Governorate General of Brazil

The Governorate General of Brazil was the colonial administration established by the Portuguese Crown in 1549 to govern its South American possessions. King John III created it to solve the governance problems of the fifteen hereditary captaincies, some of which had reverted to the Crown and others been abandoned. The first governor general, Tomé de Sousa, founded Salvador da Bahia as the capital and received wide authority over the royal captaincies, with nominal oversight of the donatary captaincies; Pernambuco remained exempt by royal decree. The governorate was divided twice, from 1572 to 1578 and from 1607 to 1613, into a northern governorate at Bahia and a southern one at Rio de Janeiro. It was a governorship rather than a viceroyalty, although the title of viceroy came into use in the early eighteenth century. In 1621 the territory was partitioned into the State of Brazil and the State of Maranhão, and the governorate's unified administration ended.