Everything about Captaincy General totally explained
A
captaincy is a historical
administrative division of the former
Spanish and
Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a
captain general.
In the Portuguese Empire
In the
Portuguese Empire, captaincies (
capitanias, in
Portuguese) were the administrative divisions and
hereditary fiefs of the Portuguese state in some of its colonies.
Before the discovery of
Brazil (
1500), there were captaincies in the Portuguese Atlantic possessions of
Madeira and the
Azores Islands and in other island and settlements along the
African coast.
The most important captaincies were, however, in the
colony of
Terra de Santa Cruz, or Land of the Holy Cross (modern Brazil). Each was delivered to a single captaincy general (
capitão-mor, or
capitão-donatário), who was a Portuguese
nobleman. They were straight stripes of variable height of land, divided parallel to the
Equator from the coast to the
Tordesilhas Line, created by King
John III of Portugal in
1534.
Captaincies of Brazil
The captaincies in Brazil were initially fifteen in total, granted to twelve
donatários. They were the following:
All but two failed. The
Captaincy of Pernambuco succeeded through the plantation of
sugarcane, and thus formed the basis for the
Viceroyalty of Grão-Pará. The
Captaincy of São Vicente succeeded through the explorations of the hinterlands known as
bandeiras, and was at the origin of the
Viceroyalty of Brazil (later the province of
São Paulo).
Image:Brazil states1534.png|1534
Hereditary Captaincies
Image:Brazil states1572.png|1573
Two Viceroyalties
In the Spanish Empire
Captaincies (
capitanías, in
Spanish) were a subdivision of a
viceroyalty in colonial Spanish-America and the Spanish-Philippines, established in areas under risk of foreign invasion or Indian attack.
Captaincies general were governed by a captain general, who held two offices, one military and the other civilian: commander of the regional forces, and president of the
audiencia. The captaincy general was first used in Spain as part of the
Bourbon Reforms beginning after 1713. After the losses of the
Seven Years' War, the Bourbon kings implemented this model in many American possessions, which hadn't had them before.
Some captaincies general, such as Venezuela, Guatemala and Chile were eventually split off from their viceroyalties for better-administration purposes. Although under the nominal jurisdiction of their Viceroys, Captains General were practically independent, because of their special military functions and the considerable distance of their districts from the viceroyal capital, having a direct relationship with the King and the
Council of the Indies, in
Madrid.
Spanish Captaincies
Further Information
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