Captaincy

A Captaincy ( Portuguese: Captaincy, Spanish: Capitanía ) was an administrative unit in the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires.

Captaincies in Brazil

Even before the discovery of Brazil awarded the Portuguese crown newly discovered territories to Capitães, the Azores, Madeira and areas along the coast of Africa. The captaincies that were established after the Pedro Álvares Cabral carried through in 1500 there were discovery of greater importance then but (the land was initially the name of Terra de Santa Cruz ). The area was claimed by Portugal because it was located east of the agreed in the Treaty of Tordesillas boundary line to the Spanish colonial empire. The country has now awarded as a kind of feudal ownership of Portuguese nobles, the Capitães -Mor. It was a total of 15 such captaincies, which were separated from each other by parallel to the equator up to the demarcation line of Tordesillas extending boundaries. The location and size of the captaincies was in 1534 by the Portuguese King John III. established, leaving it, however, only 12 Capitães -Mor was because some of them given dominion over several captaincies. Specifically, it was the following areas or Capitães - Mor:

Up to two of these captaincies all had no long service life. The Captaincy of Pernambuco was successful due to the local cultivation of sugar cane and was later converted to the Grão - Pará Viceroyalty. The Captaincy of São Vicente proved successful through the expeditions of the so-called Pauli Staner in the hinterland (these forays were called Bandeiras ), where they discovered the precious metals and precious stones of Brazil. This was the basis for the Viceroyalty of Brazil, the later São Paulo province, created.

Spanish captaincies

  • Captaincy General of Puerto Rico ( 1580)
  • New Spain ( 1524), 1535 Viceroyalty
  • Peru ( 1528), 1542 Viceroyalty
  • Santo Domingo ( 1540)
  • Captaincy General of Chile, was established in 1541 after the Arauco War. First part of the Viceroyalty of Peru it was an autonomous Captaincy General 1789
  • Captaincy General of Guatemala ( 1609)
  • Captaincy General of Yucatán ( 1564), including Campeche and Quintana Roo
  • Spanish East Indies ( 1565)
  • New Granada (1563 ), 1717 Viceroyalty ( 1717).
  • Captaincy General of Cuba ( 1764), including acquired in 1763 by France Louisiana Territory and Spanish Florida to 1784
  • Captaincy General of Venezuela, split off in 1777 of New Granada
  • Provincias internals, created in 1776 as an autonomous region within New Spain
  • Spanish colonial history
  • Portuguese colonial history
  • History of Brazil
John III of Portugal Paraty Cabo Frio Martim Afonso de Sousa Bertioga Bandeirantes Viceroyalty of New Granada
162540
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