Captaincy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Categories: Articles lacking sources from July 2007 | All articles lacking sources | Titles | Spanish colonization of the Americas | History of Portugal | History of Brazil | Country subdivisions
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 EmpireIn 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 BrazilThe 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).
In the Spanish EmpireCaptaincies (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. The captaincy general was governed by a captain general, who was basically a military officer with plenipotentiary civilian powers and authority. 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
See alsode:Kapitanat es:Capitanías de Brasil es:Capitanía General eo:Brazilaj heredaj provincoj fr:Capitainerie (Brésil) fr:Capitainerie générale ko:도독령 he:קפיטניה nl:Kapiteinschap pt:Capitanias do Brasil |
