The Night of the Bottle Fight was an incident that took place in the

Empire of Brazil The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pe ...

in 1831. The event involved the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

that supported the Emperor

Dom Pedro I Dom or DOM may refer to: People and fictional characters * Dom (given name), including fictional characters * Dom (surname) * Dom La Nena (born 1989), stage name of Brazilian-born cellist, singer and songwriter Dominique Pinto * Dom people, an eth ...

and the Brazilians that opposed him. It was one of the main events from the period that immediately preceded the

monarch A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...

's abdication (in April 1831).

History

The ''Night of the Bottle Fight'' involved a riot that occurred in opposition to Pedro I (then emperor of Brazil). In 1830, prior to the Night of the Bottle Fight, Líbero Badaró, a liberal journalist, was assassinated in

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

for denouncing Pedro I's policies. The perpetrators were allied with the emperor's politicians. The assassination unleashed a wave of protests against Pedro I's government. Opposition continued in February 1831, when Pedro I travelled to

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

and was received with hostility by the locals. The conflict reached its climax on the night of February 13, when, during a party for the emperor's reception organized by his Portuguese supporters, Brazilians attacked with stones and bottles. This involved a dispute between allies from the Portuguese party that favored the emperor, and liberals from the Brazilian party who opposed him. This episode played an important role in the political crisis that resulted in the abdication of Dom Pedro I on 7 April 1831.

References

{{Reflist Conflicts in 1831 Empire of Brazil 1831 in Brazil