Donatário

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A Donatário, a Portuguese word roughly meaning endowed or donated, sometimes anglicized as Donatary (though meaning a religious donation), was a private person (often a nobleman) who the Crown bestowed a considerable piece of land (called a donataria) to administer. Donated at his discretion, the monarch exempted these titleholders from normal colonial administration; the bestowed was comparable to a royal governor and de facto equivalent to a British Lord Proprietor.

History

Normally, the donatário was the recipient of a Captaincy, a territorial division and land grant, within Portuguese colonies.[1]

The donatário was obligated to govern their territories under specific terms: in exchange for the grant, the donatário received tax immunities, but was also responsible for promoting and settling new residents to his territory, establishing churches (following the Catholic faith), protect them from frequent pirate attacks and promoting agriculture and commerce.[1] Except for private land grants, the territory administrated by the donatário was turned over to settlers and the bestowed was responsible for all the expenses of the Captaincy.[1]

Almost dictatorial in their powers, the donatário was limited by the difficulties of the territories they governed.[1] With the Brazilian territories, which were large, the donatários' obligations covered the governorship, expansion and settlement of the territory, necessitating a large labor force, security forces and administrators.[1] Many of the new settlers were criminals, opportunists or political exiles who arrived in these territories to make their fortunes (commercially or politically). At the same time, the donatário promoted the faith, but receiving and assisting the Catholic missionaries that trekked across the Portuguese Empire.[1]

Portuguese Empire

Brazil

Further information: Captaincies of Brazil

Having succeeded with the administration of Madeira and the Azores to impose a social order, King John III applied the same structure to consolidate power in Brasil.[1] In Brazil, each captaincy consisted of a portion of land originally 50 leagues wide (but in practive varying considerably) along the Brazilian coast and extending inland to the line established by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which divided Portuguese and Spanish colonial possessions.[1]

The difficulty of governing large territories meant that by 1549, only four captaincies remained viable (from a total of 15 captaincies created): Captaincy of Pernambuco (granted to Duarte Coelho Pereira), the Captaincy of São Vicente (granted to Martim Afonso de Sousa), the Captaincy of Ilheus and the Captaincy of Porto Seguro.[1] In order to save the collapsing colonies of Brazil, in 1549, John III sent Governor-General Tomé de Sousa and Jesuits under the direction of Manuel da Nóbrega to the colonies. Under their discipline, and later the governorship of Governor-General, Mem de Sá (1557–72), the colonies began to reverse the unworkable policies: by 1580, Brazil had become an economically viable colony.[1] Over time, the Brazilian donatários were replaced by royal administrators, until the system was abolished by 1754.

See also

References

Notes
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 "Donatário". Encyclopedia Britannica. 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2013. 
Sources

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