Establishing the Portuguese colony in Brazil
In this chapter you will be able to
- Understand the historical process that led to the establishment of the colony;
- Reflect on the power relations established in the process of colonisation of Brazil;
- Be aware of the historical consequences of colonisation in Brazil today;
- understand colonisation as a process of domination.
1 Martim Afonso de Souza’s expedition and hereditary captainships
In this chapter we will study Martim Afonso de Souza’s expedition, which is considered to be the starting point of the actual process of settlement and colonisation of Brazil.
This expedition is referred to by some historians as the “colonising mission”, because it aimed to introduce a monoculture of sugar cane to the colony, as well as to guarantee land ownership, as the colony was threatened by invasions from other European nations, who contested the legitimacy of the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Treaty of Tordesillas – So named because it was drawn up and signed in the town of Tordesillas, Spain, on 7 June 1494.
It was responsible for dividing the world along a meridian established 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. The lands to the west belonged to Spain and the lands to the east of this meridian belonged to Portugal.
We will also study the historical process of the creation of the so-called “hereditary captaincies”, which were actually large estates donated by the King of Portugal to private companies. We will see that Brazil was divided into fifteen estates, but only two of them prospered: the Captaincy of Pernambuco and the Captaincy of São Vicente.
1.1 The colonisation expedition of Martim Afonso de Souza
It was necessary to colonise in order not to lose the country! Portugal was aware of this because the European nations did not accept the Treaty of Tordesillas, which stated that Portugal and Spain were the sole owners of the lands of the Americas.
Martim Afonso de Souza - Fundador da primeira vila do Brasil
The Brazilian coast was frequently visited by ships of various nationalities, mainly French, English and Dutch, with the declared intention of establishing colonies in Brazilian lands.
According to Fernando Novaes (1979, p. 55), “[…] colonisation itself initially followed a primarily political concern: the aim was to preserve, through settlement, the possessions already disputed by the Dutch, English and French corsairs”.
The historian Boris Fausto (2007, p. 43) repeats the above:
Political considerations led the Portuguese Crown to the conviction that it was necessary to colonise the new land.
The expedition of Martim Afonso de Souza (1530-1533) was a moment of transition between the old and the new era.
Its aim was to patrol the coast, establish a colony by granting non-hereditary land to the settlers he brought with him (São Vicente, 1532) and to explore the country with a view to its effective occupation.
Despite the concern about unwanted visits from privateers of other nationalities and the fear of losing possession of the land to them, this was not the only factor that led to the organisation of the expedition.
There were other factors that made it happen:
- Trade with the East was declining due to high costs and competition from the French, English and Spanish;
- Portugal needed new alternatives to increase its profits;
- The hope of discovering precious metals in the country.
To secure possession of the land and create new commercial alternatives, Portugal organised the first major colonisation expedition to Brazil. This expedition was led by the nobleman Martim Afonso de Souza.
Colonisation Expedition
Five ships and a crew of about 400 people. This was the expedition commanded by Martim Afonso de Souza, which set sail from Lisbon in December 1530.
Its main objective was to begin the colonisation of Brazil, which is why it became known as the Colonisation Expedition.
As well as colonisation, Martim Afonso de Souza’s other objectives were to fight foreign corsairs, search for gold and to make a better geographical survey of our coastline.
On 22 January 1532, Martim Afonso founded Brazil’s first city, Vila de São Vicente.
He also founded a number of settlements, such as Santo André da Borba do Campo and Santo Amaro.
In the region of São Vicente, Martim Afonso began to plant sugar cane. A year after planting the first seedlings, Brazil’s first sugar mill was built.
SOURCE: COTRIM, Gilberto. History of Brazil: a critical view. São Paulo: Saraiva, 1999. p. 60.
Martim Afonso de Souza’s expedition faced many difficulties, as the Brazilian lands were virtually virgin.
The great virtue of this expedition was that it founded the city of São Vicente, on the present coast of São Paulo, and introduced the cultivation of sugar cane, as well as making several expeditions with the intention of exploring the coast and interior of Brazil.
According to Sergio Buarque de Holanda (2007, p. 108)
No previous expedition had been as important as this one in developing plans for the effective occupation of the country.
In some places, the sertão itself was crossed. From Rio de Janeiro, where the squadron stayed for about 90 days, four men set off across the country.
They would return after two months, having travelled one hundred and fifteen leagues, bringing with them samples of crystal, news of the distant Paraguay River and the information that there was a lot of gold and silver in those parts.
In the next section we will study the introduction of hereditary captainships, which were established a few years after the arrival of Martim Afonso de Souza’s expedition in Brazil.
1.2 Hereditary Captaincies
The Portuguese kingdom did not have the resources to colonise Brazil and, more importantly, to make the colony profitable.
This was a serious problem that the Portuguese had to solve. The temporary solution was the creation of the Hereditary Captaincies, which transferred the responsibility for settlement and colonisation to the private initiative of the future grant holders.
Donatários – These were important people appointed by the king to administer the hereditary captaincies.
The Names of Brazil Pindorama (Indigenous Name)
- Ilha de Vera Cruz (1500) Terra Nova (1501)
- Land of the Parrots (1501)
- Land of Vera Cruz (1503)
- Land of Santa Cruz (1503)
- Land of the Holy Cross of Brazil (1505)
- Land of Brazil (1505)
- Brazil (from 1527)
(BUENO, 2003, p. 36).
Thus, in 1534, Brazil was divided into 15 estates to be administered by grantees appointed by the king.
The future owners were people of reasonable economic power, but not nobles, who preferred to invest their resources in Africa or India.
At the time, Brazil was unreliable for large investments, as it was still a work in progress.
Appointed by the king, the donatário was the highest authority within the captaincy. When the donatário died, the administration of the captaincy passed to his descendants.
This is why they were called hereditary captaincies (COTRIM, 1999, p. 60).
Nevertheless, the grantees did not own the land, which meant that they could not sell it or divide it – that was the King’s right. Nevertheless, the grantees had enormous powers, both economic and administrative.
The establishment of sugar mills, water mills and the exploitation of salt deposits depended on the payment of duties; part of the taxes due to the Crown for the exploitation of Brazil wood, precious metals and the by-products of fishing also fell to the captains.
From an administrative point of view, they had a monopoly on justice, the right to found towns, to donate sesmarias, to enlist settlers as military personnel and to form militias under their command (FAUSTO, 2007, p. 44).
Still quoting Boris Fausto (2007, p. 45):
The hereditary captainships are an institution often referred to by historians, especially Portuguese historians, who defend the thesis of the feudal nature of colonisation.
This thesis and the debate itself have lost the importance they once had, giving way to the latest historiographical trend, which does not consider it necessary to apply rigid labels to complex social formations that do not reproduce the European model.
Without going any further, let’s recall that when the Crown created the hereditary captainships, it used certain formulas that had their origins in medieval European society.
This is the case, for example, of the right granted to the grantees to receive payment for the licence to set up sugar mills; this right is analogous to the “trivialities” paid by peasants to feudal lords.
But in essence, even in their original form, the hereditary captaincies represented a temporary and still tentative attempt at colonisation, with the aim of integrating the colony into the European mercantile economy.
Despite all the hype in the historiography of the hereditary captaincies, only two flourished, namely São Vicente and Pernambuco: São Vicente and Pernambuco.
The others failed in the early years, either due to lack of resources, Indian attacks or lack of interest on the part of the grantor.
The prosperity of the captaincies of Pernambuco and São Vicente was always linked to the cultivation of sugar cane, which dominated both captaincies from their inception.
Or the hunting of Indians, which was an important economic activity in the captaincy of São Vicente, as the Vincentians began to sell Indian slaves to other regions of Brazil.
It’s important to point out that Brazil initially became a colony very different from those in North America, or even Spanish America, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
According to Caio Prado Junior:
Contrary to what happened in the latter, the colonisers who settled here did not come to remake their lives according to the rules of their country of origin, but to make a fortune – or “make America” – by trying to extract the maximum from both nature and those who worked for them in the shortest possible time.
In this form of colonisation, the aim of our settlers was not at all to produce themselves (and even less by their own labour), but above all to get rich as quickly as possible by exploiting the available natural resources and the labour of others on a servile basis – by enslaving first the indigenous peoples of the region and then specially imported Africans (SZMRECSÁNYI, 1998, p. 12).
This mentality was very damaging for Brazil, as it treated the country as a place to be colonised for purely exploitative reasons. This view was to be reinforced for many decades.
Gradually, through bankruptcy and abandonment, the captaincies were taken over by the Crown, and they disappeared for good in the second half of the 17th century.
Gradually the captaincies were taken over by the Crown, and they disappeared for good in the second half of the 17th century.
In the next chapter we will study the establishment of the General Government and the foundation of the city of Salvador.
2. In this chapter you have learnt that
- Martim Afonso de Souza’s expedition was very important for the beginning of the colonisation of Brazil.
- Brazil was divided into 15 hereditary captainships.
See the following periods in the history of colonial Brazil:
- Brazilian Independence – Breakdown of colonial ties in Brazil
- Portuguese Empire in Brazil – Portuguese royal family in Brazil
- Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil
- Foundation of the city of São Paulo and the Bandeirantes
- Transition from colonial to imperial Brazil
- Colonial sugar mills in Brazil
- Monoculture, slave labour and latifundia in colonial Brazil
- The establishment of the General Government in Brazil and the founding of Salvador
- Portuguese maritime expansion and the conquest of Brazil
- Occupation of the African coast, the Atlantic islands and the voyage of Vasco da Gama
- Pedro Álvares Cabral’s expedition and the conquest of Brazil
- Pre-colonial Brazil – The forgotten years
- Establishment of the Portuguese Colony in Brazil
- Periods in the history of colonial Brazil
- Historical periods of Brazil
