1808: The Flight of the Emperor

In a time of terror for Europe's monarchs—imprisoned, exiled, executed—Napoleon's army marched toward Lisbon. Cornered, Prince Regent Joao had to make the most fraught decision of his life. Protected by the British Navy, he fled to Brazil with his entire family, including his mentally ill mother, most of the nobility, and the entire state apparatus. Thousands made the voyage, but it was no luxury cruise. It took two months in cramped, decrepit ships. Sickness ran rampant. Lice infested some of the vessels, and noble women had to shave their hair and grease their bald heads with antiseptic sulfur. Vermin infested the food, and bacteria contaminated the drinking water. No European monarch had ever set foot in the Americas, let alone relocating an entire court there. A week after landing, Prince Joao opened Brazil's ports, liberating the colony from a trade monopoly with Portugal. While explorers mapped the burgeoning nation's distant regions, the prince authorized...