The government of

Portuguese India The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the ...

() started on 12 September 1505, seven years after the

Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India The Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India was the first recorded trip directly from Europe to the Indian subcontinent, via the Cape of Good Hope. Under the command of the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, it was undertaken during the ...

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

, with the nomination of the first Portuguese viceroy Francisco de Almeida, then settled at

Cochin Kochi ( , ), formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. The city is also commonly referred to as Ernaku ...

. Until 1752, the name ''India'' included all Portuguese possessions in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

, from

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, governed – either by a viceroy or governor – from its headquarters, established in Old Goa since 1510. In 1752

Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique () or Portuguese East Africa () were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese Empire, Portuguese overseas province. Portuguese Mozambique originally constituted a str ...

was granted its own government, and in 1844 the Portuguese government of India ceased administering the territory of

Portuguese Macau Macau was under Portuguese Empire, Portuguese rule from the establishment of the first official Portuguese settlement in 1557 until its Handover of Macau, handover to China in 1999. It comprised the Municipality of Macau and the Municipality of ...

, Solor and Portuguese Timor, seeing itself thus confined to a reduced territorial possessions along the

Konkan The Konkan is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, bound by the river Daman Ganga at Damaon in the north, to Anjediva Island next to Karwar town in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau to the eas ...

, Canara and

Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

s, which would further be reduced to the present-day

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

of Goa and the

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

of Daman. Portuguese control ceased in Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1954, and finally ceased in Goa in 1961, when the area was occupied by the

Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by ...

(although Portugal only recognised the occupation after the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

in 1974, by a treaty signed on 31 December 1974). This ended four and a half centuries of Portuguese rule in parts – though tiny – of India. It may be noted that during the term of the monarchy, the title of the head of the Portuguese government in India ranged from "governor" to "viceroy". The title of viceroy would only be assigned to members of the nobility; it was formally terminated in 1774, although it has later been given sporadically to be decisively ended after 1835, as shown below.

List of officeholders

The following is a list of rulers during the history of Portuguese India as a

viceroyalty A viceroyalty was an entity headed by a viceroy. It dates back to the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the sixteenth century. British Empire India * British Raj, India was governed by the Governor-General of India, Governor-General and Vi ...

or governorship.List based on: Danvers, Frederick Charles (1988) ''The Portuguese in India: being a history of the rise and decline of their eastern empire''. Asian Educational Services; p. 487 (Appendix B); and Henry Morse Stephens (1892) ''Albuquerque'', Oxford: Clarendon Press, Vol. 4, p. 13 (*) – In 1508, King Manuel I of Portugal devised a plan to partition the Portuguese empire in Asia into three separate governments or "high captaincies" – (1) ''

Captain-Major A donatary captain was a Portuguese colonial official to whom the Crown granted jurisdiction, rights and revenues over some colonial territory. The recipient of these grants was called a (donatary), because he had been given the grant as a (donat ...

of the seas of Ethiopia, Arabia and Persia'', centered at

Socotra Socotra, locally known as Saqatri, is a Yemeni island in the Indian Ocean. Situated between the Guardafui Channel and the Arabian Sea, it lies near major shipping routes. Socotra is the largest of the six islands in the Socotra archipelago as ...

, was to cover the East African and Arabian-Persian coasts, from Sofala to Diu; (2) ''Captain-Major of the seas of India'', centered at

, was to cover the Indian coast from Diu down to Cape Comorin. Afonso de Albuquerque was Captain-General of the latter. Jorge de Aguiar was made Captain-General of the former. A third high captaincy, covering Asia east of Cape Comorin (yet to be explored) was assigned to Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, who was assigned that year to discover

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

. The triarchy experiment failed – Aguiar drowned en route, while Sequeira quit the region in 1509, after his debacle at

, leaving Albuquerque sole governor of the whole unpartitioned complex. (**) – Around 1570, King Sebastian of Portugal tried to partition the Portuguese State of India into three separate governments (much like Manuel's plan of 1508) – a western state based around Sofala (covering the East African coast from

Cape Correntes Cape Correntes (sometimes also called "Cape Corrientes" in English) ( Port.: "Cabo das Correntes") is a cape or headland in the Inhambane Province in Mozambique. It sits at the southern entry of the Mozambique Channel.• Cape Correntes wa ...

to Cape Guardafui), a central state ruled from Goa (covering the area between the Red Sea and Ceylon, encompassing India, reserved for the "Viceroy") and an eastern state ruled from

(covering Southeast Asia, from Pegu to China). D. António de Noronha was appointed to Goa, António Moniz Barreto to Malacca, and Francisco Barreto (the former India governor) to Sofala. (***) – Title of ''Viceroy of Indies'' extinguished by royal letter in 1771, replaced by ''Capitão-Geral'' (Captain-General) of the Indies.

References

External links

* Biographies of Portuguese viceroys and governors of India (1550–1640) in Portugues

{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Governors of Portuguese India Governors-general of Portuguese India, *

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Portuguese India

List of officeholders

References

Further reading

External links