Government, Colonial, in Portuguese America

Portuguese colonial government was far less centralized than the Spanish model, but it did not grant the local autonomy of the British North American colonies. Unlike the Spanish or British, the Portuguese did not have a large domestic population with which it could populate colonies; therefore, successive monarchs experimented with several systems, and ultimately instituted a system based on a viceroys and colonial governors.

EARLY TRADING POSTS

The first Portuguese settlements in Brazil were trading posts. These posts were fortified but only had a small number of Portuguese inhabitants, who were supported by indigenous allies. Portuguese merchants sought brazil-wood, which was commonly used as a source of dye at the time. Beginning in 1500, the crown offered leases for Brazilian territory to merchant groups, but a lack of interest led the king to place the area under direct royal control. The king retained title to land, but licenses were granted to individuals and companies to trade specific goods (those items not subject to royal monopolies). In 1511 natives were placed under the protection of the crown, although local officials were granted the authority to differentiate between peaceful natives who could be converted, and those judged irredeemable and therefore allowed to be enslaved.

The first major effort to develop the area occurred in the 1530s in response to French incursions. King João III (1502–1557) tried to encourage interest in the region through a unique system of royal land grants, known as captaincies or donatarios. The donatarios were about 241 kilometers (150 miles) in length and extended into the interior to the border created by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which divided the world between Portugal and Spain.

João created fifteen donatarios, which were distributed to courtiers known as donees. Each donee was responsible for the costs of settling his territory and attracting settlers. In order to defray the costs of the colony, the donees were allowed to issue smaller grants. Few of the donees were actually interested in relocation to Brazil, and most of the grants failed. However, two donatarios succeeded very well and led to the establishment of São Vicente and São Paulo. The successful donatarios were able to forge alliances with local tribes to obtain labor and allies to fight hostile tribes. They also took advantage of a boom in sugarcane production.

Sugarcane quickly became the chief economic export of the colonies and led to a renewal of royal interest in Brazil when one of the donatarios, Pernambuco, came to have greater economic output than Lisbon. In the 1540s the crown decided to reassert royal control over the failed donatarios. In 1549 royal authority was further enhanced through the appointment of a governor-general to oversee all of Brazil. The first governor-general, Tomé de Sousa (d. 1573), founded the colonial capital, Salvador, and worked with the Jesuits to establish missions in the interior of the country. The Jesuits eventually developed a series of significant settlements and challenged the authority of local colonial officials (especially when those officials endeavored to enslave natives who were under the protection of the order following their conversion). In 1759 the Jesuits were expelled from Brazil, thereby ending any potential challenge to the colonial establishment.

THE DUAL MONARCHY AND NEW WEALTH

The union of the Portuguese and Spanish thrones (1580–1640) had a dramatic impact on colonial administration. Because of the Dutch insurrection against Spain, the Brazilian colonies were forbidden from trading with Dutch merchants (the Dutch had previously been the primary trade partners with the Brazilian colonies). After being shut off from the lucrative sugar trade, the Dutch launched a series of attacks on the Brazilian colonies and captured the colonial capital of Salvador and the wealthy Pernambuco province.

Many colonists supported Dutch rule, while others opposed the commercial restrictions and heavy economic debts they found themselves under. The Dutch were eventually driven out in 1654 by a coalition of Brazilian planters, Creoles, and merchants. One result of the conflict was a period of significant economic decline that was exacerbated by the emergence of rival sugar plantation economies in the English and French islands in the Caribbean. The decline was only reversed by the discovery of gold in 1693.

The resultant gold rush in the region that became known as Minas Gerais ignited new tensions between established colonial families and the adventurers who arrived to take advantage of the newfound wealth, while also populating a previously neglected area of the interior. In addition, the capital was moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro to be closer to the gold mines in 1763. Colonial officials found it difficult to keep control, as gold prospectors moved deeper into the interior and beyond the ability of authorities to collect taxes or enforce law. Armed conflict broke out between the original settlers and Creoles on one side and the newcomers on the other. In response, the crown enacted new policies to bring the region under control.

By the 1750s gold production began to decline and the colony moved toward development of a more diversified economy that included ranching. This diversification was aided by reforms undertaken by Portugal's prime minister, the marquis de Pombal (José de Carvalho e Melo, 1699–1782), who ended concessions enjoyed by foreign merchants and reformed the sugar and gold trade. Portugal's efforts to exert closer control over its colonial subjects did not go unchallenged, however, and resentment against royal authority resulted in the Minas Conspiracy of 1789, in which the activities of colonial elites and even local officials foreshadowed later independence movements.

THE DUAL KINGDOM AND INDEPENDENCE

The most dramatic shift in colonial government occurred in 1807 when the regent, Dom João (1769–1826), moved the monarchy to Brazil in order to escape the invasion of Napoléon Bonaparte (1769–1821). In order to support its Portuguese allies, the British transferred some fifteen thousand courtiers and officials from Portugal to Brazil and lent the relocated government some $3 million.

Dom João recreated many of the components of royal government in Brazil, including a supreme military council, a high court, and various boards to oversee trade and commerce. In 1815 Brazil was granted the status of a kingdom and a dual monarchy under Dom João, who became João VI. However, discontent with Portuguese rule led to the Pernambuco Revolution in 1817. The rebellion encouraged army officers in Portugal to rebel, which in turn forced João and the court to return to Lisbon in 1820. João's son, Dom Pedro (1798–1834), remained in Brazil and led a movement for independence in 1822. He was subsequently crowned Emperor Pedro I, inaugurating a new phase in the history of the state in Brazil as an independent constitutional monarchy.

see also Empire in the Americas, Portuguese; Empire, Portuguese; Minas Gerais, Conspiracy of.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alden, Dauril, ed. Colonial Roots of Modern Brazil: Papers of the Newberry Library Conference. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

Boxer, C. R. Race Relations in the Colonial Portuguese Empire, 1415–1825. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1963.

Hemming, John. Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978. Rev. ed., London: Papermac, 1995.

Kieman, Mathias C. The Indian Policy of Portugal in the Amazon Region, 1614–1693. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1954.

Maxwell, Kenneth. Conflicts and Conspiracies: Brazil and Portugal, 1750–1808. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1973.

Russell-Wood, A. J. A World on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America, 1415–1808. New York: St. Martin's, 1992.

Schultz, Kirsten. Tropical Versailles: Empire, Monarchy, and the Portuguese Royal Court in Rio de Janeiro, 1808–1821. New York: Routledge, 2001.

Schwartz, Stuart B. Sovereignty and Society in Colonial Brazil: The High Court of Bahia and its Judges, 1609–1751. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1973.