Andrada e Silva, José Bonifácio de

known as José Bonifácio

(born c. 1763, Santos, Braz.—died April 6, 1838, Niterói) Chief architect of Brazil's independence from Portugal. Andrada was born in Brazil but educated in Portugal, where he became a distinguished scholar. On returning to Brazil in 1819, he functioned as chief minister of the Portuguese prince regent (later the emperor Pedro I), who had fled Portugal with the rest of the royal family to escape Napoleon. Andrada was the leading intellectual advocate of independence. After Pedro I declared Brazil independent in 1822, he served as prime minister and as tutor to the child emperor Pedro II, who became an effective and enlightened monarch.

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