On 29 August 1825, in Rio de Janeiro, plenipotentiaries of King João VI and Emperor Pedro I signed the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Alliance, with British mediation by Charles Stuart. The instrument recognizes the Empire of Brazil as an independent and sovereign state, after the Portuguese diploma of 13 May of the same year, cited in the preamble.

Portugal was represented by Sir Charles Stuart, a British privy councillor acting as the king’s plenipotentiary. Brazil was represented by Luís José de Carvalho e Melo, foreign minister, the Baron of Santo Amaro (José Egídio Álvares de Almeida) and Francisco Vilela Barbosa, navy minister. The Portuguese text has eleven articles.

Article I recognizes Brazilian independence and Pedro as emperor; João VI keeps the imperial title. Article II allows the king to use that title. Article III binds Pedro not to accept any Portuguese colony joining Brazil.

Article IV restores peace, alliance and oblivion for acts of war. Article V places the subjects of both crowns on most-favoured-nation terms. Articles VI–VIII require the return of sequestered property and vessels, a mixed commission and, if votes are tied, the British mediator’s casting lot.

Article IX sends government-to-government claims to a special convention. The same day produced the Additional Convention: Brazil pays Portugal two million pounds sterling, takes over Portugal’s London loan of October 1823 and pays the balance in quarterly instalments within a year; troop-transport costs stay outside that sum and go to a mixed commission.

Article X caps the consumo duty at 15 per cent on each other’s goods. Article XI requires the exchange of ratifications in Lisbon within five months. Brazil ratified the next day; Portugal published the carta de lei in November. This is not the 7 September 1822 proclamation, not the 1826 Anglo-Brazilian slave-trade treaty and not the 1828 Cisplatine instrument.

Paço Imperial in Rio de Janeiro, the court palace in the city of the signing. Photograph: Donatas Dabravolskas, Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 4.0.

For context: Treaty of Rio de Janeiro (1825). The eleven articles: Tratado do Rio de Janeiro (1825).