Joaquim Marques Lisboa

Joaquim Marques Lisboa, Marquis of Tamandaré was an 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. 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 Brazil's War of Independence, in the repression of the Confederation of the Equator, and in the Cisplatine 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 Farroupilha Revolution ; 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 in the Triple Alliance, consisted of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, by means of a treaty signed on 1 May, 1865. In the Rio de la Plata basin, he was ahead of naval operations in the battles of Passo da Pátria, Curuzú, and at the defeat at Curupayti, for which he blamed Argentina's Bartolomé Mitre, personal in charge of the Allied forces at the battle, after which both Tamandaré and his Chief of Staff Francisco Barroso, 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 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.