Governors and Viceroys of Portuguese Brazil, 1549-1760

Written by Marco Ramerini.

Brazil was discovered, almost by accident in 1500 by a Portuguese expedition live in the East under the command of Pedro Alvares Cabral. Cabral ‘s expedition followed the sea route to India traveled recently by Vasco da Gama, sailing around Africa. The expedition – to avoid the equatorial calms – followed a route far from the African coast that led to the discovery, on April 22, 1500, of the Brazilian coast. Cabral to these new lands gave the name of “Vera Cruz” .

Following the discovery of Cabral, in the following years several Portuguese expeditions reached Brazil, but in the first 30 years – from 1500 until 1530 – the Portuguese were limited to quick landings and harvesting timber (the famous Pau Brasil). Only because of the French attempts to occupy the new land, Portugal decided to colonize Brazil. In 1532, the expedition Martim Afonso de Sousa founded the village of São Vicente, which became the first permanent settlement in Brazil. As of 1534 D. João III divided the territory into twelve hereditary captaincies, but this system of colonization proved to be unprofitable, so in 1549 the king decided to appoint a Governor-General to administer the entire colony.

LIST OF GOVERNORS AND VICEROYS OF PORTUGUESE BRAZIL, 1549-1760
Tomé de Sousa	1549-1553
Duarte da Costa	1553-1558
Men de Sá	1558-1572
Luís Brito de Almeida	1573-1578
Lourenço da Veiga	1578-1581
Temporary government of Câmara and of Ouvidor-Geral Cosme Rangel	1581-1583
Manuel Telles Barreto	1583-1587
Temporary government of Bispo, of Provedor-Mor and Ouvidor-Geral	1587-1591
Francisco de Sousa	1591-1602
Diogo Botelho	1603-1607
Diogo de Meneses	1608-1612
Gaspar de Sousa	1613-1617
Luís de Sousa	1617-1621
Matias de Albuquerque (he was ufficially entrust of this task because the Dutch occupation of Salvador; later he appointed Francisco de Moura Rolim as governor of Salvador during 1625-1627)	1624-1625 1625-1627
Diogo Luís de Oliveira	1627-1635
Pedro da Silva	1635-1639
Fernando Mascarenhas, Conde da Torre	1639
Vasco Mascarenhas, Conde de Óbidos	1639-1640
Vice-Rei Jorge Mascarenhas, Marquês de Montalvão	1640-1641
Junta provisória	1641-1642
Antônio Telles da Silva	1642-1647
Antônio Telles de Meneses, Conde de Vila-Pouca de Aguiar	1647-1650
João Rodrigues de Vasconcellos e Sousa, Conde de Castelo Melhor	1650-1654
Jerônimo de Altaíde, Conde de Atouguia	1654-1657
Francisco Barreto de Meneses	1657-1663
Vice-Rei Vasco Mascarenhas, Conde de Óbidos	1663-1667
Alexandre de Sousa Freire	1667-1671
Afonso Furtado de Castro do Rio de Mendonça, Visconde de Barbacena	1671-1675
Junta provisória composed by Chanceler da Relação, Agostinho de Azevedo Monteiro and other people. When Azevedo Monteiro dead, on his place was appointed the Desembargador Cristóvão de Burgos	1675-1678
Roque da Costa Barreto	1678-1682
Antônio de Sousa de Meneses	1682-1684
Matias da Cunha	1687-1688
Junta provisória composed by Chanceler da Relação Manoel Carneiro de Sá and by the Arcebispo	1688-1690
Antônio Luís Gonçalves da Câmara Coutinho	1690-1694
João de Lencastre	1694-1702
Rodrigo da Costa	1702-1705
Luís César de Meneses	1705-1710
Lourenço de Almeida	1710-1711
Pedro de Vasconcellos e Sousa, Conde de Castelo Melhor	1711-1714
Vice-Rei Pedro de Noronha, Conde de Vila Verde e Marquês de Angeja	1714-1718
Sancho de Faro e Sousa, Conde de Vimieiro	1718-1719
Junta provisória composed by Chanceler da Relação, Caetano de Brito de Figueiredo and other people.	1719-1720
Vice-Rei Vasco Fernandes César de Meneses, Conde de Sabugosa	1720-1735
Vice-Rei André de Mello e Castro, Conde de Galvêas	1735-1749
Vice-Rei Luís Pedro Peregrino de Carvalho Meneses de Ataíde, Conde de Atouguia	1749-1755
Junta provisória composed by chanceler da Relação, Manoel Antônio da Cunha Sottomayor and other people.	1755
Vice-Rei Marcos de Noronha e brito, Conde de Arcos	1755-1760

LIST OF GOVERNORS AND VICEROYS OF PORTUGUESE BRAZIL, 1549-1760