Viceroy - Portuguese Empire

Portuguese Empire

Further information: Portuguese Empire, Colonial Brazil, and Portuguese colonization of the Americas

The title of Viceroy being awarded to members of the nobility, Viceroys, Governors and Governing Commissions were many times interleaved until the last Viceroy Afonso, Prince Royal of Portugal, in 1896. From 1505 to 1896 Portuguese India – the name "India" including all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to Southeast Asia, until 1752- was governed either by a Viceroy (Portuguese Vice-Rei) or Governor from its headquarters, in Goa since 1510. The government started six years after the discovery of sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, in 1505, under first Viceroy Francisco de Almeida (b.1450–d.1510). Initially, King Manuel I of Portugal tried a power distribution with three governors in different areas of jurisdiction: a government covering the area and possessions in East Africa, Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf, overseeing up Cambay (Gujarat); a second one ruling the possessions in India (Hindustan) and Ceylon, and a third one from Malacca to the Far East. However the post was centered by governor Afonso de Albuquerque (1509–1515), who became plenipotentiary, and remained so. The duration in office was usually three years, possibly given the power represented: of the thirty-four governors of India in the 16th century, only six had longer mandates.

Between 1580 and 1640, the King of Portugal, who was also King of Spain, appointed Viceroys to govern Portugal, as the king had multiple realms throughout Europe and delegated his powers to various viceroys.

After the Iberian Union in 1640, the governors of colonial Brazil of the high nobility started to use the title of Viceroy. Brazil became a Viceroyalty in 1763, when the capital of the Estado do Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro. In 1775 Brazilian Estados (Brasil, Maranhão and Grão-Pará) were unified into the Viceroyalty of Brazil, with Rio de Janeiro as capital. In 1808, with the arrival of the Portuguese king, the office of Viceroy was extinguished never to be re-established, as Brazil was elevated to the rank of a kingdom in 1815, as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.

  • List of Viceroys and colonial heads of Portuguese India

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