Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro Governo-Geral do Rio de Janeiro
1572–1578 1607–1613
Flag Coat of arms
Brazil in 1572
Status	Colonial State of the Portuguese Empire
Capital	Rio de Janeiro
Common languages	Portuguese
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Government	Monarchy
Monarch
• 1572–1578	Sebastian I
• 1607–1613	Philip II
Governor General
• 1572–1574	Cristóvão de Barros
• 1608–1613	Afonso de Albuquerque
History
• Established	1572
• Disestablished	1613
Currency	Portuguese Real
Preceded by Succeeded by Governorate General of Brazil Governorate General of Brazil

The Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro (Portuguese: Governo-Geral do Rio de Janeiro) was a colonial administration of the Portuguese Empire.

In 1534, John III of Portugal started granting land rights to colonize Portuguese territory in South America, they were the Captaincy Colonies of Brazil. These fifteen autonomous and separate colonies were, for the most part, a failure administratively, and thus economically.

In 1549, in order to solve the governance problem of his South American colonies, John III established the Governorate General of Brazil.^[1] The governorate united the fifteen colonies into a single colony, but each captaincy would continue to exist as a provincial administrative unit of the governorate.

In 1572, in order to establish a stronger and more capable military presence in the continent, the governorate was dismantled into two separate colonies, the Governorate General of Bahia, which encompassed the northern part, and the Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro, which took the south.

In 1578, the governorate was reestablished from the governorates of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. This second Governorate General of Brazil would be once again partitioned into the two separate colonies, in 1607.

Finally in 1613, the Governorate General of Rio de Janeiro and the Governorate General of Bahia merged to form the third, and final, Governorate General of Brazil.