1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pedro II.

PEDRO II. (1825–1891), emperor of Brazil, came to the throne in childhood, having been born on the 2nd of December 1825, and proclaimed emperor in April 1831, upon the abdication of his father. He was declared of full age in 1840. For a long period few thrones appeared more secure, and his prosperous and beneficent rule might have endured throughout his life but for his want of energy and inattention to the signs of the times. The rising generation had become honeycombed with republicanism, the prospects of the imperial succession were justly regarded as unsatisfactory, the higher classes had been estranged by the emancipation of the slaves, and all these causes of discontent found expression in a military revolt, which in November 1889 overthrew the seemingly solid edifice of the Brazilian Empire in a few hours. Dom Pedro retired to Europe, and died in Paris on the 5th of December 1891. The chief events of his reign had been the emancipation of the slaves, and the war with Paraguay in 1864-70. Dom Pedro was a model constitutional sovereign, and a munificent patron of science and letters. He travelled in the United States (1876), and thrice visited Europe (1871–1872, 1876–1877, 1886–1889).