At Hereditary Captaincies were an administrative system implemented by the Portuguese Crown in Brazil in 1534.
The territory of Brazil, belonging to Portugal, was divided into strips of land and granted to nobles trusted by King D. John III (1502-1557). These could be passed on from father to son and that is why they were called hereditary.
The main objectives were to populate the colony and divide the colonial administration. The Hereditary Captaincies, however, were short-lived and were abolished sixteen years after their creation.
Summary of Hereditary Captaincies
After the discovery of lands east of the Treaty of Tordesillas, in 1500, by Pedro Álvares Cabral, the focus of The Portuguese crown in its colony of Portuguese America was the extraction of resources from the land, such as the Brazilwood.
This was due to the fact that no precious metals were found, as was the case with the Spaniards in their possessions.
The system of hereditary captaincies was implemented after the expedition of Martim Afonso de Sousa, in 1530. The Portuguese were afraid of losing their conquered lands to other Europeans who were already negotiating with the indigenous people and seeking to settle there.
To this end, the Portuguese Crown immediately adopted measures to populate the colony, thus avoiding possible attacks and invasions.
The captaincy system had been implemented by the Portuguese in Madeira Island, in the Archipelagos of the Azores and Cape Verde.
Thus, it was established the creation of 15 captaincies and their 12 grantees, since some received more than a portion of land and the Captaincies of Maranhão and São Vicente were divided into two servings.
read more:
- Treaty of Tordesillas
- Brazil Wood Cycle
- Brazil Colony
Map of Hereditary Captaincies
Below is the name of each and their respective grantees:
- Captaincy of Maranhão: João de Barros and Aires da Cunha and Fernando Álvares de Andrade
- Captaincy of Ceará: Antônio Cardoso de Barros
- Captaincy of Rio Grande: João de Barros and Aires da Cunha
- Captaincy of Itamaracá: Pero Lopes de Sousa
- Captaincy of Pernambuco: Duarte Coelho Pereira
- Captaincy of the Bay of All Saints: Francisco Pereira Coutinho
- Captaincy of Ilhéus: Jorge de Figueiredo Correia
- Captaincy of Porto Seguro: Pero do Campo Tourinho
- Captaincy of Espírito Santo: Vasco Fernandes Coutinho
- Captaincy of São Tomé: Pero de Góis da Silveira
- Captaincy of São Vicente: Martim Afonso de Sousa
- Captaincy of Santo Amaro: Pero Lopes de Sousa
- Captaincy of Santana: Pero Lopes de Sousa
Rights and Obligations of the Grantee
King Dom João III granted the lands to nobles he trusted. Each Captain Donatário was considered the highest authority, being responsible for populating, administering, protecting the territory, founding villages and developing the local economy. For its part, the Portuguese Crown did not give any financial assistance to the grantees for this undertaking.
Grantees, on the other hand, had some legal and fiscal privileges such as:
- enslave indigenous peoples;
- collect taxes and donate uncultivated plots of land (land grants);
- explore the region and enjoy all its natural resources (where a percentage belonged to the crown), from animals, wood and minerals.
Despite having great power, the captaincies did not belong to the grantees but to the Portuguese Crown, which charged a tax called “tithe”, ie, 10% of the captaincy's production.
However, the captaincy system suffered from a lack of resources, some were abandoned and in others their grantees were never there. They also suffered from indigenous attacks, which fought against the invasion of their lands.
In this way, the hereditary captaincies' enterprise failed. Only two were successful:
- Captaincy of Pernambuco, commanded by Duarte Coelho, responsible for introducing the cultivation of sugar cane;
- Captaincy of São Vicente, commanded by Martim Afonso de Sousa, thanks to the trafficking of indigenous people who carried out in those lands.
After the infeasibility of the Hereditary Captaincies, the colony underwent an administrative reform and the General Government.
Curiosities about the Hereditary Captaincies
- Hereditary captaincies boosted the growth of villages, which gradually turned into provinces, and later constituted some Brazilian states.
- The inheritance of the hereditary captaincy system can still be felt today through the colonelism and of the families that continue to hold power in certain states.
- Martim Afonso de Sousa remained in his captaincy for a short time, as he was moved to occupy a post in the Indies. Who managed the land was his wife, Ana Pimentel.
We have more texts on the subject for you:
- history of Pernambuco
- Sugarcane Cycle
- First capital of Brazil - Salvador
- colonial Brazil exercises
- Duarte da Costa
- Sugar Mills in Colonial Brazil
