This book presents a historical synthesis of colonial relations between Brazil and Portugal, illuminating the projects that the statesmen of the period formulated for the rich Portuguese territory in America—at first as a colonial domain, then as a potential independent country.

Drawing on primary sources and historiographical dialogues with classic and current works, the book follows a chronological thread from Marquis of Pombal’s reforms to Brazilian independence. The work is framed by global geopolitics at the height of the liberal revolutions that led to the collapse of the Ancient Regime and the colonial system. Liberal revolutions, the Atlantic context, Napoleonic wars, and disputes for hegemony on the South American continent provide further background to the making of the Portuguese–American slaveholding class, the guarantor of the independence process. While the volume focuses on a remote period of history, its analysis of agendas for the nation offers the opportunity for dialogue with current concerns in Brazil.

Designing Brazil is an effective resource for understanding a long and seminal period of Brazil’s history, which will be of value to scholars of Brazilian history and Latin American history and studies more widely.