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A captaincy is a historical Administrative Division of the former Spanish and Portuguese Colonial Empire s. Each was governed by a Captain General . IN THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE In the Portuguese Empire , captaincies (''capitanias'', in Portuguese ) were the administrative divisions and Hereditary Fief s of the Portuguese state in some of its colonies. Before the discovery of Brazil ( 1500 ), there were captaincies in the Portuguese Atlantic possessions of Madeira and the Azores Islands and in other island and settlements along the African Coast . The most important captaincies were, however, in the Colony of Terra De Santa Cruz , or Land of the Holy Cross (modern Brazil). Each was delivered to a single captaincy general (''capitão-mor'', or ''capitão-donatário''), who was a Portuguese Nobleman . They were straight stripes of variable height of land, divided parallel to the Equator from the coast to the Tordesilhas Line , created by King John III Of Portugal in 1534 . Captaincies of Brazil The captaincies in Brazil were initially fifteen in total, granted to twelve ''donatários''. They were the following: All but two failed. The Captaincy Of Pernambuco succeeded through the plantation of Sugarcane , and thus formed the basis for the Viceroyalty Of Grão-Pará . The Captaincy Of São Vicente succeeded through the explorations of the hinterlands known as ''bandeiras'' , and was at the origin of the Viceroyalty Of Brazil (later the province of São Paulo ). |
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