Divisão Naval da Costa d`Leste: a expansão da Guerra Cisplatina para o litoral africano (1825-1830)

Abstract

The research analyzes the performance of the Navy of the nascent Empire of Brazil, through the Naval Division of the Coast d`Leste, in defense of the Atlantic slave trade on the African coast, then under threat of corsairs from the United Provinces of the River Plate And pirates during and after the Cisplatin War (1825-1828); war that extended to the African coast, namely to the squares of Molembo, Cabinda and Ambriz. The first international conflict between two independent countries of South America generated great financial damages to the Brazilian maritime trade, being seriously affected the commercial square of Rio de Janeiro. The elite of Rio de Janeiro's mercantile capital, represented by the great slave traders, who also controlled the maritime insurance companies, resorted to the protection of the State, which, through the Imperial Navy, sought to protect the extensive Brazilian coast against the corsair threat. Of moving warships to the coast of the Angolan-Congo region. The defensive action was accompanied by the naval blockade of the Rio de la Plata, the main scene of the conflict involving the two largest trading squares in the South Atlantic: Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian government aimed to demonstrate, in the context of the South American naval geopolitics, the strength of the Imperial Navy, which functioned as a practical instrument for achieving strategic foreign policy objectives in Brazil. The Naval Division of the Costa d`Leste effectively accomplished a double paper between 1827 and 1830: to promote the safety of slave ships between the ports of Molembo, Cabinda and Ambriz, a zone of misrule of the portuguese crown and prevalence of African powers, The preservation of areas of Brazilian influence on the west coast of Africa.