Founding of Salvador and the Governorate General of Brazil
To bring the hereditary captaincies of Brazil under royal control, John III sent Tomé de Sousa as the first governor-general; on the Bay of All Saints he founded Salvador, the capital of Portuguese America until 1763.
- Date
- 29 March 1549exact dateDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Salvador (Bahia)today: Salvador, Bahia, Brazil · Latin America
- Participants
- John III of Portugal, Tomé de Sousa, Society of Jesus, Kingdom of Portugal
- Threads
- History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota
- Also known as
- São Salvador da Bahia de Todos os Santos; Сан-Салвадор-да-Баия-ди-Тодуз-ус-Сантус; Governo-Geral do Brasil
Brazil had been divided among hereditary lords (donatários), several of whose captaincies had failed or been abandoned. In December 1548 the king issued detailed instructions (Regimento) for a royal government, and on 29 March 1549 Tomé de Sousa arrived in Bahia with about a thousand people — soldiers, settlers, some 400 convicts (degredados) and six Jesuits led by Manuel da Nóbrega, the first members of their order in Brazil.
The fortified city was laid out on two levels on the cliff above the bay. In 1551 Salvador became the seat of the first bishopric in Brazil, and the sugar plantations of the surrounding Recôncavo, worked by enslaved Africans, made it the colony’s main port. It remained the capital until 1763, when the seat of government moved to Rio de Janeiro.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Discovery of Brazil by Cabral’s expedition22 April 1500 · Latin Americahalf a century after Cabral’s landfall the Crown took Brazil under direct rule
Related events
- Discovery and settlement of Madeirabetween 1418 and 1419 – 1425 · Africathe Madeiran sugar plantation became the model for the plantation economy of Brazil
- Gold rush in Minas Geraisbetween 1692 and 1698 · Latin Americathe gold shifted colonial Brazil southwards; in 1763 the capital moved from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro
Same participants
- Portuguese on Tanegashima — the first Europeans in Japan1543 · East Asiavia Kingdom of Portugal
- Portuguese settle in Macau1557 · East Asiavia Kingdom of Portugal
- Bento de Góis’s journey from India to Chinabetween October 1602 and February 1603 – 11 April 1607 · Central and Northern Asiavia Society of Jesus
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Publication of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus1543
- Siege of Vienna (1529)27 September – 15 October 1529
- Sack of Rome (1527)6 May 1527
- Battle of Mohács29 August 1526
- Publication of The Lusiads1572
Eastern Europe
- Coronation of Ivan IV as tsar16 January 1547
- Capture of Kazan23 August – 2 October 1552
- Annexation of the Astrakhan Khanate26 August 1556
Middle East and Egypt
- Capture of Baghdad by Suleiman Ibetween November and December 1534
Africa
- Ethiopian–Adal WarMarch 1529 – 21 February 1543
- Letters of Afonso I of Kongo on the slave trade1526
South Asia
- Garcia de Orta’s Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India10 April 1563
- First Battle of Panipat21 April 1526
East Asia
Southeast Asia and Oceania
North America
- Hernando de Soto’s expedition into the interior of North America30 May 1539 – September 1543
- Jacques Cartier’s second voyage — up the Saint Lawrence River19 May 1535 – 16 July 1536
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Salvador, Bahia
- Wikipedia (English): Tomé de Sousa
- Wikipedia (English): Governorate General of Brazil
- Wikipedia (Russian): Салвадор
- Disney A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807. Vol. 2: The Portuguese Empire. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
- Wikidata: Q26838155