The 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. João III (1502-1557).
These could be passed from father to son and for this reason, 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 the Hereditary Captaincies
After the discovery of the 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 the land’s resources, such as brazilwood.
This was due to the fact that precious metals were not found as was the case with the Spanish in their possessions.
The system of hereditary captaincies was implemented following the expedition of Martim Afonso de Sousa in 1530.
The Portuguese were afraid of losing their conquered lands to other Europeans who were already trading 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 on Madeira Island, the Azores and Cape Verde archipelagos.
Thus, the creation of 15 captaincies and their 12 grantees was established, since some received more than one portion of land and the Captaincies of Maranhão and São Vicente were divided into two portions.
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 Ceara: Antonio 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 the Holy Spirit: Vasco Fernandes Coutinho
- Captaincy of Sao Tome: Pero de Góis da Silveira
- Captaincy of Saint Vincent: Martim Afonso de Sousa
- Captaincy of Santo Amaro: Pero Lopes de Sousa
- Captaincy of Santana: Pero Lopes de Sousa
The failure of the Hereditary Captaincies
The captaincy system suffered from a lack of resources. Some were abandoned and in others the grantees never visited them.
They also suffered attacks from indigenous people, who were fighting against the invasion of their lands.
In this way, the enterprise of the hereditary captaincies 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 that took place in those lands.
After the Hereditary Captaincies became unviable, the colony underwent an administrative reform and the General Government was established.
Rights and Obligations of the Donee
King Dom João III granted the lands to nobles he trusted. Each captain-donatary was considered the highest authority.
He was responsible for populating, administering, protecting the territory, founding villages and developing the local economy.
For its part, the Portuguese Crown did not provide any financial assistance to the grantees for this undertaking.
The donees, on the other hand, had some legal and tax privileges such as:
- enslave indigenous people;
- collect taxes and donate uncultivated plots of land (sesmarias);
- explore the region and enjoy all its natural resources (a percentage of which belonged to the Crown), including animals, wood and minerals.
The captaincies did not belong to the grantees but to the Portuguese Crown, which charged a tax called “tithe”, that is, 10% of the captaincy’s production.
Read more : General Government and Sesmarias
Interesting facts about the Hereditary Captaincies
- The hereditary captaincies boosted the growth of the towns, which gradually became provinces and later formed some Brazilian states.
- The legacy of the hereditary captaincy system can still be felt today through coronelismo and 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 transferred to occupy a post in the Indies. The person who administered the land was his wife, Ana Pimentel.
