Brazilian politician, military and teacher born in Porto do Meyer, parish of São Lourenço, Niterói, State of Rio de Janeiro, a of the founders of the republic, author of the motto Order and Progress of the Brazilian flag (1890) and a great promoter of positivism in the Brazil. Son of the Portuguese Leopoldo Henrique Botelho and the gaúcha Bernardina Joaquina da Silva Guimarães, spent part of his childhood in Macaé, Magé and Petrópolis, where his father settled with a bakery. As a child, his family moved to Minas Gerais, where his father went to manage a farm owned by Barão de Lage. With the death of his father (1849), his mother, unable to bear the shock and subsequent sufferings, having five children to support and educate, went mad.
As a teenager he endured these ordeals, went to Rio de Janeiro and joined the Army (1852), perfecting himself in engineering at the Escola Central. He began his teaching career as an tutor of elementary mathematics for students at the Escola Militar (1854). He was promoted to Major (1855) and went on to study astronomy at the Rio de Janeiro Observatory (1861-1867). He was in the Paraguay War from where he was forced to return to Brazil due to being attacked by marsh fever. He entered the teaching of the Military School of Rio de Janeiro, as a supporting teacher in the higher education course (1872), was a professor of mathematics at the Imperial College of Pedro II and founded the Escola Normal Superior (1880), being his teacher, and the Military Club (1887), of which he was president.
He was promoted to lieutenant (1888) and in that same year received the rank of Colonel. He presided over the session of the Military Club (11/09/1889) in which the overthrow of the monarchy was decided and guaranteed the support of Deodoro da Fonseca, a military man with prestige for the crisis (1885) and for the victory of the abolitionism. Having proclaimed the republic, he was part of the provisional government, in the War portfolio, and was acclaimed brigadier general (1890), he became the director of the Ministry of Public Instruction, Posts and Telegraphs, in which he elaborated a clear educational reform based on the teachings of Auguste Comte, creator of positivism: the republican dictatorship of scientists and education as a practice that nullifies social tensions.
Due to his firmness of opinion and never abandoning his ideals, after a disagreement with Marshal Deodoro, he abandoned politics. He fell ill and unfortunately died practically indigent shortly after turning 58, in Jurujuba, Niterói. His coffin was placed on the table where the first acts of the Provisional Government were carved. The flags that his daughters had embroidered for the military schools served as a funeral mantle for him, the first flags of the republic, where the words Order and Progress were already read. His main works were Memoirs on the Theory of Negative Quantities and Report on the Organization of Teaching for the Blind.
Source: Biographies - Academic Unit of Civil Engineering / UFCG
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SCHOOL, Team Brazil. "Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magallanes"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/benjamin-constant-botelho.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.