The District of Ponta Delgada was a district of the ''Ilhas Adjacentes'' (the former collective name for 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 Madeira), consisting of the dependent eastern islands of the Azores, located in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. The district of Ponta Delgada, not to be confused with the modern municipality of Ponta Delgada, existed from 1835 until 1976 when it was abolished in the favour of the autonomy charter of the 1975 Portuguese Constitution.

History

1st Aeronautical Company at Ponta Delgada, Azores on January 21, 1918

By decree, on 18 July 1835, Mouzinho da Silveira established the districts of the ''Ilhas Adjacentes'' as part of his administrative reforms of local government. The provinces were extinguished, and the administrative and fiscal districts were created that included the eastern and western groups of islands: centred on Angra do Heroísmo and Ponta Delgada. This was followed in 1833 by an independence movement by the recently promoted centre of Horta, forcing by 28 March 1836 division the Azorean territory into three districts. During this process Ponta Delgada did not change, and remained defined by the two eastern islands and islets of the Formigas.Estatísticas Históricas Portuguesas
INE 2001 During the Estado Novo regime of

António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the r ...

the region obtained autonomy as a district, especially after 1940. Following the

Hot Summer of 1975 The Hot Summer of 1975 ( pt, Verão Quente de 1975) was a tumultuous period in Portuguese history characterized by political, social and military instability. At the center of the conflict was the rift between rightist and leftist groups, as ...

, a protest in the centre of Ponta Delgada, comprising property-owners and farmers challenged the government of

António Borges Coutinho António Borges Coutinho GOL (3 May 1923 in Lisbon – 3 February 2011 in Lisbon) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician. Biography António Eduardo Borges Coutinho de Medeiros was born in Lisbon on 3 May 1923, the second son of the thi ...

, who was charged with implementing land reforms after the Carnation Revolution. The Micalense Farmers' Protest, forced his resignation, and inspired a series of terrorist acts that plunged the Azores into political turmoil. After a round-up of arrests and detentions by the Military Governor, the Autonomous District of Ponta Delgada was extinguished, along with the other districts ( Horta and Angra do Heroísmo) on 22 August 1975, with the establishment of the''Junta Regional dos Açores'' (''Regional Junta of the Azores''), the provisional government that assumed the competencies of the administration during the region's transition to constitutional autonomy. With

regional autonomy Regional autonomy is decentralization of governance to outlying regions. Recent examples of disputes over autonomy include: * The Basque region of Spain * The Catalan region of Spain * The Sicilia region of Italy * The disputes over autonomy of pr ...

, the districts were completely abolished: the 1976 Portuguese constitution defined in law the status of

Autonomous Region An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, entity, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy� ...

without the existence of districts. Local government authority and administration fell to the upper-level Local Administrative Units(the municipalities) and second-tier

LAU Lau or LAU may refer to: People * Lau (surname) * Liu (劉/刘), a common Chinese family name transliterated Lau in Cantonese and Hokkien * Lau clan, one of the Saraswat Brahmin clans of Punjab * LAU (musician): Laura Fares Places * Lebane ...

IIs (the civil parishes).

Geography

The district covered about 800 km² and included the two islands of Santa Maria and São Miguel and the small islets of the

Formigas The Formigas Islets ( pt, Ilhéus das Formigas ; literally, ''Islets of the Ants''), sometimes referred to as the Formigas Bank, are a group of uninhabited rocky outcroppings in the eastern group of the Azores archipelago, an autonomous region ...

. It included the seven municipalities of: * Lagoa *

Nordeste 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 ...

Ponta Delgada Ponta Delgada (; ) is the largest municipality ('' concelho'') and economic capital of the Autonomous Region of the Azores in Portugal. It is located on São Miguel Island, the largest and most populous in the archipelago. As of 2021, it has 67, ...

(former capital) * Povoação * Ribeira Grande *

Vila Franca do Campo Vila Franca do Campo () is a town and municipality in the southern part of the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of the Azores. The population of the municipality was 11,229 in 2011, in an area of 77.97 km². The town ...

Vila do Porto Vila do Porto (; "Port Town") is the single municipality, the name of the main town and one of the civil parishes on the island of Santa Maria, in the Portuguese archipelago of Azores. Its nearest neighbor, administratively, is the municipali ...

References

;Notes ;Sources * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ponta Delgada (District) Former subdivisions of the Azores Ponta Delgada History of the Azores