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Citizen Emperor: Pedro II and the Making of Brazil, 1825-1891

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This is one outstanding work about Brazilian history. Historian Roderick J. Barman accomplished to write an exceptional biograph of Dom (Lord) Pedro II, the second and last emperor of Brazil. He was born in 1825 and became emperor at age 5 on 1831. He reigned for over 58 years until he was exiled by a republican coup. Virtually related to all European royal houses, Pedro II was a grandson of the last Holy Roman Emperor, Franz II, he was also a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, a first cousin of Napoleon II, of Maximilian I of Mexico and of Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary.

His psychology, his behavior, his tastes, his relationship to relatives and friends, etc... everything can be found on this book. Pedro II's life was, to a certain extent, the history of 19th century Brazil. The early years of chaos under a weak regency plagued by provincial civil wars, the consolidation of order and peace across the entire country; the victory over foreign threats in 1852, 64 and 70; the economic progress, the political stryfe; his trip to the U.S., to Europe, to Middle East, to northern Africa; his friendship to scientists, scholars, men of letters, etc... it's all here.

If you want to learn everything you need to know about imperial Brazil, I'd suggest this book, Neill Macaulay's "Dom Pedro: The Struggle for Liberty in Brazil and Portugal, 1798-1834" and Jeffrey Needell's "The Party of Order: The Conservatives, the State, and Slavery in the Brazilian Monarchy, 1831-1871". You won't regret it, I'm sure.