Benjamin Constant (Brazil)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Benjamin Constant
Personal details
Born	18 October 1836 Niterói, Empire of Brazil
Died	22 January 1891 (1891-01-23) (aged 54) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães (18 October 1836 – 22 January 1891) was a Brazilian military man and political thinker. Primarily a positivist, influenced heavily by Auguste Comte, he was the founder of the positivist movement in Brazil (, Brazilian Positivist Society), and later this led to his republican views. He left the Brazilian Positivist society because of internal disagreements, but remained an ardent pupil of Comte until the end of his life.

Benjamin Constant was born in Niterói. He had a difficult childhood and attempted suicide at the age of 12. He served in the Paraguayan War, and had a large family. He felt underpaid and unhappy as a soldier. An intellectual at heart, he was a great supporter of Comte's Religion of Humanity.

His Republican views led him to found the (or Military Club), with Deodoro da Fonseca, in May 1887.^[1] It was based in the , and, shortly before his death, overthrew the emperor Pedro II and helped establish a republic.

The Brazilian town of Benjamin Constant, near the Amazon river and the Peruvian border, was named after him.

He was considered the founder of the Republic in the Constitution of 1891, having died earlier the same year in Rio de Janeiro, aged 54.

References[]

External links[]

• Museu Casa de Benjamin Constant (in Portuguese)

This biographical article related to the military of Brazil is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t

This article about a Brazilian politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t