Marshal Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used fo ...

Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (5 May 1865 – 19 January 1958) was a Brazilian military officer most famous for his telegraph commission and exploration of

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – ) is one of the states of Brazil, the List of Brazilian states by area, third largest by area, located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible ...

and the western

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

, as well as his lifelong support for Indigenous Brazilians. He was the first director of Brazil's

Indian Protection Service Brazil's Indian Protection Service (''Serviço de Proteção ao Índio'', abbreviated as SPI) was a government agency created to administer indigenous affairs. It was created by President Nilo Peçanha in 1910 in response to pressure from Marshal ...

or SPI (later

FUNAI is a Japanese consumer electronics company headquartered in Daitō, Osaka. Currently, it is in liquidation. Apart from producing its own branded electronic products, it was also an OEM providing assembled televisions and video players/recor ...

) and supported the creation of the Xingu National Park. The Brazilian state of

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the west, Amazonas, Brazil, Amazonas in the north, Mato Grosso in the east, and Bo ...

is named after him.

Biography

Early life

Cândido Mariano da Silva was born on 5 May 1865 in Mimoso, a small village in the state of

. His father, Cândido Mariano da Silva Sr., was of Portuguese,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, and Guaná (an Indigenous group) ancestry, and died of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

in 1864, prior to Rondon's birth. His mother, Claudina Freitas Evangelista, was descended from the

Terena The Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA, ) was a not-for-profit association of European national research and education networks (NRENs) incorporated in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The association was originally ...

and Bororo peoples. She died two years after giving birth to Rondon. He was raised by his grandparents until their death, and then by his uncle, Manuel Rodrigues da Silva Rondon, from whom he took the name Rondon. After finishing high school at the age of 16, he taught elementary school for two years, and then joined the Brazilian army. He enrolled in the 3rd Regiment of Horse Artillery in 1881. Among other studies, he studied Mathematics and Physical and Natural Sciences at the Superior School of War. On joining the military, he entered officer's school and graduated in 1888 as a second lieutenant. He was also involved with the Republican coup that overthrew Pedro II, the last

Emperor of Brazil The monarchs of Brazil (Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''monarcas do Brasil'') were the imperial head of state, heads of state and hereditary rulers of Brazil from the House of Braganza that reigned from the creation of the Brazilian monarchy ...

As an army engineer

The republican government was worried about the western region of Brazil, very isolated from the great centers and border regions. In 1890, he was commissioned as an army engineer with the Telegraphic commission, and helped build the first

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

line across the state of

. This telegraph line was finally finished in 1895, and afterwards, Rondon started construction on a road that led from

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

(then the capital of the republic) to

Cuiabá Cuiabá () is the capital city and the largest city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. It is located near the geographical centre of South America and also forms the metropolitan area of Mato Grosso, along with the neighbouring town of Várz ...

, the capital of Mato Grosso. Until this roadway was complete, the only way between these two cities was by river transport. Also during this time, he married his wife, Francisca (Chiquinha) Xavier. Together, they had 7 children. From 1900 to 1906, Rondon was in charge of laying telegraph lines from Brazil to

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. During this time he opened up new territory, and was in contact with the warlike Bororo of western Brazil. He was so successful in pacifying the Bororo, that he completed the telegraph line with their help. Throughout his life, Rondon laid over 4,000 miles of telegraph line through the jungles of Brazil. Marshall Rondon was honored with the title "Patron of the Communications Corps of the Brazilian Army", by Decree No. 51,960, of 26 April 1963.

Later life

After the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition of 1914, Rondon worked until 1919 mapping the state of Mato Grosso. During this time he discovered some more rivers, and made contact with several Indigenous tribes. In 1919, he became chief of the Brazilian Corps of Engineers, and the head of the Telegraphic Commission. In 1924 and 1925, he led army forces against a rebellion in the state of São Paulo. From 1927 to 1930, Rondon was put in charge of surveying all of the borders between Brazil and its neighbors. In 1930, he was interrupted by the

Revolution of 1930 The Revolution of 1930 () was an armed insurrection across Brazil that ended the Old Republic. The revolution replaced incumbent president Washington Luís with defeated presidential candidate and revolutionary leader Getúlio Vargas, conclu ...

, and he resigned from his position as head of the Serviço de Proteção ao Índio (SPI) or Indian Protection Service. During 1934–1938, he was in charge of a Diplomatic Mission, to mediate a dispute between Colombia and Peru over the town of Leticia. In 1939, he resumed his directorship of the SPI, and expanded the service to new territories of Brazil. In the 1950s, he supported the Villas Boas brothers' campaign, which faced strong opposition from the government and the ranchers of Mato Grosso and led to the establishment of the first Brazilian National Park for Indigenous people along the

Xingu River The Xingu River ( ; ; ) is a river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water. __TOC__ Description and history The fir ...

in 1961. On 5 May 1955, the date of his 90th birthday, he was awarded the title of Marshal of the

Brazilian Army The Brazilian Army (; EB) is the branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible, externally, for defending the country in eminently terrestrial operations and, internally, for guaranteeing law, order and the constitutional branches, subordina ...

, granted by the National Congress. In 1957, he was nominated for the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

by the Explorers Club of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. Decades earlier,

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

recommended Rondon to the Nobel Committee. He died in 1958 in

at the age of 92.

Rondon Commission

Cândido Rondon headed up a large-scale military operation to expand telegraph lines into the Brazilian Amazon. This group has also been called the "Rondon Commission". Rondon was, by this time, a devout follower of positivist beliefs and he believed his purpose was to unite all peoples of Brazil through his work in the commission. He had an unrelenting belief that progress should be made as quickly as possible and that Indigenous peoples needed to be incorporated into society as quickly as possible to achieve this. Rondon showed concern as to how these Indigenous groups were incorporated into modern society and he made it his mission to "guide" them to a more "civilized" life in what he viewed as a peaceful manner. However, some critics believe that Rondon's concern about Indigenous groups and unification was fraudulent. These critics posit that this mission was mainly a military operation with a state focus on seizing and defining borders for defense purposes along with creating new opportunities for colonization and economic expansion. They believe this undermines the view that Rondon was a hero of unification and pacification towards previously uncontacted or independent Indigenous tribes. The Rondon Commission was successful in its goal to open up the Amazon to economic development. Many new settlements appeared along the telegraph lines. New settlers desired a piece of this land for farming and ranching, but one side effect was the displacement of Indigenous tribes like the Bororo.

Explorations

As a result of Rondon's competence in constructing telegraph lines, he was put in charge of extending the telegraph line from Mato Grosso to the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

. In the course of constructing the line, he charted the

Juruena River The Juruena River () is a long river in west-central Brazil, in the state of Mato Grosso. Course The Juruena originates in the Parecis plateau. Within Mato Grosso the river defines the eastern boundary of the Igarapés do Juruena State Park, ...

(an important tributary of the

Tapajós River The Tapajós ( ) is a river in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. Prior to a drastic increase in illegal gold mi ...

in northern Mato Grosso) and, in addition, he made peaceful contact with the Nambikwara people, which had until then killed all Westerners they had come in contact with. In 1911, he also visited the ruins of the 18th-century Real Forte Príncipe da Beira, the greatest historical relic of

, which had been abandoned in 1889, and was promoted as major of the Corps of Military Engineers, responsible for building the

telegraph line to Santo Antonio do Madeira, the first to reach the Amazon region. His works developed from 1907 to 1915. At the same time, the ''

Madeira-Mamoré Railroad The Madeira-Mamoré Railroad is an abandoned railroad built in the Brazilian state of Rondônia between 1907 and 1912, during the rubber boom. The railroad links the cities of Porto Velho and Guajará-Mirim. It became known as the "Devil's Railro ...

'' was being built, which together with the Rondon telegraphic exploration and integration helped to occupy the region of the present state of Rondônia. In May 1909, Rondon went on his longest expedition. He set out from the settlement of Tapirapuã in northern Mato Grosso heading northwest to meet up with the

Madeira River The Madeira River ( ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near or in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is the biggest tributary of ...

, which is a major tributary of the Amazon River. By August, the party had eaten all of its supplies, and had to subsist on what they could hunt and gather from the forest. By the time they reached the Ji-Paraná River, they had no supplies. During their expedition, they discovered a large river between the Juruena and Ji-Paraná Rivers, which Rondon named the River of Doubt. To reach the Madeira, they built canoes, and reached the Madeira on Christmas Day, 1909. When Rondon reached Rio de Janeiro, he was hailed as a hero, because it was believed that he and the expedition had died in the jungle. After the expedition, he became the first director of the Brazilian government's SPI. In September 1913, Rondon was struck by a

poisoned arrow Arrow poisons are used to poison arrow heads or darts for the purposes of hunting and warfare. They have been used by indigenous peoples worldwide and are still in use in areas of South America, Africa and Asia. Notable examples are the poisons se ...

from the Nambikwara Indians. In 1914, with the Rondon Commission, he built 372 km of lines and five more telegraph stations: ''Pimenta Bueno'', ''President Hermes'', ''Presidente Pena'' (later Vila de Rondônia and present Ji-Paraná), ''Jaru'', and ''Ariquemes'', in the area of the present state of Rondônia. On January 1, 1915, he completed his mission with the inauguration of the telegraph station in Santo Antônio do Madeira. The 52nd meridian west is also a geographical reference for the history of communications in Brazil. Rondon was the second human being to receive in his honor a meridian in his name. He fulfilled missions by opening roads, clearing lands, launching telegraph lines, mapping the land, and establishing cordial relations with the Indians. He maintained contact with several Indigenous peoples.

Expedition with Roosevelt

In January 1914, Rondon left with

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

on the Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition, whose aims were to explore the River of Doubt. The expedition left the Tapiripuã, and reached the River of Doubt on 27 February 1914. They did not reach the mouth of the river until late April, after the expedition had suffered greatly. During the expedition, the river was renamed the Rio Roosevelt. The adventure down the River of Doubt was the most difficult of Roosevelt's life. All the men except Rondon suffered from ailments and constant maladies.

Positivism/Comtism

From 1898 onward, Rondon was an orthodox member of the ''Igreja Positivista do Brasil'' (Positivist Church of Brazil), which is a Religion of Humanity based on the thought of

Auguste Comte Isidore Auguste Marie François Xavier Comte (; ; 19 January 1798 – 5 September 1857) was a French philosopher, mathematician and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is often regarded as the first philosopher of science in the ...

. The creed he embraced from it emphasized naturalism, science, and altruism rather than any supernatural forces.

Positivism Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...

follows the goal of preventing social unrest by convincing the lower classes to accept the domination of the upper classes in exchange for things such as material benefits, guidance, and general improvement. Comte postulated that there are three stages of social evolution that humankind passes through, and placed special emphasis on scientific thought, industrialization, modernization, and general reform. These characteristics in particular helped it spread to Brazil following the

Paraguayan War The Paraguayan War (, , ), also known as the War of the Triple Alliance (, , ), was a South American war that lasted from 1864 to 1870. It was fought between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, the Empire of Brazil, and Uruguay. It wa ...

(1865–1870), when many Brazilians questioned the foundations of their society. Rondon first encountered positivism in 1885 as a student at the Military Academy in Rio de Janeiro, where it was taught as a form of spreading republicanism. He converted and became part of a growing group of positivist officers and cadets at the academy. Although Brazilian enthusiasm for positivism was already on the decline by 1891, Rondon became a passionate lifelong member of the Orthodox Positivist Church, believing that Brazil, and the world with it, would eventually accept positivism because it was so rational. Positivism ultimately shaped Rondon's outlook on life, his ideas about interracial relations, and his plans for national development. He once told his men that he wanted to create a "political utopia", and believed that his telegraph line aided in the evolution of humanity due to the large number of tribes he came in first contact with during the project. Unfortunately, Rondon's positivism ultimately led to fights with officials in the more powerful Catholic Church, limiting the influence and impact of his work in the long term.

Indian Protection Service (SPI)

Rondon was invited to be the founding leader of the Indian Protection Service by the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture Rodolfo Miranda in 1910. On accepting the position, Rondon explained to Miranda the importance of Positivism in his policies with the organization. He believed that, rather than allow Christian missionaries to forcibly assimilate the Indigenous peoples, the best method would be to gradually and nonviolently lead them by example into the more civilized world. Rondon and other positivists argued for the protection of Indigenous peoples and the defense of their lands, saying that rather than being racially inferior, they were simply at an earlier stage of positivist evolution. Rondon led the organization until the Revolution of 1930, leaving many of his initial plans to be only in theory. The goal of SPI was to protect the well-being of natives, and Rondon created its motto: "die if need be, never kill". Reports published as late as 1960 declared that the SPI had "entirely reached its objectives without betraying" this slogan, even claiming that despite "dozens" of SPI team members being murdered by poisoned arrows, they did not kill a single Indigenous person. Instead, they supposedly operated using pacification techniques that Rondon developed while the head of the Mato Grosso-Amazon Strategic Communications and Telegraph Commission, utilizing a "flirting" technique to allow native tribes to choose to engage with them before officially taking over. However, beginning shortly before Rondon's death in 1958, severe corruption and abuses of Indigenous peoples were revealed to have been committed by those working with SPI. The organization was disbanded in disgrace in 1967, and a similar organization, Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI), replaced it later that year.

Homages

Marshal Cândido Rondon is considered one of the foremost Brazilian heroes and patriots and has thus been honored by the population and government in many ways. He is the "Father of Brazilian Telecommunications" and 5 May is the National Day of Telecommunications, established in his honor. In addition, thousands of streets, schools, and other urban features and organizations have received Rondon's name. * State of

Fundação Cândido Rondon
* Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul * Municipality of Rondon,

Pará Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...

br>
* Municipality of Marechal Cândido Rondon, Paraná (state), Paranábr>
* Municipality of Marechal Rondon,

* Municipality of

Rondonópolis Rondonópolis (formerly known as Rio Vermelho (Red River)) is the third-largest Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in Mato Grosso, Brazil. It is located around from Cuiabá, the capital of the state. The city is named for military officer and ...

Faculdade Marechal Rondon
São Manuel,

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

* Faculdades Integradas Cândido Rondo

,

, Mato Grosso. * Project Rondo

* Museu Rondon, Federal University of Mato Grosso * Marechal Rondon Library,

Museu do Índio O Museu do Índio (English: The Museum of the Indigenous Populations) is a cultural and scientific agency of the Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas (English: National Foundation of Indigenous Populations) or FUNAI. It was created by Darcy Ri ...

, Fundação Nacional do Índio,

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

* Bosque Municipal Marechal Rondon,

Londrina Londrina (, literally "Little London") is a city located in the north of the state of Paraná (state), Paraná, South Region, Brazil, and is 388 km (241 miles) away from the state capital, Curitiba. It is the second largest city in the state and f ...

, Paraná *

Marechal Rondon International Airport Várzea Grande–Marechal Rondon International Airport is the airport serving Cuiabá, located in the municipality of Várzea Grande, in the state of Mato Grosso. It is named after Marshall Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (1865–1958), a Bra ...

Várzea Grande, Mato Grosso Várzea Grande is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the states of Brazil, state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West Region of Brazil. History The "City of the Great Lowlands" arose from a donation of land gr ...

* Marechal Rondon Highway,

State of São Paulo State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

* Rondon's marmoset (''Mico rondoni''), a small monkey. * Rondon's tuco-tuco (''Ctenomys rondoni''), a rodent. * Rondon's gymnophthalmid (''Rondonops''), a lizard genera. * '' Hypostomus rondoni'' is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

in the family

Loricariidae Loricariidae is the largest family (biology), family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with over 90 genus, genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South A ...

. It is native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, where it occurs in the

Tapajós The Tapajós ( ) is a river in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon Rainforest and is a major tributary of the Amazon River. When combined with the Juruena River, the Tapajós is approximately long. Prior to a drastic increase in illegal gold mi ...

basin.Burgess, W. E., 1989. An atlas of freshwater and marine catfishes. A preliminary survey of the Siluriformes. T. F. H. Publications, Inc., Neptune City, New Jersey (USA). 784 p.

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Michel Braudeau, « Le télégraphe positiviste de Cândido Rondon », in ''Le rêve amazonien'', éditions Gallimard, 2004 (). * Rohter, Larry (2023). ''Into the Amazon: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist.'' New York, NY, W.W. Norton & Company.

External links

Candido Rondon: A friend of the Indians
is a good site to learn more about Rondon's involvement with Funai.

has a timeline and good information about Rondon's life and work. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rondon, Candido 1865 births 1958 deaths 19th-century explorers 20th-century explorers People from Mato Grosso Brazilian people of Portuguese descent Brazilian people of indigenous peoples descent Brazilian explorers Marshals of Brazil Comtism Brazilian positivists Explorers of Amazonia Bororo people Indigenous politics in Brazil