Captaincy of São Vicente

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

The Captaincy was granted in 1534 by King John III of Portugal to Martim Afonso de Sousa, a Portuguese admiral. Sousa had founded the first two permanent Portuguese settlements in Brazil in 1532. One was São Vicente, near the present port of Santos, and the other was Piratininga, now São Paulo.

Two tracts of land were issued to Martim Alfonso. One was centered on the settlement of Sao Vicente, extending along the coastline from Cananeia to Bertioga (within present-day São Paulo State). The other extended from Parati to Cabo Frio (within present-day Rio de Janeiro State). Although divided into two lots separated by the Captaincy of Santo Amaro, together these territories formed the Captaincy of São Vicente.

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

São Vicente was the only captaincy to succeed in southern Portuguese Colonial Brazil. It was the origin of São Paulo state, and of the expansion of Portuguese America west of the Tordesilhas Line by the Bandeiras.

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

The Captaincy of São Vicente is depicted in pale yellow in Southern Brazil.

• 

  1534
  Capitanias hereditárias

• 

  1573
  Two states

• 

  1709
  São Paulo at its greatest

See also

• Captaincies of Brazil
• Portuguese Colonial Brazil-related topics

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

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

• Colonial History of Sao Paulo

Bibliography

• Paes Leme, Pedro Taques, História da Capitania de São Paulo ("History of the Captaincy of São Paulo"; http://www.brasiliana.usp.br/bbd/bitstream/handle/1918/01023500/010235_COMPLETO.pdf)