The Captaincies of Brazil ( pt, Capitanias do Brasil) were
captaincies of the Portuguese Empire
The Captaincies of the Portuguese Empire ( pt, Capitanias do Império Português) were the socio-administrative territorial divisions and hereditary lordships established initially by Henry the Navigator, as part of the Donatário system in order t ...
,
administrative division
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
s and
hereditary fiefs of Portugal in the
colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
of ''
Terra de Santa Cruz
The name ''Brazil'' is a shortened form of ''Terra do Brasil'' ("Land of Brazil"), a reference to the brazilwood tree. The name was given in the early 16th century to the territories leased to the merchant consortium led by Fernão de Loronha, to ...
'', later called
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, on the Atlantic coast of northeastern South America. Each was granted to a single donee, a
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
nobleman
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristi ...
who was given the title
captain General
Captain general (and its literal equivalent in several languages) is a high military rank of general officer grade, and a gubernatorial title.
History
The term "Captain General" started to appear in the 14th century, with the meaning of Command ...
.
Beginning in the early 16th century, the
Portuguese monarchy
This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution.
Through the nea ...
used proprietorships or captaincies—land grants with extensive governing privileges—as a tool to colonize new lands. Prior to the grants in Brazil, the captaincy system had been successfully used in territories claimed by Portugal—-notably including
Madeira
)
, anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira")
, song_type = Regional anthem
, image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg
, map_alt=Location of Madeira
, map_caption=Location of Madeira
, subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
, the
Azores
)
, motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace")
, anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores")
, image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg
, map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union
, map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...
, and other Atlantic islands.
In contrast to the generally successful Atlantic captaincies, of all the captaincies of Brazil, only two, the captaincies of
Pernambuco
Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...
and
São Vicente (later called São Paulo), are today considered to have been successful. For reasons varying from abandonment, defeat by aboriginal tribes, occupation of
Northeast Brazil
The Northeast Region of Brazil ( pt, Região Nordeste do Brasil; ) is one of the five official and political regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Of Brazil's twenty-six states, it comprises ni ...
by the
Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...
, and death of the
donatário
A ' (Portuguese for "donated" or "endowed ne), sometimes anglicized as donatary, was a private person — often a noble — who was granted a considerable piece of land (a ') by the Kingdom of Portugal. The king exempted these titleholders from n ...
(lord proprietor) without an heir, all of the proprietorships (captaincies) eventually reverted to or were repurchased by the crown.
They were effectively subsumed by the
Governorates General
A governorate, gubernia, province, or government ( rus, губе́рния, p=ɡʊˈbʲɛrnʲɪjə, also romanized ; uk, губернія, huberniia), was a major and principal administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire. After the empir ...
and the States of Brazil and Maranhão starting in 1549, and the last of the privately granted captaincies reverted to the
Crown
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
in 1754. Their final boundaries in the latter half of the 18th century became the basis for the
provinces of Brazil
The provinces of Brazil were the primary subdivisions of the country during the period of the Empire of Brazil (1822 - 1889).
On February 28, 1821, the provinces were established in the Kingdom of Brazil (then part of the United Kingdom of Portuga ...
.
Establishment as colonies
![Brazil (1709)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Brazil_in_1709.svg)
Following the successful expedition of
Martim Afonso de Sousa
Martim Afonso de Sousa ( – 21 July 1564) was a Portugal, Portuguese ''fidalgo'', List of explorers, explorer and colonial administrator.
Life
Born in Vila Viçosa, he was commander of the first official Portuguese expedition into mainland of th ...
in 1530, in order to exploit the trade in
brazilwood
''Paubrasilia echinata'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as Pernambuco wood or brazilwood ( pt, pau-de-pernambuco, ; ...
discovered on the Atlantic coast, as well as explore rumors of vast riches in silver and gold in the interior, the Portuguese Crown determined to establish permanent colonies in their claim on the new continent. The Portuguese realized that they had no human or financial resources to invest in a large and distant colony, and decided to enlist private entrepreneurs, called ''
donatário
A ' (Portuguese for "donated" or "endowed ne), sometimes anglicized as donatary, was a private person — often a noble — who was granted a considerable piece of land (a ') by the Kingdom of Portugal. The king exempted these titleholders from n ...
s''. Each would become owner and administrator of a ''capitania'' or captaincy, a land grant. This system had previously been successful in settling of the Portuguese colonies, first in Madeira, the Azores and various islands mostly along the coast of Africa.
[David P.Henige, ''Colonial Governors from the Fifteenth Century to the Present'', U. Wisconsin, 1970, pp. 227 - 273]
The first captaincies were drawn in strips parallel to the
equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
, commencing at the Atlantic coast and terminating in the west at the
Tordesillas Line
The Treaty of Tordesillas, ; pt, Tratado de Tordesilhas . signed in Tordesillas, Spain on 7 June 1494, and authenticated in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Portuguese Empire and the Spanish Emp ...
(where Spanish territory began). They were established by King
John III of Portugal
John III ( pt, João III ; 7 June 1502 – 11 June 1557), nicknamed The Pious (Portuguese: ''o Piedoso''), was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 1521 until his death in 1557. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the thi ...
in 1534. Within a system of royal patronage and nepotism, five of the captaincies were given to two cousins of finance minister
António de Ataíde
Dom António de Ataíde (c. 1500 - 1563), 1st count of Castanheira, was a childhood friend and favorite of King John III of Portugal (D. João III). As an advisor to the King, he played a key role in Portugal's policies towards its colony of Bra ...
:
Martim Afonso de Sousa
Martim Afonso de Sousa ( – 21 July 1564) was a Portugal, Portuguese ''fidalgo'', List of explorers, explorer and colonial administrator.
Life
Born in Vila Viçosa, he was commander of the first official Portuguese expedition into mainland of th ...
and his brother Pero Lopes. An additional captaincy was issued to Pero de Gois, captain of Afonso's 1530 expedition. The remaining captaincies were granted to a trusted mixture of military men (more precisely called ''conquistadores'') and court bureaucrats.
Each captaincy was to be of fifty leagues "height" (measured north-south), but in practice, boundaries were marked by pairs of rivers, a plethora of which emptied into the Atlantic Ocean on the northeastern coast of the continent. So actual heights varied, as shown in the map at right. Initially fifteen, they were granted to twelve donees. They were the following (north to south):
All but four captaincies failed, due to inadequate resources of the donees and lack of support from the Crown. Four donees failed to take possession of their lands, and four more quickly succumbed to Indians. Only four captaincies survived past 1549: São Vicente, Pernambuco, Ilhéus and Porto Seguro.
Subordination of the Captaincies
The history of the captaincies is turbulent, reflecting the needs of the Kings of Portugal, a small European country, to colonize and govern an enormous expanse of South America. Throughout the early colonial era Captaincies were granted, divided, subordinated, annexed, and abandoned. In 1548 when the captaincy of ''Baía de Todos os Santos'' (Bahia) reverted to the Crown due to the massacre, by indigenous cannibals, of its donee, Francisco Pereira Coutinho and his settlers; the King, Dom João III, established a royal governor (later a governor-general) at Bahia. At the same time Dom João rescinded some of the expansive privileges he had previously granted the donatarios (lords-proprietor). However, clearly demonstrating the crowns desire to accommodate whatever worked, Dom João instructed his first Governor to visit all the remaining captaincies, except for Pernambuco, the one singularly successful captaincy. In fact no royal governor visited Pernambuco until the Seventeenth Century. The captaincies continued to exist as governments subordinate to the royal governors, governors-general, and viceroys. All captaincies, sooner or later, reverted to being royal rather than proprietary captaincies (variously thru some failure or repurchase by the crown).
[ Bailey W. Diffie (1987). A History of Colonial Brazil: 1500 - 1792, Krieger, Malabar, Florida,ch 3]
During the
Philippine Dynasty
The Philippine dynasty ( pt, dinastia filipina), also known as the House of Habsburg in Portugal, was the third royal house of Portugal. It was named after the three Habsburg Spanish kings, all named Philip (; , ), who ruled Portugal between 1 ...
, some of the captaincies attained the status of provinces with royal governors (i.e. "states"), and Portuguese Brazil thereafter was a mixture of donatary captaincies, royal captaincies and states.
List of post-1549 captaincies
![Brazil (1822)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Brazil_in_1822.svg)
Some complications result from captaincies being merged and recreated with the same name, but representing altered regions. At least a few of the later captaincies were islands or capes of negligible size. Dates are of independent captaincies; in some cases, new captaincies were created as administrative divisions or subcaptaincies of existing ones before becoming fully independent (i.e. Para was established as early as 1616 as a north and westward annex of Maranhão).
* Fernando de Noronha (not occupied or abandoned) 1504-1737
* Itaparica and Itamarandiba (islands), 1556, split from Bahia
* Rio de Janeiro, 1563, renamed first (northern) section of São Vicente + Paraiba do Sul(?)
* Paraguaçu, 1566, carved from Bahia
* Paraíba, 1580, created from part of Rio Grande, enlarged by acquisition of most of Itamaracá, 1585
* Rio Grande de Norte, 1597, merger of northern portion of Rio Grande, Ceara and Maranhão
* Cabo Frio, 1615, promontory in Rio de Janeiro
* Pará, ~1616 as division of Maranhão from newly incorporated territory west of the Tordesillas Line; independent in 1652
* Itapecuru (renamed
Icatu
Icatu is a municipality in the state of Maranhão in the Northeast region of Brazil.
The municipality contains part of the Upaon-Açu/Miritiba/Alto Preguiças Environmental Protection Area, created in 1992.
See also
*List of municipalities in M ...
after 1691), 1621
* Caeté (originally Captaincy of Vera Cruz de Gurupi), 1622, merged into Maranhão 1654
* Itanheim, 1624
* Paranaguá, 1624
* Paraíba do Sul (originally São Tomé), 1629
* Gurupa, 1633
* Santa Cruz de Cametá, within Grão-Para on the lower Amazon, 1633 (see
Cametá
Cametá is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Pará
Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas ...
)
* Rio São Francisco, ~1634
* Cabo Norte, 1637, from newly incorporated territory; merged into Maranhão 1654
* Vigia, 1652
* Ilha Grande (island of Marajo), 1665, merged into Maranhão
* Xingu, 1685, within Maranhão
* Ararobá, 1690, within Pernambuco
* São Paulo and Minas de Ouro, 1709, renamed from São Vicente
* Minas Gerais, 1720, split from São Paulo and Minas de Ouro
* São Paulo, 1720, remaining after Minas Gerais split
* Mearim, 1723, within Maranhão
* Cuma, 1727, sub-captaincy split from Maranhão;
* Santa Catarina, 1739, split from São Paulo
* Goiaz, 1748, split from São Paulo
* Mato Grosso, 1748, split from São Paulo
* São José de Rio Negro (most of Amazonia region), 1755, split from Pará
* Grão-Pará, 1755, renamed portion of Pará after Rio Negro split
* Piauí, 1759, split from Maranhão
* Espírito Santo, 1799, independent from Bahia
* Rio Grande do Sul, 1760, newly incorporated territory of Rio Grande de São Pedro
* Ceará, 1799, split from Pernambuco
* Rio Grande do Norte, 1808, split from Pernambuco
* Alagoas, 1817, split from Pernambuco
*Colônia de Caiena e Guiana, 1809, annexation of French Guiana
* Sergipe, 1820, split from Bahia
Pernambuco and São Vicente
The
Captaincy of Pernambuco
The Captaincy of Pernambuco or New Lusitania ( pt, Nova Lusitânia) was a hereditary land grant and administrative subdivision of northern Portuguese Brazil during the colonial period from the early sixteenth century until Brazilian independence. A ...
thrived due to
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
plantations. The
Captaincy of São Vicente, called São Paulo after the city of São Paulo became its capital in 1681, obtained success through the exploration of the hinterland known as
''bandeiras''. In 1621, these became the basis for the southeastern
State of Brazil
The State of Brazil ( pt, Estado do Brasil) was one of the states of the Portuguese Empire, in the Americas during the period of Colonial Brazil.
History
In 1621, the Governorate General of Brazil was split into two states, the State of Bra ...
.
Provinces of Brazil
In 1815, the State of Brazil was elevated to a kingdom and all existing provinces and Crown captaincies became provinces of the
United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was a pluricontinental monarchy formed by the elevation of the Portuguese colony named State of Brazil to the status of a kingdom and by the simultaneous union of that Kingdom of Brazil w ...
.
Legacy of the Captaincies
Thirteen modern states have names of their predecessor captaincies, and several cities. The captaincies immortalized a set of Tupi-guarani place names, chiefly those of rivers and mountains.
In echoes of the feudal system of landed noblemen, the huge fazendas of the 18th and 19th centuries were allocated from the land holdings of the captaincies.
Brazil today still lives with the legacy of a
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
culture that employed 4million African slaves and concentrated land ownership. An elite 1.7percent of the landowners continue to own nearly half the arable land; the top 10percent of the nation earns half the income.
See also
*
Captaincy General
*
Provinces of Brazil
The provinces of Brazil were the primary subdivisions of the country during the period of the Empire of Brazil (1822 - 1889).
On February 28, 1821, the provinces were established in the Kingdom of Brazil (then part of the United Kingdom of Portuga ...
Notes
References
{{Portuguese overseas empire
1534 establishments in Brazil
1549 disestablishments in Brazil