José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco

Who was José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco?

José Maria da Silva Paranhos, the Viscount of Rio Branco was a politician, monarchist, diplomat, teacher and journalist of the Empire of Brazil. Rio Branco was born in Salvador, in what was then the Captaincy of Bahia, to a wealthy family, but most of the fortune was lost after his parents' deaths early in his childhood.

Rio Branco attended Brazil's Naval School and became a midshipman in 1841. Later that year he was enrolled in the Army's Military Academy, eventually becoming an instructor there. Rather than continue to serve in the military, he became a politician in the Liberal Party. In 1845, he was elected a member of the provincial house of representatives of Rio de Janeiro province, site of the national capital of the same name. Rio Branco rose to power within the province under the tutelage of Aureliano Coutinho, Viscount of Sepetiba—a veteran politician who held tremendous influence over the young and inexperienced Emperor Pedro II. He temporarily abandoned politics after Aureliano Coutinho's fall from grace and the subsequent dissolution of the Liberal Party.