Projetos e anti-projetos de colonização no sertão da Capitania dos Ilhéus: índios, colonos e a expansão da fronteira colonial

Abstract

This text discusses the frontier expansion process in the Captaincy of Ilhéus during the second half of the 18th century. In this context, the Comarca of Ilhéus was one of the most important producers of foodstuffs in Bahia, however, the monarch Pedro III believed that it was necessary to build a road linking the coast of Ilhéus to the different regions of the hinterland. João Goncalves da Costa, receiving the rank of Captain-General. With his troops Costa should open access routes to the interior and, if necessary, undertake the conquest of the indigenous peoples of the backlands that were impeding this colonial project. However, the indigenous peoples did not watch bestialized the action of the Portuguese Crown, creating, when possible, strategies to safeguard their lives and their ancestral territory, a fact that led to the confrontation between the Portuguese and the ancestral peoples.