He entered the Brazilian military academy in 1883, and graduated with honors in 1888. For a brief time afterward he taught mathematics there while training to become an officer. He was one of several army officers who united to overthrow the Emperor of Brazil (Pedro II, the only monarch in the Americas) in 1889. In a bloodless revolution, the country became a republic.
In 1890 Rondón began his career as an army engineer by helping to build a telegraph line across Mato Grosso. When it was completed in 1895, he then turned to constructing a road between Rio de Janeiro and Cuiabá. (Until it was completed, the only way between the two cities was by river travel through Argentina.) From 1900 to 1906 he was in charge of building telegraph lines across Brazil to Bolivia and Paraguay. During this time he opened up new territory, collected important biological specimens for Brazil’s national museum, and served as a kind of diplomat between the government and the warlike Bororo tribe of western Brazil.
As a result of his successes, Rondón was put in charge of extending the telegraph line from Mato Grosso into the Amazon River valley in 1906.
This is a free page. This page contains 186 words. This
article contains 1,710 words (approx. 6 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Cândido Rondón Access Pass.
