Last photo of Dom Pedro II in Brazil, hours after the Proclamation of the Republic on November 15, 1889. We do not know why Pedro did not resist the coup, the most accepted being that he was tired and did not want a civil war. [530×579]

He was a disabled elderly man with no male heirs. He probably saw that either way, the Monarchy wouldn’t last long. In an alternate history, he might have allowed his daughter Princess Isabel to take over, giving the monarchy more time. She had already acted as regent while he travelled.

But either way Brazil would become a republic sooner than later, the crown lost the support of the rich landowner class after abolishing slavery, after decades of rebellions and international pressure .