I read that the Brazilian Imperial Army was underfunded at that time (right after Triple Alliance war) and, for that reason, high-command was upset with the Brazilian Emperor, basically, because of an Imperial government priority for a policy to strengthen National Guard militias in the Brazilian North-East provinces. That text says that was the main reason why Army military commanders joined the coup and the Pro-US Sao Paulo based coffee plantation owners that were conspiring to overthrow the Emperor, install a republican government, and take Brazil out of the British sphere of influence and into US Imperialist sphere.
That text also said that the Commander of the Brazilian Imperial Navy (who was pro-British as most of his whole force), presented to the Emperor a plan to retreat the Imperial Court to Salvador, and use the National Guard along the Navy forces to fight against the republican coup and reestablish the Brazilian Empire, but that the Emperor said that "Brazilian people would never be able to reach European level of civilization and that they won't be able to live in an enlightened Empire, guided by European traditions such as Victorian Britain or Prussian Germany, and they should have the republic and become servants of the US instead", and accepted to surrender the crown and to be sent to perpetual exile in Europe.
Another thing from that paper is that the full secret US support was one of the reasons why the first flag of the Brazilian Republic looked like the flag of the United States, and why they called the new Brazilian Republic, United States of Brazil. And that this divide between the republican south and the monarchist northeast was one of the reasons why pro-monarchist rebellions happened in the Brazilian northeast, including one where Brazilian Army and Police forces massacred 15,000 people in just one city called Canudos.
I lost that paper long time ago, and only found the notes I made but without reference to it. I tried to search on Google in English, Portuguese and Spanish but to no avail.
So, if any kind historian soul can please share any resource names about that time in Brazil (1870-1910) that discuss any of that, like armed resistance to the republicans, I would really appreciate.
"Brazilian people would never be able to reach European level of civilization and that they won't be able to live in an enlightened Empire, guided by European traditions such as Victorian Britain or Prussian Germany, and they should have the republic and become servants of the US instead"
I never saw such phrase, nor would think it is something Pedro would say. I recommend reading about it on the book 1889 by Laurentino Gomes.
I've also heard about this United Kingdom relation thing, especially the on the paraguay war.
Basically there are three historical analysis on it:
The traditional one, that says it was solely by Solano Lopez megalomany, and ignores political factors;
the revisionist one, that says that Paraguay was becoming developed and a potential competitor of UK, and it's hegemony on the region, which made them manipulate Brazil and Argentina into a war against them (this one looks like your text). That one is also very criticized, especially for the lack of documental evidence, and it has became outdaded and imprecise;
and the post-revisionist or new historiography, which used historical evidence to prove that Paraguay wasn't such developed as it is said by the revisionist, that the development was only at the military sphere, because of recent aquisitions of english equipment and personel training.
Plus, Imperial Brazil and UK weren't so much friends, because of the Christie Question.
well, this is all I could find that is loosely related to your text. The other one was on Pedro I regime, when there was an investigation of Brazil to see if the republican movement of the Confederation of the Equator received support from the american government, during the movement. They found out that no, it was supported by companies connected to the Masonry. but this one I don't remember the source.