At the beginning of the 1850s, Brazil enjoyed internal stability and economic prosperity. Under the prime ministry of Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão (then-Viscount and later Marquis of Paraná) the Emperor advanced his own ambitious program: the "conciliação" (conciliation) and "melhoramentos" (material developments). Pedro II's reforms aimed to promote less political partisanship, and forward infrastructure and economic development. The nation was being interconnected through railroad, electric telegraph and steamship lines, uniting it into a single entity. The general opinion, both at home and abroad, was that these accomplishments had been possible due to Brazil's "governance as a monarchy and the character of Pedro II".