* In 1807, Napoleon's army marched on Lisbon. Two days before the invasion, the Portuguese Prince Regent set sail for Brazil. On arrival, he made Rio de Janeiro the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve.
Brazil became the only New World colony to serve as the seat of a European monarch. In 1822 the Prince Regent's son, who had been left behind to rule the colony when his father returned to Portugal, pulled out his sword and yelled the battle cry 'Independ?cia ou morte!' (independence or death).
Portugal was too weak to fight its favourite son, so Brazil became an independent empire without spilling a drop of blood.
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