António de Araújo e Azevedo, 1st Count of Barca
{{Short description|Portuguese statesman (1754–1817)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = His Excellency
| name = The Count of Barca
| image = Retrato do Conde da Barca (atrib. Domenico Pellegrini) - Casa de Sá.png
| imagesize =
| office = Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs and War
| term_start = 30 December 1816
| term_end = 21 June 1817
| monarch = John VI
| predecessor = Fernando José Portugal
| successor = João Paulo Bezerra
| birth_date = 14 May 1754
| birth_place = Ponte de Lima, Kingdom of Portugal
| death_date = 21 June 1817
| death_place = Rio de Janeiro, United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
| occupation = Politician
| relatives = Francisco António de Araújo e Azevedo (brother)
}}
D. António de Araújo e Azevedo, 1st Count of Barca (14 May 1754 – 21 June 1817) was a Portuguese statesman, author and amateur botanist.
Biography
The eldest child of António Pereira Pinto de Araújo de Azevedo Fagundes and Marquesa Margarida de Araújo Azevedo, António de Araújo e Azevedo was born on 14 May 1754 in the freguesia of Santa Maria de Sá, Ponte de Lima, Portugal.{{Cite web |title=António de Araújo de Azevedo – Conde da Barca |url=http://pesquisa.adb.uminho.pt/details?id=1408708 |access-date=25 August 2024 |website=Arquivo Distrital de Braga}}
Career
After cooperating in the establishment of the Academy of Sciences in Lisbon, he represented his government in Holland, France, Prussia, and Russia.
He was first minister of John VI of Portugal, whom he followed when the Portuguese Court was transferred to the colony of Brazil in 1807. There he was minister of the navy and foreign minister, and took great interest in promoting education and industry, having established the manufacture of porcelain in Rio de Janeiro.
He was a skeptic of free trade, arguing that opening up the Portuguese empire to free trade would "cause great ruin."{{Cite book |last=Paquette |first=Gabriel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fwbw6QEnaO4C |title=Imperial Portugal in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions: The Luso-Brazilian World, C.1770-1850 |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-02897-5 |pages=69 |language=en}} During the French revolutionary wars, Azevedo was part of a pro-French faction within the Portuguese cabinet that clashed with a pro-British faction.{{Cite book |last=Paquette |first=Gabriel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fwbw6QEnaO4C |title=Imperial Portugal in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions: The Luso-Brazilian World, C.1770-1850 |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-02897-5 |pages=89 |language=en}}
Works
He conducted scientific studies and experiments in his own palace and private botanical garden, as well as the first trials for the acclimatization and culture of the tea-plant in Brazil. Later in life, he was the founder of Brazil's first school of fine arts.
As an author, his works include two tragedies and a translation of Virgil's pastorals.
References
{{reflist}}
Sources
- {{citation |title=Enciclopédia Luso-Brasileira |volume=IV |location=Lisbon, Portugal |year=1965 |language=Portuguese}}
- {{citation |title=Nobreza de Portugal e Brasil |volume=III |publisher=Direcção de Afonso Eduardo Martins Zuquete/Editorial Enciclopédia |edition=II |location=Lisbon, Portugal |year=1989 |language=Portuguese |pages=373–375}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barca, Antonio de Araujo e Azevedo, 1st Count of}}
Category:Ambassadors of Portugal to the Netherlands
Category:Ambassadors of Portugal to France
Category:Ambassadors of Portugal to Russia
Category:Portuguese male writers
Category:19th-century Portuguese botanists
Category:Government ministers of Portugal
Category:People from Ponte de Lima
Category:18th-century Portuguese botanists
Category:19th-century Portuguese writers