Captaincies of the Azores

The Captaincies of the Azores (Portuguese: Capitanias do Açores) were the socio-political and administrative territorial divisions used to settle and govern the overseas lands of the Azores by the Kingdom of Portugal. These territories, a segment of the Captaincies of the Portuguese Empire, which usually conformed to the individual islands, allowing the stewardship of the King through the Donatary and Captaincy system.

Following the discovery of the first islands in the Atlantic, chiefly Madeira, and slow settlement of those possessions, the Portuguese needed a mechanism for control that did not necessitate dislocation by hereditary princes or monarchs. The Donatário system allowed the monarch to appoint individuals of confidence to run their affairs in those territories. Initially, Henry the Navigator was bestowed the administration and development of newly discovered lands, which he then transferred to the possession of the Order of Christ (to which he was its head). His heirs and descendants (the Dukes of Viseu) would therefore oversea the orderly expansion of Portuguese dominion in the New World, without necessarily venturing into the seas.

To this end, and by extension, he nominated his own men of confidence (since the Salic Laws only permitted the transfer of title to legitimate male heirs) that would directly oversea the activities in his place. These "captains" or capitães dos donatários (captains of the donataries) would govern in his place, endowed with certain privileges that facilitated their stewardship and rewarded their active development of the territory. The captaincies were, therefore, a scaled-down version of the donatário system.

On 15 August 1432 a small vessel disembarked on the northern shore of what became known as the islands of the Azores. There quick settlement, resulted in Prince Henry applying the same method of consolidating faithful relationships, deeming some vassals sources of manpower to conduct political and economic administration of the archipelago. Therefore, the captaincy system was employed on the islands, which in the beginning were limited to a group of rocky outcrops (the Formigas) and the unspoiled island of Santa Maria, where settlers had made a beachhead in the northern region of Anjos. With progressive discoveries, the number of captaincies expanded, only broken by inter- and intra-island rivalries and death.

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