Besides this persistent discontent, radical republican newspapers continually stirred up fresh agitation.

Whatever the personal service rendered by the Emperor to the welfare of the country, to them he represented a political system which deprived the provinces of much of their local autonomy and the Brazilian people at large of self-government.
But the chief reason for the momentous change which was about to take place was the fact that the constitutional monarchy had really completed its work as a transitional government.

Under that regime Brazil had reached a condition of stability and had attained a level of progress which might well enable it to govern itself.

During all this time the influence of the Spanish American nations had been growing apace.
Even if they had fallen into many a political calamity, they were nevertheless "republics," and to the South American this word had a magic sound.

Above all, there was the potent suggestion of the success of the United States of North America, whose extension of its federal system over a vast territory suggested what Brazil with its provinces might accomplish in the southern continent.