Joaquim Marques Lisboa, Marquis of Tamandaré

Joaquim Marques Lisboa, Marquis of Tamandaré (Rio Grande, December 13, 1807 – Rio de Janeiro, March 20, 1897) was a Brazilian admiral of the Imperial Navy of Brazil. He dedicated his life to the Brazilian Navy, including a life-long membership in Brazil's Military and Justice Council, then Supreme Military Court, from its inception until 1891, when the Republican Government granted him leave.

Marquis of Tamandaré
The Marquis of Tamandaré, 1873
Born13 December 1807
Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, State of Brazil, Portuguese America
Died20 March 1897(1897-03-20) (aged 89)
Rio de Janeiro, Federal District, Brazil
Allegiance Empire of Brazil
Service/branch Imperial Brazilian Navy
RankAdmiral
Battles/warsBrazilian War of Independence
Cisplatine War
Ragamuffin War
Uruguayan War
Paraguayan War
Other workMinister of War

Coat of Arms of the Marquis of Tamandaré

A national military hero, he stands as the patron of Brazil's Navy, one of whose mottoes goes: "We belong to the undefeated Armada of Tamandaré". His birthday, December 13, was chosen by one of Brazil's foremost navy's minister in the early twentieth century, Admiral Alexandrino de Alencar, as the country's national Sailor's Day, on 4 September, 1925.

As a young leftenant, Tamandaré took part in Brazilian War of Independence, in the repression of the Confederation of the Equator, and in the Cisplatine War (also known as the "Argentine-Brazilian War" of 1825-8, or else, according to Argentinean and Uruguayan historiography, the "Brazil War"). Furthermore, Tamandaré also saw action during the Regency turmoil, when the Empire faced constant and nearly ubiquitous instability, but managed to put down regional insurrections such as those Tamandaré participated in: the Cabanagem, in Pará (1835-8); the Sabinada, in Bahia but mostly its capital, Salvador (1837-9); in the Ragamuffin War, in Rio Grande do Sul (1835-1845); the Balaiada, in Maranhão, in which he took charge of all naval operations on his way up in his career as a naval officer (1838-1839); and the Praieira, in Pernambuco (1848-9).

On the international-regional scene, he participated in the Platine War (1851-2) against Argentina's Juan Manuel de Rosas — arguably, the single major threat to Brazil at the time —, and in the Paraguayan War as the commander of all naval operations, leading an alliance between Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, by means of a treaty signed on 1 May, 1865.

In the Río de la Plata basin, he was ahead of naval operations in the battles of Passo da Pátria (when Allied forces entered Paraguayan territory), Curuzú (one of the Allies most important victories up to that point), and at the allied defeat at Curupayti, for which he blamed Argentina's Bartolomé Mitre, personal in charge of the allied land forces at the battle, after which both Tamandaré and his Chief of Staff Francisco Barroso (who commanded the decisive Allied victory at Riachuelo by personally ramming enemy vessels with his own ship, which was nonetheless not designed for this purpose), two of the greatest military heroes in Brazil at the time, stepped outside of the conflict and did not return to Paraguay, which would be dragged into yet another four years of conflict until Solano López was captured and executed in the Battle of Cerro Corá and Paraguay surrendered.

Tamandaré's memory still raises passions among the Navy's military nowadays, and he is studied by military and civilian scholars alike.

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