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The Empire of Brazil (approximate location)

Brazil is the largest nation in South America and the largest Portuguese-speaking nation in the world. Portugeuse settlement began with the landing by Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500, and the colony expanded in tandem with the Spanish colonies in the rest of the continent. In 1777, the Treaty of Ildefonso established a border between Spanish and Portuguese territory.

In the wake of the Trans-Oceanic War, the colonies of defeated Spain won their independence and continued as unstable, backward republics. Although also characterized by a lack of progress and stability (see For Want of a Nail . . ., page 99), Brazil instead became an Empire.

The late nineteenth century brought both the Bloody Eighties in Europe, which led to a large influx of Italian immigrants to Brazil, and the expansion of the United States of Mexico under Benito Hermión. Though not explicitly conquered like New Granada, the Emperor Pedro V accepted Mexican leadership in the continent and signed a treaty of alliance with the U.S.M. in the early 1900's. As part of his "grand survey of 1912", French President Henri Fanchon sent fraternal greetings to the French population of Brazil's Santos colony. Fanchon was invited to visit Santos, but was refused permission to enter Brazil by the Emperor. In 1925, according to Sobel, the Empire's economy was one of several on the continent controlled by Kramer Associates.


Sobel only mentions Portugal once in connection with the Trans-Oceanic War, so we don't know exactly how Brazil became an Empire. The most likely scenario is one paralleling the one IOW, where the crown of a defeated Portugal moves to Brazil during the Trans-Oceanic War or after a republican revolution during the Bloody Eighties. (In For All Nails, at least, France and Spain conquer Portugal before their eventual defeat.)

In For All Nails, Brazil is a smaller nation than IOW, losing its southern states as well as IOW Uruguay to revolutions led by Garibaldi, and with independent nations such as Rio Negro (mentioned by Sobel) and Grão-Pará in the Amazon basin. When war comes to South America in 1975, Germany persuades Brazil to remain neutral.

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