The Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro (

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 ...

: ''Governo-Geral do Rio de Janeiro'') was a colonial administration of the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...

History

In 1534,

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 ...

started granting land rights to colonize Portuguese territory in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, they were the

Captaincy Colonies of Brazil The Captaincies of Brazil ( pt, Capitanias do Brasil) were captaincies of the Portuguese Empire, administrative divisions and hereditary fiefs of Portugal in the colony of '' Terra de Santa Cruz'', later called Brazil, on the Atlantic coast of ...

. These fifteen autonomous and separate colonies were, for the most part, a failure administratively, and thus economically. In 1549, in order to solve the governance problem of his South American colonies, John III established the

Governorate General of Brazil The Governorate General of Brazil (''Governo-Geral do Brasil'') was a colonial administration of the Portuguese Empire in present-day Brazil. A governorate was equivalent in status to a viceroyalty, though the title viceroy didn't come into use un ...

.Governo Geral
/ref> The governorate united the fifteen colonies into a single colony, but each captaincy would continue to exist as a provincial administrative unit of the governorate. In 1572, in order to establish a stronger and more capable military presence in the continent, the governorate was dismantled into two separate colonies, the

Governorate General of Bahia The Governorate General of Bahia (Portuguese: ''Governo-Geral da Bahia'') was a colonial administration of the Portuguese Empire. History In 1534, John III of Portugal started granting land rights to colonize Portuguese territory in South Amer ...

, which encompassed the northern part, and the Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro, which took the south. In 1578, the governorate was reestablished from the governorates of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. This second

would be once again partitioned into the two separate colonies, in 1607. Finally in 1613, the Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro and the

merged to form the third, and final,

References

External links

{{coord missing, Brazil

Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

Portuguese colonization of the Americas Former Portuguese colonies Former subdivisions of Brazil

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

1572 establishments in Brazil 1578 disestablishments in Brazil 1607 establishments in Brazil 1613 disestablishments in Brazil