mountain where the statue of Christ the Redeemer stands today. And actually Christ the Redeemer, they began work on it this year, so the first foundations had been laid while the sound of the anthem is drifting across the city.
- [55:46]
Tom
So it's a great year for Brazilian identity.
- [55:48]
Dominic
National identity. It is. It's a brilliant year for Brazilian identity. Now we come to the lyrics. I will read these and you can tell me whether you think they're better than previous lyrics. Okay, so these are the lyrics we have today. O beloved idolized homeland, Hail, hail, adored land Amongst a thousand others art thou Brazil O beloved homeland of the sons of this ground Thou art a kind mother Beloved homeland, Brazil.
- [56:15]
Tom
I mean, they're like every other anthem.
- [56:18]
Dominic
They're not great, are they?
- [56:19]
Tom
No. So, I mean, there are loads and loads and loads of national anthems like that. So if we haven't done a national anthem, it's basic because they're all like that.
- [56:27]
Dominic
They're slow, generic, and so flowery and meaningless, I think. I just don't think they're great. However, if you look up the text, there are three specific references which it might be interesting to unpick just quickly. So that was actually the chorus that I read there. That was the chorus. The opening lines of the first verse are, the placid shores of the Ipuranga heard the resounding shout of a heroic people and the sun of liberty in shining beams shone in the homeland sky at that instant. So the Ipuranga is the stream outside Sao Paulo where Dom Pedro with diarrhea got the message and he shouted, liberty or death. And drew his sword in 1822.
- [57:11]
Tom
So it's kind of nice that Dom Pedro is still getting a little nod. A little nod.
- [57:16]
Dominic
Exactly. Exactly. The next reference. Brazil. An intense dream, a vivid ray of love and hope to earth descendeth. If in thy beautiful smiling and limpid sky the image of the cross blazeth. Now, you might think the cross, this is Christian cross. It's not really. It's the Southern Cross. The word in Portuguese is Cruzeiro. And this is this constellation that's only visible in the Southern hemisphere. It was first described by a Portuguese astronomer, Joao Farras, who had gone on the first voyage to Brazil in 1500. He set up an astrolabe on the beach to work out where they were using, you know, the stars and stuff. And he wrote a letter to King Manuel of Portugal describing the Southern Cross and including a rough sketch of it, the first sketch ever done. So the Southern Cross became a great symbol of Brazil, as it is a symbol of Australia and New Zealand. The new coat of arms of Republican Brazil when Dom Pedro II was kicked out, actually includes the Southern Cross. So the Southern Cross matters great. The Cruzeiro matters a great deal to Brazil. They had four different currencies in the 20th century called cruzeiros. And there is, fittingly, as we're a World cup series. There is a football team called Cruzeiro, founded in 1921 in Bello Rezonch. And this is a team that produced two of the players from the 1970 World cup winning team, Tostau and Piazza and Jesino, who scored in every round of the 1970 World Cup. He played for Cruisero later on. And Ronaldo, the original Ronaldo, if you remember him. Tom, with his gappy teeth, kind of bald. Yes, he played for Cruisero before he moved to psv.
- [58:59]
Tom
Little bit like Zach Planski.
- [59:04]
Dominic
Yeah, I can see the resemblance. The teeth. The teeth, yeah.
- [59:07]
Tom
Yeah. Better at football than Zapolansky.
- [59:09]
Dominic
Yeah, much better.
- [59:10]
Tom
Who doesn't strike me as a natural sportsman.
- [59:12]
Dominic
He doesn't exude athletic prowess. Does he zap Lansky so near the end of the anthem? There's one other reference. Brazil of eternal love. May the starry ensign which thou displayest be a symbol. And the starry ensign is the Brazilian flag. And actually, we made a few references to the Brazilian flag. Brazil's flag is surely one of the most distinctive in the world.
- [59:33]
Tom
Yeah, for sure. And I hadn't realized it was a Habsburg tribute flag.
- [59:38]
Dominic
Yeah. So basically, although it's changed multiple times, it is a tweaked version of the original flag. Adopted by dom Pedro in 1822.
- [59:47]
Tom
So if Brazil beat the Netherlands, Philip II will have the last love as a Habsburg.
- [59:53]
Dominic
Yeah, yeah, he would. So the green, the house, as I said, the House of Braganza, which ruled Portugal since 1422. The yellow diamond Habsburg, that's Don Pedro's wife, Maria Leopoldina. Then there's a blue circle in the middle. Now, originally in the blue circle, there was an astrolabe, hence the thing that you use to look at the stars. And the astrolabe is also in the middle of the Portuguese flag. But when they kicked out the Portuguese, they replaced it with the stars, including the Southern Cross. And their stars represent the 27 different states of Brazil. And finally, there is a motto. So Brazil's flag is very unusual, having a motto written on it. And the motto is Ordain y progreso. And this means order and progress. And this is a quotation from a French writer, Auguste Comte. L' amour pu pour principe et lodres pour bas le progray pro bu. Love as a principle, order as a basis, progress as your goal. Order and progress. It's the sort of motto the positivist movement. And in Latin America, people were obsessed with positivism in the late 19th century. So this is a sort of anti clerical scientific progress, strong central government, embrace modernity, all of this. Auguste Comte was the great sort of progenitor of this. People loved him in Brazil, and they put his order and progress on the flag. Unfortunately, order and progress were not really the guiding principles of Brazilian life in the 20th century. And actually, this Wednesday, Tom, we have a bonus episode with Paul Rouse, historian of sport as well as of Ireland, who is going to be talking about how the Brazilian military dictatorship, which ruled from 1964 to 1985, used football, and in particular the World cup winning team of Pele Co. In 1970, how they use football to launder their image. So a very interesting story. Anyway, the anthem itself never has a fixed political meaning, and that's been true of so many anthems that we've talked about. So you know how we were talking before in previous episodes about how people would basically co opt or appropriate anthem anthems.
- [62:07]
Tom
Yeah. And.
- [62:08]
Dominic
And to turn them for political purposes. Well, this has been the case with the Brazilian anthem, too. So in the 1990s, when poor rural workers were demonstrating and occupying farms and calling for land reform, they would sing the national anthem. And one of them said later when she was interviewed, she said it was the best way to stop the police from attacking us. They had no way of shooting at unarmed people who was singing the Brazilian national anthem. But also, of course, very popular on the right. So when Jair Bolsonaro, the. I have to say, very unlovely president of Brazil.
- [62:44]
Tom
Big chum of Trumps.
- [62:45]
Dominic
Yeah, Trump adjacent President of Brazil, when he lost his bid for re election 2022, and his supporters went berserk to the sort of Maga style uprising. A lot of them were filmed seeing the national anthem while doing Nazi salutes.
- [62:58]
Tom
Oh, dear.
- [62:59]
Dominic
Which I think is not. Not very admirable. But the most celebrated use of the anthem comes from the 1980s. So I mentioned the military dictatorship in the mid-1980s. The military dictatorship was losing its grip on Brazilian society, and it was under huge pressure from a movement called Directors Jar, Direct Elections Already, which was demanding free presidential elections. And they organized these huge rallies with hundreds of thousands of people. People. And the rallies had lots of kind of cultural and sporting figures associated with the most famously Socrates, the captain of Brazil in 1982, who paid for a team called Corinthians in Sao Paulo. And he got all of his teammates to wear political messages on their shirts.
- [63:44]
Tom
Is that the only mention we get to Socrates?
- [63:46]
Dominic
That's the only mention getting of Socrates, yeah.
- [63:48]
Tom
Oh, I was hoping for a little bit.
- [63:49]
Dominic
I teased you with it. But, I mean, we can talk about Socrates privately if you're desperate to. If you want an analysis of, like, how he worked with Adair Falcao and Serizo in the midfield in 1982, Tom, I am the person to talk you through that.
- [64:02]
Tom
And his relationship with Plato.
- [64:04]
Dominic
Yeah, exactly. How does this relate to the anthem, this movement that Socrates is a part of? One of the most celebrated figures in this movement was a singer called Fafada Boleng, who was then in her late 20s. And she was seen as a great sex symbol in the 1980s. The voice of the masses. So she has this very low, husky voice, a little bit like the sound that you associate with Portuguese fardo music.
- [64:29]
Tom
Oh, yeah.
- [64:30]
Dominic
So this kind of husky kind of lament.
- [64:32]
Tom
Yeah.
- [64:33]
Dominic
And she would go to these rallies for Father Boling and she would give this performance of the national anthem. The regime had banned anything but very, very formal interpretations of the anthem. Anthem. They said you have to follow the 1920s orchestration. If you do anything else with it, you are disrespecting the anthem and disrespecting Brazil. So you can't do it in a different way. So this is a little bit like, remember the. The Star Spangled Banner? And we were Talking about Jimi Hendrix and whatnot. Yeah, this is carrying that to another degree. This is basically saying you're breaking the law if you do anything other than do it in this very rigid, formal way. And she would go to these rallies with hundreds of thousands of people and she would give very, very dramatic reinterpretations of the anthem, but playing within the rules. No, breaking the rules.
- [65:24]
Tom
Breaking the rules.
- [65:25]
Dominic
Incredibly slow, mournful, melodramatic. And people would be crying during the anthem, like thousands of people would be crying while she was singing it. And it became the emblematic sound of protest in the 80s. And if people want a sense of what I mean, if you go onto her YouTube channel, you can find a clip of her performing it in that style in the Senate in Brasilia in 2013. Because for the 25th anniversary of the new democratic constitution that had been introduced in 1988, when the dictatorship finally fell, to celebrate the anniversary, they invited it into the Senate to give her performance, to give her rendition. And she did it there to celebrate the fact that democracy had been reintroduced and the protesters had ultimately won. And so, Tom, we end with that very rare thing on the wrist. Is history a relatively happy ending?
- [66:22]
Tom
Well, that's wonderful. And actually, in a manner of speaking, we're going to have the same in our next episode, the final episode, which is going to be about the national anthem of. Of South Africa. And in that, as well as football, there will be quite a lot of rugby.
- [66:37]
Dominic
Rugby. Excellent. All right.
- [66:39]
Tom
And so obviously, if you're a massive fan of rugby, or indeed if you're a fan of Nelson Mandela, you may want to listen to that immediately. And if you're not already a member of the Rest Is History club, you can get that by joining us@therealStishistory.com thank you, Dominic. Thank you everyone for listening. And let's say goodbye with the national anthem of Brazil.
- [67:01]
Dominic
Bye bye.
- [67:02]
Tom
Bye bye. Taking.
- [68:26]
Dominic
Hi, everybody, it's Dominic Sambrook here. There are two weeks to go until the Rest Is history's inaugural festival at Hampton Court Palace. And frankly, I could not be more excited. There's going to be medieval combat. There are going to be all sorts of big name historians. You can go to the palace, you can feast like Henry VIII on the very lawns where he walked in the sunshine. I'll be talking to Tracy Bormann about the Tudors. I'll be talking to Katya Hoyer about Weimar Germany. I'll be talking to Ian Hislop about the history of satire. So it's on two days it's on Saturday the 4th of July and Sunday the 5th of July. The bad news is we have actually sold out the allocations that we were given by Hampton Court for both days. The good news however, we have persuaded Hampton Court to let us have more people so there will be a handful of extra tickets available for both the Saturday and the Sunday. Now we do expect all of those extra tickets to sell out really quickly, so please do not wait to get your hands on them. The tickets are exclusive for club members. It's one of the benefits of being a member of the Rest Is History Club. Frankly, if you're not a member and you would like to go to the festival, the only way to do that is by joining the club. So you have to head to the restishistory.com to sign up and then you go to the members area. Once you've signed up and you select Festival to get your tickets, we are really hoping to see as many of you there as possible in the sunshine at Hampton Court.
- [69:52]
Tom
Bye Bye the Right Window treatments change everything. Your sleep, your privacy, the way every room looks and feels. @blinds.com We've spent 30 years making it surprisingly simple to get exactly what your home needs. We've covered over 25 million windows and have 50,000 five star reviews to prove we deliver. Whether you DIY it or want a pro to handle everything from measure to install, we have you covered. Real design professionals, free samples, zero pressure right now. Get up to 45% off site wide plus get a free professional measure@blinds.com rules and restrictions apply. Your next chapter in healthcare starts at Carrington College's School of Nursing in Portland.
- [70:29]
Dominic
Join us for our open house on
- [70:30]
Tom
Tuesday, January 13th from 4 to 7pm
- [70:33]
Dominic
you'll tour our campus, see live demos, meet instructors and learn about our Associate
- [70:38]
Tom
Degree in Nursing program that prepares you
- [70:40]
Dominic
to become a registered nurse. Take the first step toward your nursing career. Save your spot now at Carrington Edu Events.
- [70:48]
Tom
For information on program outcomes, visit carrington.
- [70:51]
Dominic
Edu Sci.