The political subjection of the lands along the Paraíba river: from a sesmaria in a private captaincy to a captaincy of the Crown

Abstract

The captaincy of Paraíba, despite its vicinity to the captaincies of Pernambuco and Itamaracá, presented a different political configuration. Paraíba was created as a regal captaincy, that is, since its beginnings it belonged to the Crown. This was a factual and a legal differentiation with regard to the ways of conducting and managing the conquest of the land. The history of Paraíba is umbilically linked to the captaincy of Itamaracá, where the lands that would later become the captaincy of Paraíba originated. For some time, the governance of the captaincy of Itamaracá restricted its occupation to the lands around the island that gave the captaincy its name, but, beginning in the 1570s, expansion northward was hindered by the difficulties imposed by the Potiguara Indians who dominated the lands along the Paraíba River. In this article we will address the singularity in the way of managing the conquest of the land by means of an implied consent on the part of the successors of Pero Lopes de Sousa, originally owner of the territory, for his lands on the Paraíba River to be taken over by the Crown, and the territory of the captaincy of Paraíba to be constituted therein.