Captaincy of Pernambuco


The Captaincy of Pernambuco or New Lusitania was a hereditary land grant and administrative subdivision of northern Portuguese Brazil during the colonial period from the early sixteenth century until Brazilian independence. At the time of the Independence of Brazil, it became a province of United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Captaincies were originally horizontal tracts of land 50 leagues wide extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Torsedillas meridian.
At the time of colonial Brazil, the Captaincy of Pernambuco was one of only two prosperous captaincies, thanks to growing sugar cane. During the early colonial period, it grew by acquisition of failed captaincies to the north. At its height, the Captaincy of Pernambuco included the territories of the modern states of Pernambuco, Paraiba, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará and the western portion of Bahia having thus its southern border with Minas Gerais. In the years just before Brazilian independence, the captaincy was reduced by repartitioning of several previously merged captaincies, until today's state with the same name was left.

History

Etymology

The name pernambuco is a Tupi Indian name for the coastal reefs found along the region's Atlantic shoreline.

Founding

According to the charter grant passed by D. João III on March 10, 1534, the donee of Pernambuco was Duarte Coelho Pereira, who was a distinguished gentleman in the Portuguese campaigns in India. The captaincy of width 60 leagues stretched between the Igaraçu River and the São Francisco River. He called it New Lusitania, after the poetic name for Portugal.
The boundary to the north was the parallel marking the southern boundary of the Captaincy of Itamaracá; to the south, the Rio São Francisco far shore; to the west the Tordesillas meridian; to the east, the Canal de Santa Cruz and Atlantic Ocean. The captaincy originally included what is today the state of Alagoras.
Upon receiving the donation, Duarte Coelho Pereira went to Brazil with his wife, children and many relatives. They landed on the shores of Santa Cruz canal, where there was a nucleus of settlement in the Porto dos Marcos. He advanced to the mouth of the Igaraçu River, Pernambuco, where he founded the village of the same name. He built the Church of Santos Cosme e Damião, the first in Brazil, giving the administration of the village to Afonso Gonçalves, and headed south. On a hill, he built a fort, a chapel and houses for themselves and for the settlers, which became the settlement of Olinda, constituted a village by the Charter Act passed on March 12, 1537. The sugar mills of Duarte Coelho and his wife, and that of his brother-in-law Jerónimo de Albuquerque on the Beberibe River near Olinda, were the first in the captaincy. The small port of Olinda was negligible, with no depth to receive large vessels crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In turn, Recife, a town named by the first donee for its arrecife dos navios became the main port of the captaincy.
Everything was organized to perform registration and donation of land, administration of justice, civil record-keeping, and defense against the Caetés and Tabajaras Indians. When Coelho died in 1554, he bequeathed to his children a flourishing captaincy.
In Olinda, administrative headquarters of the captaincy, settled the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, the Jesuit College, the main monasteries and small dock Varadouro. In the late sixteenth century, about 700 families lived there, not counting those who lived on the plantations, which housed 20 to 30 residents.
From land bordering the São Francisco River, Pernambuco expanded northeast along the Atlantic coast, much exceeding in width the 60 leagues established in the letter of donation. The captaincy reached 12,000 square leagues, becoming the largest land area among all that the king distributed.

Gold and diamonds

Province of Pernambuco

In 1821, the captaincy of Pernambuco became the province of Pernambuco in the Kingdom of Brazil. Its borders have remained relatively unchanged since that time, with the slight change of ceding the south bank of Rio Francisco to Bahia.

Administrative evolution

Pernambuco. In 1799 it was divided into the provinces of Pernambuco, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, and Paraíba. In 1817 it was divided again into Alagoas and Pernambuco. It was governed by
donatarios until 1576, when it began to employ capitaes-mors appointed by the donatarios. After the Dutch occupation ended in 1654, the Portuguese Crown took over administration. In 1716, the last donatario sold his rights back to the Crown, and Pernambuco became a Crown colony.