Capitania
From Free net encyclopedia
Capitania (from the Portuguese Capitão, in English Captain) was the Administrative division and hereditary fief of the Portuguese state in some of its colonies.
Before the discovery of Brazil (by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500), there were Capitanias in the Portuguese Atlantic possessions of the Madeira Islands and the Azores and other island and establishments in the African coast.
The most important Capitanias where, however, in the colony of Terra de Santa Cruz, or Land of the Holy Cross (modern Brazil). Each was delivered to a single Capitão-Mor, 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.
The Capitanias in Brazil were initially fifteen in total, granted to twelve Capitães-Mor (or Donatários). They were the following:
All but two failed. The Capitania of Pernambuco succeeded through the plantation of sugarcane, and thus formed the basis for the Viceroyalty of Grão-Pará. The Capitania 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).
