The
Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern
Brazil and
Uruguay. Its government was a
representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors
Dom Pedro I and his son Dom
Pedro II. A
colony of the
Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil became the seat of the
Portuguese colonial Empire in 1808, when the Portuguese Prince regent, later King Dom
João VI, fled from
Napoleon's invasion of Portugal and
established himself and his government in the Brazilian city of
Rio de Janeiro. João VI later returned to Portugal, leaving his eldest son and heir, Pedro, to rule the
Kingdom of Brazil as regent. On 7 September 1822, Pedro declared the
independence of Brazil and, after waging a successful war against his father's kingdom, was acclaimed on 12 October as Pedro I, the first Emperor of Brazil. The new country was huge but sparsely populated and ethnically diverse.