Captaincy of São Vicente

1534–1709 captaincy in southern Brazil

The Captaincy of São Vicente (1534–1709) was a land grant and colonial administration in the far southern part of the colonial Portuguese Empire in Colonial Brazil.

History

In 1534 King John III of Portugal granted the captaincy to Martim Afonso de Sousa, a Portuguese admiral. De Sousa had founded the first two permanent Portuguese settlements in Brazil in 1532: São Vicente (near the present port of Santos) and Piratininga (later to become São Paulo).

De Sousa received two tracts of land:

one centered on the settlement of São Vicente, extending along the coastline from Cananéia to Bertioga (within present-day São Paulo state)
the other extended from Parati to Cabo Frio (within present-day Rio de Janeiro state).

These two tracts, separated by the Captaincy of Santo Amaro, formed the Captaincy of São Vicente.

In 1681 the São Paulo settlement succeeded São Vicente as the capital of the captaincy, and the name of the latter gradually fell into disuse.

São Vicente became the only captaincy to flourish in southern Brazil. It ultimately gave rise to São Paulo state and provided the base for the bandeirantes to expand Portuguese America west of the Tordesilhas Line.

Territorial evolution of the Captaincy of São Vicente (1534–1709)

The Captaincy of São Vicente in Southern Brazil:

1534
Capitanias hereditárias - the two bottommost yellow stripes denote the Captaincy of São Vicente
1709
São Paulo at its greatest extent, in pale yellow

References

Cited texts

Lockhart, J.(1983), Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil. Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0521299299
Baptista, S.(2008) Chaptory 4: Historical Context Forest Recovery and Just Sustainability in the Florianopolis City-region UMI 3349866

23°57′S 46°23′W / 23.950°S 46.383°W / -23.950; -46.383