O General Government was created by order of the Portuguese king D. John III in 1548. The following year, the first governor-general was appointed in Portuguese America: Tomé de Sousa. The General Government's objective was to promote the administrative centralization of the Colony as a way to make it more profitable.
The first three governors-general were Tomé de Sousa, Duarte da Costa and Mem de Sá, who governed the territory between 1549 and 1572. With Tomé de Sousa, the first Jesuits came to Brazil, responsible for the catechization and pacification of the indigenous people. One of the great achievements of this period was the construction of Salvador, and one of the challenges was the expulsion of the French who were established in the Guanabara Bay region, the current state of Rio de January.
After the government of Mem de Sá, Portuguese America was divided into two general governments: one with the capital in Salvador and the other with the capital in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
When was the General Government established?
The General Government was an administrative model that the Crown of Portugal implemented in Portuguese America in 1548. This government was established in order to replace and complement the system of Hereditary Captaincies, which had not given the expected return.
Historian Boris Faust lists a number of factors that explain why the king D. John III decided to implement the General Government in the territory that today corresponds to Brazil1. First, there was the weakening of trade with the Indies, which forced the Portuguese to turn Brazil into a profitable enterprise – a role that, until then, had not been fulfilled in the Colony.
Furthermore, Portuguese attempts to establish an empire in the region of present-day Morocco were failing. Finally, the Portuguese were uncomfortable with the success achieved by the Spaniards in exploring the Spanish America, where even large quantities of metals were being found precious.
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Considering all these elements, the Portuguese Crown identified the need to change the administration of Portuguese America to transform it, in fact, into a profitable colony. In the 1550s, Brazilian incomes accounted for only 2.5% of Portuguese revenue, which highlights Brazil's little relevance to the Portuguese budget.2.
The Portuguese decided, then, centralize the administration of the Colony. For this, they created the position of general governor, which had powers over all of Brazil. The functions of the governors-general were detailed in a Portuguese document called Regiment.
Although the governor-general assumed a series of obligations that belonged to the captain-donatories, the administration of the colony was not carried out by him alone. Among the other administrative positions created in the General Government, we can highlight:
chief ombudsman: responsible for legal matters and the application of Portuguese law in the colony.
main provider: responsible for collecting taxes and controlling the Colony's budget.
Captain General: responsible for developing the colony's defenses, whether against foreign or indigenous attacks.
First General Government
The first General Government installed in Portuguese America was occupied by Tome de Sousa, a Portuguese nobleman who arrived in the Bahia region in 1549, accompanied by approximately one thousand people. The first task ordered by Tomé de Sousa in his position was the Salvador construction in a strategic location, chosen by the governor-general.
The initial step in the construction of Salvador was the retaking of the captaincy of Baía de Todos os Santos, which had failed under the administration of grantee Francisco Pereira Coutinho. Then, Tomé de Sousa tried to establish peaceful relations with the indigenous peoples of the region in order to enable the construction of the city, which would be the capital of Brazil. Another measure taken by the governor-general was to impose enslavement only on indigenous people who were hostile to the Portuguese.
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Among the thousand people who came with Tomé de Sousa to Brazil, were the first Jesuits who settled here. In all, six Jesuits came to the colony, led by Manuel da Nóbrega, with the objective of catechizing the indigenous people and improving the customs of Portuguese America. The performance of the Jesuits in Brazil followed the following strategy:
The order […] was to achieve the conversion with mildness and good examples of behavior. The order was also to “adapt” Catholicism to the local culture – adapting terms and concepts to the reality of the place, starting with the Tupi grammar written by José de Anchieta in 1556 and soon converted into reading mandatory3.
As part of their mission in Portuguese America, the Jesuits began to create small villages, which had objective to shelter the native population and adapt it to a Europeanized lifestyle, which included the teaching of Catholicism.
In addition to the construction of Salvador, the city that was the capital of Brazil until the 18th century, the government of Tomé de Sousa was also marked by creation of the first bishopric in Brazil, for the establishment of cattle raising in the Colony and for the consolidation of sugar production through the devices.
Other Governors General
After Tome de Sousa, Brazil was ruled by Duarte da Costa (1553-1558) and by Mem de Sa (1558-1572). During Duarte da Costa's government, the indigenous people began to be treated in a hostile manner, and a large number of them were enslaved. This relationship with the indigenous peoples almost put the work developed by Tomé de Sousa into losing. For this reason, in the government of Mem de Sá, the policy of enslaving only hostile indigenous people was adopted again.
The government of Mem de Sá also stood out for having expelled the French who had been established in Guanabara Bay since 1555. In this region, the french invaders, under the leadership of Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon, had founded the Antarctic France. After the expulsion, the Portuguese founded the city of Rio de Janeiro there.
In 1572, after the death of Mem de Sá, the Portuguese Crown, still realizing numerous failures in the administration of the Colony, decided to divide Portuguese America into two General Governments: the Northern Government it's the Southern government, whose capitals were Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, respectively.4.
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1 FAUSTO, Boris. History of Brazil. São Paulo: Edusp, 2013, p. 42-43.
2 Idem, p. 43.
3 SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloisa Murgel. Brazil: a biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 42.
4 Idem, p. 31.
By Daniel Neves Silva
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/governo-geral.htm
