From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Capitão-Mor (Portuguese for High Captain - plural Capitães-Mor), sometimes also Capitão-Donatário, was the hereditary title and office given by the Portuguese Crown to nobleman granted the rule of Capitanias in the territories of the Portuguese Empire, most importantly in Terra de Vera Cruz (modern Brazil). They held absolute powers in their lands, subject only to the Crown, and were given the task of settling and colonizing their respective domains.
In Brazil, most of these settlements failed, and their nominal dominions were actually haphazardly settled by colonists and Jesuit Reductions, and ultimately the land was incorporated first into the only succeeding Capitanias, São Vicente and Pernambuco, which then became the Viceroyalty of Brazil and the Viceroyalty of Grão-Pará. The absolute power of the Capitães-Mor was continued, in Brazil, by the tradition of Coronelism that endures to this day in the northeast of that nation.
