Publication Date
2009
Categories
Related entries
The administration of the Azorean islands followed a model of government that had already been tested in the Madeira archipelago, the Donataria (land endowment). On an unknown date, the first Azorean Donataria (comprising the islands of the oriental and central groups) was deeded to Prince Henry the Navigator and inherited by his successors. Benefitting from multiple judicial and fiscal privileges, they became responsible for dynamizing the settlement of the Donataria and, consequently, its economic development. The Crown retained certain inalienable rights for the preservation of the political and territorial unity of the realm: declaring war, negotiating peace accords, stamping coins, selling the Donataria to foreigners, and resolving disputes involving the death penalty or the amputation of limbs, remained within the domain of royal decision-making. In 1495 when the donatory, Dom Manuel, the fifth Duke of Viseu and Beja, ascended to the throne, becoming Dom Manuel I, the Donataria ended, as the territory was integrated into the possessions of the monarchy.
The scattered nature of the island territory and the disparities in the rhythm of its settlement brought about the division of the Donataria into smaller administrative units, the Captaincies, with the objective of making the title holders accountable for conducting the settlement process in a coordinated and profitable manner. By the Sixteenth Century, eight captaincies had been established: São Miguel, Santa Maria, Graciosa, São Jorge, Praia, Angra, Faial and Pico, Flores and Corvo. The donatory captains, as agents appointed by the donatories and, after 1495 by the Crown, received lifelong title to the Captaincies, which were inherited via the direct male line. As island administrators, donatory captains were awarded several judicial privileges in civil and criminal matters, such as the power to order banishments and corporal punishments (with the previously mentioned exceptions of the death penalty and mutilation). Their economic privileges included exclusive rights over the mills, the community bread ovens, and the buying and selling of salt. They also received the rents for the royal lands, the tax for royal rights, and one tenth of the income of the captaincies.
Meanwhile, the political intervention of the Portuguese Crown in the Azores was also felt. With the advance of maritime expansion toward the Cape of Good Hope, the strategic value of Angra´s Bay (Terceira Island) increased. Initially an inviting stopover for large ships, it would evolve into a fundamental port of call for the ships returning to the Portuguese Kingdom from India and from the island of São Miguel, whose fertile lands produced the crops that fed the kingdom´s populations as well as those of the Portuguese-conquered African lands. The chronology of Portuguese expansion towards the orient and Brazil forced the Dinasty of Avis to develop more effective controls for the Azores archipelago which, by the 1500´s, had become an entryway to Europe. Therefore, in 1503 the Magistracy of the Azores was established in Angra, having judicial supremacy over the donator captains and the municipalities. In 1520 the regulations for judges of the Azores Customs Houses were promulgated; in 1527 the Office of the Purveyor of Armadas was founded and, in 1561 trading posts were established in Angra and Ponta Delgada.
Centered on the Bay of Angra, the strategic importance of the Azorean archipelago to the maritime routes of the Portuguese Empire was clearly reflected in the political conflicts that took place at the end of the Sixteenth Century: between 1581 and 1583, in the antagonism between Dom Filipe II of Spain and Dom António, Prior do Crato. The international support that England, France, and Holland extended to Dom Antonio and to the Terceiran resistance reflects the relevance of the Azores to the opposition between the theories of Mare Clausum and Mare Liberum.
Instability defined island living in the first two centuries of settlement. In light of the insecurity which was fueled by the conflicts between the various spheres of power, by the earthquakes and the volcanic eruptions, by the pirate and the privateer attacks, and by the irregular agricultural production, the municipal structures appeared to offer the greatest stability to the local communities. The foundation of municipalities in the Azores accompanied the rhythms of demographic growth and responded to the destruction of the coastal villages, in geographical spaces where travel was difficult and the map of land-based transportation depicted great scarcity. In accordance with the general laws of the kingdom, a network of municipality branches was established around a landed elite that in some islands, like Terceira and São Miguel, exhibited complex interrelationships: powerful connections and socio-economic endogamy. Being responsible for a variety of distinct issues, which involved the political, the economic, the sanitary, the social, and the island spheres, the city halls were at the heart of the planning efforts in the island territories, as was the case in other areas of the empire.
The pluralistic division of governing power into various centers (captains, governors, magistrates, judges, aldermen) generated multiple environments teeming with political antagonism, reinforced by the distance between the islands. In time, the islands of Terceira and São Miguel were the center stages for conflicts between agents of central and local power, while the other islands maintained political marginality, being solely dependent on the municipal authorities. The absence of policies inclusive of the entire archipelago allowed for the construction of political, economic, social, and cultural asymmetries which would remain in place throughout modernity.
It was precisely to overcome these internal disparities, that in 1766 the Archipelago of the Azores underwent its first political and administrative reorganization. Born of political circumstances favoring uniformity and the centralization of royal powers, the Azorean reformist project was instituted by decree on August 2, 1766. Its main feature was the extinction of all the captaincies, with their possessions reverting to the crown, and the creation of a Captaincy General, headquartered in the city of Angra, and headed by a Captain-General with supreme judicial, economic, military, and fiscal authority. Consequently, this concentration of powers made it possible to orchestrate a reformist program for the entire archipelago. One of the most sensitive areas was the economy, to which the successive captain-generals attempted to apply a policy of increased parity in order to preserve the food supply of the nine Azorean islands and energetically expand agricultural production into new areas, namely the utilization of uncultivated land. Despite these efforts, the results of the activity of the Captaincy General were feeble, leaving the Azores in a very complex situation when, in 1831, well into a liberal environment, it was abolished.
Bibliography:
AAVV, História dos Açores. Do descobrimento ao século XX, direcção científica de Artur Teodoro de Matos, Avelino de Freitas de Meneses e José Guilherme Reis Leite, Angra do Heroísmo, Instituto Açoriano de Cultura, 2008, três volumes. COSTA, Susana Goulart, Açores: Nove Ilhas, Uma História / Azores: Nine Islands, One History, Berkeley, University of California, 2008.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel
The scattered nature of the island territory and the disparities in the rhythm of its settlement brought about the division of the Donataria into smaller administrative units, the Captaincies, with the objective of making the title holders accountable for conducting the settlement process in a coordinated and profitable manner. By the Sixteenth Century, eight captaincies had been established: São Miguel, Santa Maria, Graciosa, São Jorge, Praia, Angra, Faial and Pico, Flores and Corvo. The donatory captains, as agents appointed by the donatories and, after 1495 by the Crown, received lifelong title to the Captaincies, which were inherited via the direct male line. As island administrators, donatory captains were awarded several judicial privileges in civil and criminal matters, such as the power to order banishments and corporal punishments (with the previously mentioned exceptions of the death penalty and mutilation). Their economic privileges included exclusive rights over the mills, the community bread ovens, and the buying and selling of salt. They also received the rents for the royal lands, the tax for royal rights, and one tenth of the income of the captaincies.
Meanwhile, the political intervention of the Portuguese Crown in the Azores was also felt. With the advance of maritime expansion toward the Cape of Good Hope, the strategic value of Angra´s Bay (Terceira Island) increased. Initially an inviting stopover for large ships, it would evolve into a fundamental port of call for the ships returning to the Portuguese Kingdom from India and from the island of São Miguel, whose fertile lands produced the crops that fed the kingdom´s populations as well as those of the Portuguese-conquered African lands. The chronology of Portuguese expansion towards the orient and Brazil forced the Dinasty of Avis to develop more effective controls for the Azores archipelago which, by the 1500´s, had become an entryway to Europe. Therefore, in 1503 the Magistracy of the Azores was established in Angra, having judicial supremacy over the donator captains and the municipalities. In 1520 the regulations for judges of the Azores Customs Houses were promulgated; in 1527 the Office of the Purveyor of Armadas was founded and, in 1561 trading posts were established in Angra and Ponta Delgada.
Centered on the Bay of Angra, the strategic importance of the Azorean archipelago to the maritime routes of the Portuguese Empire was clearly reflected in the political conflicts that took place at the end of the Sixteenth Century: between 1581 and 1583, in the antagonism between Dom Filipe II of Spain and Dom António, Prior do Crato. The international support that England, France, and Holland extended to Dom Antonio and to the Terceiran resistance reflects the relevance of the Azores to the opposition between the theories of Mare Clausum and Mare Liberum.
Instability defined island living in the first two centuries of settlement. In light of the insecurity which was fueled by the conflicts between the various spheres of power, by the earthquakes and the volcanic eruptions, by the pirate and the privateer attacks, and by the irregular agricultural production, the municipal structures appeared to offer the greatest stability to the local communities. The foundation of municipalities in the Azores accompanied the rhythms of demographic growth and responded to the destruction of the coastal villages, in geographical spaces where travel was difficult and the map of land-based transportation depicted great scarcity. In accordance with the general laws of the kingdom, a network of municipality branches was established around a landed elite that in some islands, like Terceira and São Miguel, exhibited complex interrelationships: powerful connections and socio-economic endogamy. Being responsible for a variety of distinct issues, which involved the political, the economic, the sanitary, the social, and the island spheres, the city halls were at the heart of the planning efforts in the island territories, as was the case in other areas of the empire.
The pluralistic division of governing power into various centers (captains, governors, magistrates, judges, aldermen) generated multiple environments teeming with political antagonism, reinforced by the distance between the islands. In time, the islands of Terceira and São Miguel were the center stages for conflicts between agents of central and local power, while the other islands maintained political marginality, being solely dependent on the municipal authorities. The absence of policies inclusive of the entire archipelago allowed for the construction of political, economic, social, and cultural asymmetries which would remain in place throughout modernity.
It was precisely to overcome these internal disparities, that in 1766 the Archipelago of the Azores underwent its first political and administrative reorganization. Born of political circumstances favoring uniformity and the centralization of royal powers, the Azorean reformist project was instituted by decree on August 2, 1766. Its main feature was the extinction of all the captaincies, with their possessions reverting to the crown, and the creation of a Captaincy General, headquartered in the city of Angra, and headed by a Captain-General with supreme judicial, economic, military, and fiscal authority. Consequently, this concentration of powers made it possible to orchestrate a reformist program for the entire archipelago. One of the most sensitive areas was the economy, to which the successive captain-generals attempted to apply a policy of increased parity in order to preserve the food supply of the nine Azorean islands and energetically expand agricultural production into new areas, namely the utilization of uncultivated land. Despite these efforts, the results of the activity of the Captaincy General were feeble, leaving the Azores in a very complex situation when, in 1831, well into a liberal environment, it was abolished.
Bibliography:
AAVV, História dos Açores. Do descobrimento ao século XX, direcção científica de Artur Teodoro de Matos, Avelino de Freitas de Meneses e José Guilherme Reis Leite, Angra do Heroísmo, Instituto Açoriano de Cultura, 2008, três volumes. COSTA, Susana Goulart, Açores: Nove Ilhas, Uma História / Azores: Nine Islands, One History, Berkeley, University of California, 2008.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel