Colonial Brazil
Captaincies of Brazil The first attempt to colonise Brazil followed the system of hereditary captaincies (Capitanias Hereditárias), which had previously been used successfully in the colonisation of the Madeira Island. The costs were transferred to private hands, saving the Portuguese crown from the high costs of colonisation. Colonial Brazil Thus, between 1534 and 1536 King John III divided the land in 15 Captaincies of Brazil, which were given to Portuguese noblemen who wanted and had the means to administer and explore them. The captains were granted ample powers to administer and profit from their possessions. From the 15 original captaincies, only two, Pernambuco and São Vicente, prospered. The failure of most captaincies was related to the resistance of the Indigenous peoples, shipwrecks and internal disputes between the colonisers.
For a closer look at Brazil in its entirety Pernambuco, the most successful captaincy, belonged to Duarte Coelho, who founded the city of Olinda in 1536. His captaincy prospered with sugarcane mills used to produce sugar installed after 1542. Sugar was a very valuable good in Europe, and its production became the main Brazilian colonial produce in the next 150 years. The captaincy of São Vicente, owned by Martim Afonso de Sousa, also produced sugar but its main economic activity was the traffic of indigenous slaves. General government of Colonial Brazil With the failure of most captaincies and the menacing presence of French ships in the Brazilian coast, the government of King John III decided to turn the colonisation of Brazil back into a royal enterprise. In 1549, a large fleet led by Tomé de Sousa set sail to Brazil to establish a central government in the colony. Tomé de Sousa, the first Governor-General of Brazil, brought detailed instructions, prepared by the King's aides, about how to administer and foster the development of the colony. His first act was the foundation of the capital city, Salvador da Bahia, in Northeastern Brazil, in today's state of Bahia. The city was built on a slope by a bay (Todos-os-Santos Bay) and was divided into an upper administrative area and a lower commercial area with a harbour. An example of the architecture of Colonial Brazil. Tomé de Sousa also visited the captaincies to repair the villages and reorganise their economies. In 1551, the colony was turned into a diocese with its seat in Salvador.
Historical centre of Salvador today. The second Governor General, Duarte da Costa (1553-1557), faced conflicts with the aborigines and severe disputes with other colonisers and the bishop. Wars against the natives around Salvador consumed much of his government. The fact that the first bishop of Brazil, Pero Fernandes Sardinha, was killed and eaten by the Caeté natives after a shipwreck in 1556 illustrates how strained the situation was between the Portuguese and many indigenous tribes. The third Governor General of Brazil was Mem de Sá (1557-1573), an efficient administrator that managed to defeat the aborigines and, with the help of the Jesuits, expel the French Calvinists that had established a colony in Rio de Janeiro (the France Antarctique). His nephew, Estácio de Sá, founded the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1565. The huge size of Brazil led to the colony being divided into two Estados (states) after 1621, when King Philip II created the Estado do Brasil, the most important colony with Salvador as capital, and the Estado do Maranhão, with capital in São Luís. The state of Maranhão was still further divided in 1737 into the Estado do Maranhão e Piauí and the Estado do Grão-Pará e Rio Negro, with its capital in Belém do Pará. After 1640, the governors of Brazil coming from the high nobility started to use the title of Vice-rei (Viceroy). Brazil became officially a Viceroyalty around 1763, when the capital of the Estado do Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. In 1775 all Brazilian Estados (Brasil, Maranhão and Grão-Pará) were unified into the Viceroyalty of Brazil, with Rio de Janeiro as capital. As in Portugal, each colonial village and city had a city council (câmara municipal), whose members were prominent figures of colonial society (land owners, merchants, slave traders). Colonial city councils were responsible for regulating commerce, public infrastructure, professional artisans, prisons etc.
Colonial Brazil 
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