Monday, February 3, 2014

The Economist magazine complete ignorance about Brazilian history

On the latest issue of The Economist dated Februaru 1, 2014 - Once again The Economist magazine shows their complete ignorance about Brazilian history.

I had posted this information on my Facebook page and on Brazzil magazine when I got that issue of The Economist magazine as follows:

This article published on the latest issue of The Economist have various mistakes regarding the information about slavery in Brazil.

The Economist – December 21st, 2013 – January 3rd, 2014

“Dr Warne and the cockroaches”
How an unsolved murder in 1888 played a part in bringing about the end of slavery


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The Economist – February 1, 2014

Relearning old lessons

...This week sees the start of a new column, which will give further depth to our coverage of Latin America. It is tribute to the region’s expanding weight in the world. Brazil and Mexico now count among the ten biggest economies by purchasing power. Latin America is of critical importance in energy (it has a fifth of the world’s oil reserves), food production and the environment (with half the surviving rainforest).

...Latin America is fragmented by huge distances, by peculiarities of history, and even by language—not just Spanish, but also Portuguese in Brazil, French in Haiti, and English in several Caribbean islands. Such diversity made this column very hard to name. Brazil and Mexico, the region’s two giants, share no heroes and few points of cultural or historical reference with each other, or with Spanish-speaking South America.

After much head-scratching, we opted to name the column after Andrés Bello (1781-1865), a Venezuelan-born polymath, educator, writer and diplomat.

His biography is an early testament to globalisation. Having spent 19 years in London as an often-unpaid envoy for independence, he moved to Chile, where he ran the foreign ministry and was the founding rector of the University of Chile. He drew up the country’s civil code, which proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law. It was quickly copied in half a dozen countries in the region, and had a significant impact in others—including Brazil and Mexico.


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My comments:

First, I never heard of Andrés Bello before this article published by The Economist. I never came across any information about Andrés Bello in Brazilian history books.

I have no idea what The Economist means when they write the following on their article: “He drew up the country’s civil code, which proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law. It was quickly copied in half a dozen countries in the region, and had a significant impact in others—including Brazil...”

Brazilian law is based on “Roman Law” and the “Napoleonic Code”.

And regarding the “First Brazilian Constitution” they used as a model the French Constitution of 1816. This Constitution was to be effective as of December 13, 1823 and the swearing ceremony was done on March 25, 1824.

By the way, this is my favorite area of world history – the French Revolution. Here is where Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva got his training and learned first hand about Constitutions, and form of government.

José Bonifácio, the architect of Brazilian independence, is known as "The Patriarch of Brazilian Independence". José Bonifácio was the source who gave the orientation, the form, the doctrine, the guidance, the intellect, and strategy, the combination of which resulted in the liberty and unity of the new Brazilian nation. Without José Bonifácio the country Brazil in its current form would not exist today.

The greatest French influence on Brazilian culture came as a result of the French Revolution. José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva was studying in Paris at the Royal School of Mines in the years 1790 - 1792. He was studying under many world famous scientists of the time, including Vauquelin, Antonio Lourenço Jussie, Jean-Antoine Chaptal, Antoine François Fourcroy and Antoine Laurent Lavoisier.

José Bonifácio got to know Lavoisier well because both of them were interested in geology. He also had a personal friendship with Vauquelin, Fourcroy and Chaptal and through them he met their good friend Maximilien Robespierre.

These men had one thing in common: they were members of one of the most influential political clubs of the French Revolution – the Club Breton ; later their members become known as the Jacobins. The Jacobin Club counted among its early members Mirabeau, Abbé Sieyès, Barnave, Pétion, the Duc d'Aiguillon and Robespierre. José Bonifácio had direct exposure during this period to the best intellectual minds of that time who were having a major impact on the events of the French Revolution.

He traveled a lot around Europe during 1793 - 1800, but his favorite place was Paris and he stopped in Paris every time he had the chance. This decade (1790 -1800) is the period that had the major influence on the formation of his intellectual, cultural, scientific, and political thoughts that helped him in the fulfillment of his destiny as a great statesman.

In 1823, the Andrada brothers (José Bonifácio, Martim Francisco and Antônio Carlos), with their leadership, had a major impact on the Constituent Assembly. They guided the proceedings of the process of framing the first Brazilian Constitution. This Constitution was effective December 13, 1823. They used as a model the French Constitution of 1816.

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Let's put some information in perspective regarding Andrés Bello's life:

Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 despite resistance from indigenous peoples. It became one of the first Spanish American colonies to declare independence (in 1811) but did not securely establish independence until 1821 (as a department of the federal republic of “Gran Colombia”, gaining full independence in 1830).


Historical demographical data of the whole country - Population of Venezuela from 1820 to 2013
http://www.populstat.info/Americas/venezuec.htm


Population of Venezuela

Year Population

1820 - 718,000 people

2013 - 28,459,085 (July 2013 est.)


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Demographics of Brazil


Population of Brazil

Year Population

1820 – 4,717,000 people

2013 - 201,009,622 (July 2013 est.)


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Population of Chile

Year Population

1820 – 885,000 people

2013 - 17,216,945 (July 2013 est.)


Andrés Bello biography

Andrés Bello (November 29, 1781 – October 15, 1865)

Belo studied Liberal Arts, Law and Medicine at the University of Caracas and graduated on May 9, 1800 with a degree of Bachelor of Arts.

In May 9, 1800, Belo is 18 ½ years-old and he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts, Law and Medicine

Bello spent ten years after his formal education in his homeland of Caracas.

Bello landed at Portsmouth as an attache to Bolivar's mission in July 1810. Bello had an admittedly hard life throughout his stay in England, though he managed to further develop his ideas and took a particular interest in England's social changes from the industrial and agricultural revolution. In order to earn a living while in London, Bello taught Spanish and tutored Lord Hamilton's children.

He stayed in London for nineteen years acting as a secretary to legations and diplomatic affairs for Chile and Colombia. In his free time he was involved in study, teaching and journalism.

Having spent 19 years in London as an often-unpaid envoy for independence, he moved to Chile, where he ran the foreign ministry and was the founding rector of the University of Chile.

Belo arrived in Chile on June 25, 1829.


Note:

Bello and Bolivar: Poetry and Politics in the Spanish American Revolution. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pg. 145 - Quoting: “Belo arrived in Chile on June 25, 1829.”


In summary, Andrés Bello was a humanist, poet, legislator, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute an important part of Spanish American culture.


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Now let's talk about Brazil and Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva

Most people don't know enough about Brazilian history and its details to appreciate the reasons why José Bonifácio (the founding father of Brazil) is considered the most important figure in Brazilian history. There is no other person in Brazilian history who comes close to José Bonifácio in the impact that he had on the history of the country.

José Bonifácio was solely responsible for the independence and unity of Brazil in 1822. His brother Martim Francisco also did an outstanding job as Finance Minister, and he is credited with the plan which was put in place to finance the Brazilian army and navy during the independence effort. Without José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva in Brazilian history, Brazil would have split itself into 5 or 6 independent countries in the 1820's.

To demonstrate José Bonifácio's importance to the history of Brazil, we can say that José Bonifácio was responsible for the unification of Brazil in 1822. It was José Bonifácio's statesmanship ability that united the country which we call Brazil. The country that he united in 1822 is almost the same size as the country that we have today. 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. — 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 when compared with other major revolutions of that time such as the French Revolution and the American Revolution.

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.

In the enclosed article you can read about the biography of Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva:

Brazzil magazine – June 11, 2013

Why José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva Is the Greatest Man in Brazilian History
Written by: Ricardo C. Amaral


The World in the Early 1800's

We have to put things in the correct perspective when we look back to his time. To help put things in the right perspective I want to make two important points.

First, the journalist/historian James Burke in his television series about world history called Connections gave the viewer some interesting information. In one of the episodes he mentioned that most people who lived up to the early 1800's spent their entire lives never traveling farther than a 20 mile radius from the place where they were born. In other words, most people lived in a small and limited world.

Second, Jose Bonifacio traveled and studied the mines throughout Europe during this period (1794 - 1796). Then from 1796 to 1798 he studied the mines in the Scandinavian countries; Sweden, Norway and Denmark. During this period in the Scandinavian countries he did the original scientific research and made the discoveries which made him famous in the fields of mineralogy, metallurgy, and geology.

He discovered eight new minerals and identified for the first time four other minerals which were variations of minerals which already had been identified.

Jose Bonifacio named most of the minerals which he discovered with scientific names, with the exception of one "Wernerite" named in honor of the Master "Abraham Gottlob Werner".

There are many things that we take for granted today regarding knowledge in science, world geography, and the state of communication. We do not have a full grasp today of what the world was like in the 1820's. To better appreciate the greatness of Jose Bonifacio there are a few things that we have to explain.

Jose Bonifacio was a scientist doing research in the leading edge of science of his time.

James Burke the historian and newspaperman in his television series that he produced called "Connections", mentioned in one of the episodes that mineralogists and geologists in the early 1800's were considered superstars of the time.

People were fascinated by their knowledge in that field. With new discoveries happening then, that field was considered to be the cutting edge or the state of the art in knowledge. Some of these scientists were invited to parties by the nobility as the guest of honor and the highlight of the evening was when they gave a little speech on the subject. Some of them even took their collections of rocks and minerals to show to a delighted audience.

It is not known if Jose Bonifacio carried around his collection of rocks and minerals as some of his peers did. He was very proud of his collection and considered it to be among the best in the world.

After traveling extensively throughout Europe for ten years, and accomplishing his assignment with great success, he finally returned to Portugal. 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.

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.


French invasions of Portugal Period 1807 - 1811

The French Army invaded Portugal three times during the period 1807 to 1811. The first invasion in 1807, under the command of General Junot. The second invasion in 1809, under the command of Marshal Nicolau Soult, Duke of Dalmacia. And the third invasion in 1810, under the command of Marshal Andre Massena, Duke of Rivoli.

In November 30, 1807, under orders of Napoleon Bonaparte, General Junot invaded Portugal. The day before the French invasion the Portuguese Royal Family with about 4,000 nobles left Portugal to go to Brazil.

José Bonifácio was asked to go, but 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.

On January 22, 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.

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 August of 1808 by Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.

These three French invasions of Portugal, were the training ground for the Duke of Wellington which helped him in 1815 to defeat Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo.

José Bonifácio was arrogant and fearless, and that combination made him a great commander under the Duke of Wellington, when they did beat the French armies on three different French invasions of Portugal from 1808 to 1811. And José Bonifácio received many honors during that time for his bravery during the battles, and some of the honors even mentioned that it was a miracle that he had survived these battles; because he was always one of the first people charging against the enemies on the front lines.

They have all documented, and it is on the record about all these battles, and they have documented how José Bonifácio came very close from getting killed in battle a number of times; he earned many honors as a great warrior. He was always in the frontlines, and was one of the first ones to charge against the enemy, and he was an inspiration to his battalion.

They had three French invasions of Portugal, the first one in November 19, 1807, by General Andouche Junot, and the day before the French forces reached Lisbon, the Portuguese Royal Family with 4,000 nobles left Portugal to go to Brazil.

On August 1, 1808, British forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington landed in Portugal, and they defeated Junot's army in two battles; the first at Rolica on August 17, 1808, and the second at Vimiero on August 21, 1808. The Duke of Wellington's army with the Portuguese brigade defeated the French, and the French suffered over 2,000 casualties and the British about 700.

On March 1809, there was a second French invasion under Marshall Nicolau Soult Duke of Dalmacia with his 70,000 men. On March 20, 1809, in the Battle of Braga, the French veterans butchered their adversaries. The outmatched Portuguese lost 4,000 killed and 400 captured. The French, who lost 40 killed and 160 wounded, also seized 17 Portuguese cannons.

On May12, 1809, the Duke of Wellington with his Portuguese allies surprised Marshall Nicolau Soult and his army at Porto. The French were sent flying out of town, abandoning guns, and supplies, as well as chests of gold. The French retreated for a second time into Spain.

In the battle for Porto, the French had lost around 300 killed or wounded, with almost as many again taken prisoner. More than 1,500 sick and wounded had been left in the city's hospitals, and some 70 guns had been abandoned. British losses amounted to just 123 killed, wounded or missing.

In August 1810, there was a third French invasion, this time the French army was commanded by Marshall Andrea Massena, Duke of Rivoli. Wellington thought very highly of Massena, and he was considered to be one of the best French generals. Wellington thought that only Napoleon himself was a better army commander than Massena.

Massena had 65,000 men against the British 25,000 men plus 25,000 Portuguese men. The day after the battle on September 27, 1810, they counted 4,500 casualties for the French, and 1,252 casualties equally divided between the British and Portuguese.

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.

Period 1812 to 1819 in Portugal

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.

Prince Dom João 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.

In 1815, Dom João raised Brazil to the rank of kingdom, coequal to 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 Regent Dom João had his coronation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and he became King João VI.

José Bonifácio was a famous European scientist in his day, and was known throughout Europe. When he left Portugal in 1819 to return to Brazil, he was considered the greatest and most famous scientist in Portugal. He arrived in Brazil in late 1819 with a reputation of being a famous European scientist.


The Andrada Doctrine

In May 30, 1822, Brazil through the “Andrada Doctrine” became the original leader of the Americas regarding foreign policy issues dealing with the defense of the American continent against European interference in the affairs of the countries of the American hemisphere. Here is the actual history of Brazilian leadership in the Americas.

José Bonifácio's decisions projected a firm, decisive and powerful image of his administration also in his foreign policy. In his diplomatic letter to the American Consul Mr. P. Sartoris in Rio de Janeiro in which he appointed a diplomat to represent Brazil in the United States, José Bonifácio wrote:...

The “Andrada Doctrine” precedes by 18 months, and it is more precise and more courageous than the “Monroe Doctrine” laid out by the United States President in his message to Congress in December 2, 1823.

There is a certain resemblance between both doctrines, but we have to recognize and give credit to José Bonifácio for being the first to expose his thoughts and making a policy in that regard for the entire hemisphere.

José Bonifácio preceded the American President James Monroe in formulating foreign policy for the American hemisphere by more than one and a half years.


Brazzil Magazine - February 2005

“Brazil, the Original Leader of the Americas – Part I”

Written by Ricardo C. Amaral


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Brazzil Magazine - February 2005

“Brazil, the Original Leader of the Americas – Part II”

Written by Ricardo C. Amaral


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José Bonifácio was fluent in six languages (he was able to write and read): Portuguese, English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. He understood 11 languages in total, and he also had complete command of Greek and Latin.


Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva and "On Slavery"

Three people played a major role to end slavery in Brazil: José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (The Patriarch of Independence), his brother Martim Francisco, and later his grandson José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (The Younger).

José Bonifácio's presentation "On Slavery" to the Constituent and Legislative Assembly when they were writing the first Brazilian Constitution was later translated and published in London in 1826. This position paper prepared by José Bonifácio is the most important and influential work in Brazil regarding ending the traffic of slaves and ending the institution of slavery in Brazil.

If José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva had stayed in power from 1824 on in Brazil, he would have ended slavery in Brazil by 1840, almost 50 years before the slaves finally gained their emancipation in Brazil.


Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva and the “Native Brazilian Indians”

José Bonifácio also had a major influence through his writings on the subject of Native Brazilian Indians. His writings on that subject served as a basis for future legislation related to the protection of the Native Brazilian Indians in Brazil.


Copyright © 2014 by Ricardo C. Amaral. All rights reserved.

Ricardo C. Amaral - Author and economist
He can be reached at:
brazilamaral@yahoo.com



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The Economist – February 1, 2014

Relearning old lessons

Latin America’s enduring need for the rule of law, education and openness

WE HAVE long taken notice of Latin America. The leading article in The Economist’s very first issue, in 1843, called on Britain to slash tariffs on the import of Brazilian sugar and cotton. Our coverage of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-17 is cited by historians. More recently, in 1997, we recognised the progress of Latin America in establishing (or re-establishing) democracies and in overcoming hyperinflation and debt crises by creating a separate Americas section (in which we included Canada).

This week sees the start of a new column, which will give further depth to our coverage of Latin America. It is tribute to the region’s expanding weight in the world. Brazil and Mexico now count among the ten biggest economies by purchasing power. Latin America is of critical importance in energy (it has a fifth of the world’s oil reserves), food production and the environment (with half the surviving rainforest). Cuba excepted, democracy holds sway throughout the region, though it is under threat in some places. Thanks to faster growth, 60m Latin Americans have left poverty since 2002; income inequality, a perennial problem, has fallen.

Latin America’s leaders constantly proclaim their unity. They did so again this week in Havana at a meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a regional organisation formed in 2011 solely to distinguish “our America” (in the phrase of José Martí, a Cuban patriot) from the United States and Canada.

The reality is rather different. Brazil seeks global influence in its own right; Mexico’s close economic ties to the United States will be reinforced by its recent energy reform; and the free-trading countries of the Pacific seaboard look to Asia, in tacit despair at the archaic statism of places like Venezuela and Argentina.

Politics and trade are not the only faultlines. Latin America is fragmented by huge distances, by peculiarities of history, and even by language—not just Spanish, but also Portuguese in Brazil, French in Haiti, and English in several Caribbean islands. Such diversity made this column very hard to name. Brazil and Mexico, the region’s two giants, share no heroes and few points of cultural or historical reference with each other, or with Spanish-speaking South America.

After much head-scratching, we opted to name the column after Andrés Bello (1781-1865), a Venezuelan-born polymath, educator, writer and diplomat. If Simón Bolívar and the other 19th-century liberators provided the ramshackle hardware of Latin American independence, it was Bello (pronounced “BAY-yo”) who did more than anyone to create the software of nation-building.

His biography is an early testament to globalisation. Having spent 19 years in London as an often-unpaid envoy for independence, he moved to Chile, where he ran the foreign ministry and was the founding rector of the University of Chile. He drew up the country’s civil code, which proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law. It was quickly copied in half a dozen countries in the region, and had a significant impact in others—including Brazil and Mexico. He also wrote an influential treatise on international law, which argued for the equal status of nations, as well as a bestselling Spanish grammar for Latin Americans.

Bello was a liberal, but a realistic one, who believed that strong political institutions were essential to thwart anarchy and for liberty to flourish. Whereas Bolívar argued that the new republics needed the discipline of top-down authority, Bello thought that to succeed they needed to create citizens, through universal public education and, above all, the rule of law (“our true patria”, he once wrote). In addition, he was an advocate for trade and an internationalist, insisting that the new republics should remain open to the ideas and products of the world.

The causes espoused by Bello—the rule of law, education and openness—are enduring ones. They loom especially large in Latin America today, as the great commodity boom wanes. Populists peddling an inward-looking nationalism, who have ruled by state diktat and political favour rather than by law, are being found out at last, as this month’s devaluations in Argentina and Venezuela show.

The region once again has to pay attention to education, productivity and competitiveness if it is to sustain growth, and to the rule of law it is to turn back the tide of criminal violence that threatens its citizens’ quality of life. In 21st-century Latin America the teachings of the region’s greatest 19th-century public intellectual are more relevant than ever.

From the print edition: The Americas


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