The politics of lusophobia: parties and political identities in Rio de Janeiro (1848-1849)

Abstract

This article analyses the meaning of an anti-Portuguese discourse in the political language of nineteenth-century Brazil. The research is focused in Rio de Janeiro newspapers, in a moment that was marked by the rise of a new cabinet and its consequences — the political inversion and the emergency of a rebelion in Pernambuco. In that moment, the issue of nationality played, indifferent ways, a central role in the forging political identity both to liberal and conservative parties. This study suggests the importance of these political identities to understand the conflicts in the urban labour market.