Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias (25 August 1803 – 7 May 1880), nicknamed "the Peacemaker" and "Iron Duke", was an army officer, politician and monarchist of the
Empire of Brazil. Like his father and uncles, Caxias pursued a military career. In 1823 he fought as a young officer in the
Brazilian War for Independence against Portugal, then spent three years in Brazil's southernmost province,
Cisplatina, as the government unsuccessfully resisted that province's secession in the
Cisplatine War. Though his own father and uncles renounced Emperor
Dom Pedro I during the protests of 1831, Caxias remained loyal. Pedro I abdicated in favor of his young son Dom
Pedro II, whom Caxias instructed in
swordsmanship and
horsemanship and eventually befriended.