Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva

The Greatest Man in Brazilian History

By: Ricardo C. Amaral

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11
Introduction 15

PART I
Biography of José Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva

Part II
José Bonifacio's Family History & Ancestry

Part III
Documents and a Blueprint for the
Creation of a New Country Named "Brazil"

Part IV
Highlights of Brazilian History Period 1500-1820

Part V
"José Bonifacio's fight to end slavery in Brazil is an of the major reason's why his enemies wanted him out of the Government

Part VI
Brazil today and Brazil the nation of the future.

Part VII
Short biographies of people mentioned in this work.

Part VIII
Glossary, Chronology, Notes, Appendix (A), Bibliography, Final Note, and About the Author

CHARTS

CHAPTER I

José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva

Since 1822 Brazil gained just a little and lost a little territory.
There was no unity in Brazil in 1822 or before 1822. The north of Brazil had better communications with Europe than with Rio de Janeiro. What sets José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva apart and elevates him to the level of a short list of the greatest statesman in world history is what he accomplished in Brazil single handed. He unified a very large country with his exceptional political savvy and statesmanship skills, with a small army, with a small navy and with almost no bloodshed.
If José Bonifácio had made a single mistake during that very delicate turning point in Brazilian history, the result would have been disastrous for Brazil. If they had to fight multiple rebellions for independence from the north to the south of Brazil then everything could have gotten out of control and their small army and navy would not have a single chance to keep the new nation together (Brazil was too large to be controlled with this small army and navy with the communication and transportation systems available in Brazil in 1822). If that had happened the result would have been disastrous, and Brazil would have been split into five or six independent countries at that point.
José Bonifácio was completely prepared to take charge. He did this with the power of his decisive actions as he made things happen very fast and gave the necessary guidance to this new nation to accomplish Brazilian consolidation and independence. "He made the decisions almost in a despotic manner."¹
He accomplished this with courage, with outstanding statesmanship ability, and with all the knowledge and experience that he acquired first hand during the French Revolution in Paris.
"José Bonifácio completed his basic studies in Santos, Brazil. In 1783 when he was twenty years old, he went to Lisbon, Portugal and started his studies at the University of Coimbra where he studied mathematics, philosophy, astronomy and law.
He received his philosophy degree on June 16, 1787 and his Law degree on June 5, 1788."³
"José Bonifácio was completely fluent in 6 (six) languages and he understood 11 (eleven)."⁴ He was fluent in Portuguese, English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. He also had complete command of Greek and Latin.
When José Bonifácio arrived in 1783 in Portugal to study at Coimbra University, he found the university going through a period of major change. These changes had been ordered by the government of the Marquis de Pombal.
"In 1750, when Dom José I became king of Portugal, he named Sebastiäo José de Carvalho e Melo, who in 1770 became the Marquis de Pombal, to the Ministries of War and Foreign Affairs, and he soon dominated the entire government in a despotic manner.
Pombal, who had served in diplomatic posts in England and Austria, was shocked at Portugal's economic backwardness."<+
>5 He tried strenuously to steer the nation from its apathy. He tried to give them a spark to bring it into the currents of contemporary Europe.
Pombal's reforms reached into many areas including the reorganization of the ancient University of Coimbra in 1772. Pombal brought enlightenment period thought to Coimbra and recruited the best professors available in Portugal and elsewhere in Europe at this time to accomplish this goal. Some faculty were resistant to the new reforms. The new ideas took root and they could not stop the new influence from the English and French enlightenment thoughts.
"He accepted his assignment from the Portuguese government which commissioned José Bonifácio on February 18, 1790 to go on a scientific journey throughout Europe for a period of ten years.
The objective of this commission was to acquire through these literary travels and philosophic explorations the latest and most advanced knowledge in the fields of mineralogy and chemistry and further his knowledge in philosophy and natural history and to bring this knowledge back to the government of Portugal."²
"José Bonifácio arrived in Paris, France, on May 31, 1790 to study chemistry and mineralogy. He started his studies at the Royal School of Mines in Paris under many world famous scientists of the time including Abade Hauy, Vauquelin, Antonio Lourenco Jussie (well known in the field of botanics), Jean-Antoine Chaptal, Antoine Francois Fourcroy and Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (three famous chemists including Lavoisier, who is recognized as the father of modern chemistry)."⁶
José Bonifácio got to know Lavoisier well because both of them were interested in geology. "He also started a personal friendship with Vauquelin, Fourcroy and Chaptal (who were good friends of Maximilien Robespierre)."⁷ Chaptal (in 1800) was an influential Minister of Napoleon Bonaparte. José Bonifácio frequented during this period (1790-1800) a very exclusive group of powerful thinkers; some of them had influenced and played a major role in the French Revolution and others were authorities in their field of specialization.
This decade (1790-1800) is the period that had the major influence on the formation of his intellectual, cultural, scientific, and political thoughts which helped him in the fulfillment of his destiny as a great statesman.
"He was very interested in the debates of the Convention in Paris and stayed in Paris until the proclamation of the French Republic in September 1792."⁸
"José Bonifácio and his fellow scientists went to Freiberg, in the Saxony Kingdom, to study at the famous Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, the world's first mining academy. At the university he attended lectures from Abraham Gottlib, Werner de Lempe, Kholler, Freisleben and Lampadius. The lectures were about mathematics, mineralogy, legislation about mines, applied chemistry, and metallurgy."⁹
"He arrived in Freiberg around October 15, 1792 and started classes at Freiberg University. He also spent time visiting the mines and foundries of Saxony, of Stiria and Carintia in Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Banato, Transylvania, and Tirol. One of the scientists at Freiberg University was Baron von Friederich Heinrich Alexander Humboldt and they became very good friends. Another classmate of José Bonifácio was a young Christiano Leopoldo von Buch, later to become a famous geologist."¹⁰
"During many years he made Freiberg the center of his studies, returning to Freiberg whenever possible. In 1798 for example, after a number of travels and many geological discoveries, he returned to Freiberg University to discuss with his colleagues and masters and to examine in detail many of the questions that arose from his scientific research. At that point in time he was already a brilliant and renowned scientist in Europe."¹¹
He traveled extensively in Europe but his home base was Paris, France. "He visited Piedmont, Toscany, Ducado de Parma, Pontific States, Kingdom of Naples, many of the small German independent states, Hungary, Transylvania, Tirol, Scotland, England, Turkey, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Wales, Denmark, and Norway, but two places were very special for him-Paris and Freiberg."¹²
"He is given credit for discovering twelve new minerals;"¹³ by 1796 he was a famous scientist in the fields of geology, mineralogy and metallurgy.
When José Bonifácio lived for a period in London, England he studied further the ideas of the English philosophers including Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, John Locke, and the economist Adam Smith "The Wealth of Nations". He had a new friend in England, the great chemist and scientist Joseph Priestley (who discovered oxygen in 1774). "He had met Priestley when he was in Paris."¹⁴
"Because José Bonifácio considered himself to be deficient as a speaker he studied profoundly Cicero, Tito, Livio, Gibbon, Buffon and Voltaire."¹⁵
"During the years that he lived in Paris, he associated himself with the revolutionary environment and his preference was the groups that believed in the philosophic ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and of Condorcet."¹⁶ He studied and learned the works of Machiavelli, Descartes, Montesquieu, Voltaire and of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
"Jean-Jacques Rousseau was José Bonifácio's favorite philosopher. He had a copy in his personal library of all of the books that Rousseau had written. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's philosophy had a major impact on José Bonifácio. In Rousseau's "The Social Contract" the ideal form of government is the republic, in which the people have total power."¹⁷ Rousseau was the philosopher who had the greatest impact on his generation with his democratic ideology. Voltaire's philosophy also had a major impact on José Bonifácio.
When he returned to Portugal at the end of 1800 he was a famous European scientist. In Portugal over the years José Bonifácio accumulated responsibility after responsibility, but he was doing most of this work for free. He was never a burden to the state. He never complained to the state about his delayed salary.
"His first job after returning to Portugal was to create a new doctoral degree program of metallurgy at Coimbra University."¹⁸
"In May 1801 he was appointed General Superintendent of Mines and Metals of the Kingdom and member of the Tribunal of Mines. He was responsible for the mint of the kingdom plus the mines and forests of the Portuguese empire.
In July 1801 he was appointed as administrator responsible for coal mines and the foundry of casting metals of Figuero dos Vinhos and Avelar.
In November 1801 he was appointed director of the Royal Laboratory in Lisbon, and his main responsibility was to remodel the Royal Laboratory and create a new state of the art research laboratory for chemistry and for metallurgy.
In March 1805 he was appointed chief judge at House of Port (Casa do Pôrto). He did not receive any money for this position until 1819.
In November 10, 1806, the Duke of Lafões, a major benefactor in José Bonifácio's life, died in Portugal, he was 87 years old at the time of his death.
In July 1807 he was appointed Superintendent of Rio Mondego and the Public Works of Coimbra."¹⁹
The accumulation of so many positions of responsibility over a short period of time is an indication of his prestige, his competence and his capacity to carry a heavy load and perform an outstanding job.
"Even though Portugal is a small country, it would be hard for anyone to be a professor at Coimbra University, a Superintendent of Mines and Metals, an administrator of the coal mines and foundry, a director of the Royal Laboratory, responsible for the mint and forests of the Portuguese empire, a judge at Casa do Pôrto, and a Superintendent of Public Works in Coimbra, all at the same time."²⁰
José Bonifácio was an idealist, and he believed in doing things for the good of society. His goal was never to become rich or even to live in comfort. He was a man of letters and science. His major goal was to expand the ideas he learned during the days of the convention in France at the peak of the French Revolution.
"On November 19, 1807 under orders of Napoleon Bonaparte, General Andoche Junot invaded Portugal. The day before the French forces reached Lisbon, on November 30, 1807, the Portuguese Royal Family with a large number of nobles left Portugal to go to Brazil.
José Bonifácio was asked to go. He decided to stay in Portugal because he knew that they would need his expertise in metallurgy and chemistry in the war effort against the French forces."²¹
José Bonifácio began as a Major in 1808, but was promoted during the fight to Tenent-Colonel and finally to Colonel. He fought under the army commander Marshal William Carr, Viscount of Beresford, who was replaced in 1809 by Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. (This was the training ground for Wellington which prepared him on strategies to battle the French, which culminated in 1815 with the defeat of Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo).
When Wellington returned to London in 1808, he received orders to drive Junot out of Portugal. On July 12, 1808 he set sail to Portugal, and he landed at Oporto. In the first week of August 1808, his army landed sixty miles further south in Mondego Bay. The British Army, 13,000 men, landed in Mondego Bay a hundred miles north of Lisbon, where the French army of Junot was concentrated.
Wellington advanced with his six British and one Portuguese brigade and he came across the French near the village of Obidos. Many of them were killed by the French army commanded by General Henri François, Comte de Delaborde. The French inflicted about 500 casualties on the British side.³³
When Wellington reached Vimeiro, fifteen miles of Lisbon, he got reinforcement of another 4,000 British troops. On August 21, 1808 after over two and a half hours of fighting, a British victory was eminent. The French army was in retreat after suffering 2,000 casualties. The British suffered only 700 casualties at this time. On August 22, 1808, a French General, General Kellerman, worked out a document with Wellington providing for the evacuation of the French army from Portugal.³³
In 1809 there was a second French invasion under Marshal Nicolau Soult, Duke of Dalmacia. After the fall of Madrid, Soult with his 70,000 men had confronted the British army under the command of Sir John Moore at Coruna. The British suffered very heavy casualties and John Moore was mortally wounded in the fight against Marshal Soult.³³
In the second week of May 1809, Wellington with its Portuguese allies surprised Soult and his army at Oporto. The French were sent flying out of the town, abandoning guns and supplies, as well as chests of gold bullion. The French retreated for a second time into Spain.
In August 1810 there was a third French invasion; this time the French army was commanded by Marshal Andrea Massena, Duke of Rivoli. Wellinton thought very highly of Massena. He was one of the most successful French marshals. Wellington thought that only Napoleon himself was a better army commander than Massena.
The Duke of Wellington, the commander of the English forces, gave orders to José Bonifácio and to his platoon to fight guerrilla style by attacking the French on both sides to cut their line of communications. On September 27, 1810 early in the morning the French launched the first attack on the British line. Massena had 65,000 men against the British 25,000 men plus 25,000 Portuguese men. The day after the battle they counted 4,500 casualties for the French and 1,252 casualties equally divided between the British and Portuguese.³³
The fighting between the French and British army came to a halt by October 14, 1810, and Massena was surprised and angered with the guerrilla style and defensive system used by the Portuguese, blocking the way to Lisbon. The French provisions were getting low, and the French decided to leave Portugal. Wellington followed them trying to avoid any unnecessary fighting.
The French, also, only fought when they had to. The hungry soldiers moved slowly in the rain, in the direction of the frontier and they lost hundreds of men on the way. The British and Portuguese had accomplished their mission and Massena had to run with his troops in complete disarray.
On April 10, 1811 Wellington announced that the French army had retreated to Spain for a third time and in the process the French had suffered heavy losses of over 25,000 men.³³
"José Bonifácio was mentioned for bravery many times in the order of the day. He was praised as an outstanding soldier and commander by Marshal William Carr, Viscount of Beresford and later by the Duke of Wellington.
Only by a miracle did José Bonifácio survive on many occasions, because he did not retreat under any circumstances. He was always in the vanguard to give an example to the soldiers in his command.
In 1811 José Bonifácio was still involved in the resistance against the French invaders. In a public testimony he was recognized for his bravery as a soldier and as a commander."²²
* * * "On March 4, 1789 José Bonifácio had been accepted as a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Lisbon."²³
"In 1812 he received a unanimous appointment as Secretary Perpetual of the Royal Academy of Science of Lisbon."²⁴
"In 1812 José Bonifácio suggested to a commission at the Royal Academy of Science of Lisbon, that they should adopt the decimal metric system, even though it had been a French invention."²⁵
"By 1815 José Bonifácio had been the Secretary Perpetual of the Royal Academy of Science in Lisbon, and he was a member of the following: Royal Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, of the Research Society of Nature of Berlin, of the Society Mineralogical of Iena, of the Geologic Institute of London, Weneriana of Edimburg, and of the Natural History and Philomathic of Paris."²⁶
In early 1808 the refugee Portuguese Royal Family and the Portuguese court arrived in Salvador, Bahia and soon after they left for Rio de Janeiro where they stayed until April of 1821.
"Of all the colonies in the Americas, Brazil was the only one to which a European prince came to rule before independence. The presence of the royal family set Brazil apart from the other American colonies (French, English, Dutch and Spanish) in many ways, especially in transforming it from a colony into the center of power in the Portuguese empire."²⁷
"Prince Dom Joäo loved Brazil from the start and he had factories built, established a royal museum, a medical school, a botanical garden, a new newspaper and later established the Academy of Fine Arts."²⁸
"In 1815 Dom Joäo raised Brazil to the rank of kingdom, coequal with Portugal. For Brazil this was a crucial step, and Brazilians were determined never again to return to the status of a colony. After his mother's death in 1816 Prince Dom Joäo had his coronation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as King Joäo VI."²⁹
"In 1812 the Count of Linhares, the other benefactor in José Bonifácio's life, died in Brazil."³⁰
"José Bonifácio was very unhappy in Portugal, since the death of the Count of Linhares in 1812. Because of his liberal ideas he had made many enemies in Portugal and his enemies made his life very difficult."³¹
"José Bonifácio requested permission from Dom Joäo a number of times between 1810 and 1818 to return to Brazil, but he was too valuable in Portugal. King Joäo VI gave authorization for his return only on October 29, 1818.
José Bonifácio and his family (his wife Narcisa Emília O'Leary de Andrada, his daughter Gabriela Frederica Ribeiro de Andrada and a baby that he had adopted in that year, the baby's name was Narcisa Candida and she was under a year old) left Portugal on August 19, 1819 to return to Brazil."³²
When José Bonifácio left Portugal in 1819, he was considered the most important, famous and brilliant scientist in Portugal, and since 1800 he had enjoyed major prestige in the most important scientific research centers of Europe.