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The Sesmarias in Brazil: Colonial Land Policies in the Late Eighteenth-Century

Description

Abstract:
This article discusses the reasons for the promulgation of the Alvará of 1795, the most important of an entire series of decisions by the Crown to legalize the procedures by which sesmarias were granted. The above-mentioned Alvará was the result of a consultation with the Overseas Council regarding the irregularities and unruliness which characterized the regulation of sesmarias in Brazil. Revoked the following year, the Alvará represented the effort of the Crown to stop the process of illegal land occupation. Its dispositions were object reasoning from D. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho and Francisco Mauricio de Souza Coutinho, Para’s governor and brother of Dom Rodrigo, State Secretary of the Navy and Overseas Dominions. Francisco de Souza Coutinho interpreted the articles set in the Alvará of 1795, in an effort to propose solutions to the problems resulting from the concession and demarcation of land. This article, therefore, analyzes the limits of State action in relation to land policies in its main colony, Brazil.
Este artigo discute os motivos subjacentes à promulgação do Alvará de 1795, a mais importante de uma série de decisões da Coroa Portuguesa para legalizar os procedimentos de concessão das sesmarias. O Alvará foi o resultado de uma consulta ao Conselho Ultramarino sobre as irregularidades e a falta de governabilidade que caraterizaram a regulação das sesmarias no Brasil. Revocado no ano seguinte, o Alvará representou o esforço da Coroa para deter o processo de ocupação ilegal de terras. As suas disposições foram resultado do raciocínio de D. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho e Francisco Maurício de Souza Coutinho, governador do Pará e irmão de Dom Rodrigo, Secretário de Estado da Marinha e dos Domínios Ultramarinos. Francisco de Souza Coutinho interpretou os artigos no Alvará de 1795, num esforço para propor soluções aos problemas produzidos pela concessão e demarcação da terra. Este artigo, portanto, analisa os limites da ação estatal relativa às políticas de terras na principal colónia portuguesa, o Brasil.

Citation

Motta, Márcia Maria Menendes, "The Sesmarias in Brazil: Colonial Land Policies in the Late Eighteenth-Century" (2005). e-Journal of Portuguese History. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.26300/wh44-9x32

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Collection:

  • e-Journal of Portuguese History

    The e-Journal of Portuguese History (e-JPH) (ISSN: 1645-6432) is an international peer-reviewed scholarly journal with the objective of providing publication of work on historical subjects, especially those concerning themes and topics of Portuguese history analyzed in a comparative perspective. It …

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