Captaincy of Santa Catarina

The Captaincy of Santa Catarina was an administrative division of colonial Brazil created on August 11, 1738, in the southernmost territories of the Captaincy of São Paulo. The government was officially installed on March 7, 1739, with the first governor being José da Silva Pais.

After the island of Santa Catarina was invaded in 1777, the capital was temporarily moved to São Miguel, now Biguaçu.

On February 28, 1821, it became a province, which would become the current state of Santa Catarina with the Proclamation of the Republic.

The advantageous geographic position of the island of Santa Catarina with the port of Laguna, which was very frequented by ships going from Europe to the Río de la Plata and the Pacific Ocean; and other political reasons determined King João V, in 1738, to form with the island and the adjacent continental land a separate captaincy or government, independent from the Captaincy of São Paulo, to which it had belonged until that time.

The present coastal area of Santa Catarina belonged first to the Captaincy of Santana (1534 -1656), then to the Captaincy of Nossa Senhora do Rosário de Paranaguá (1656 - 1709), which then became part of the Captaincy of São Paulo (1709 - 1738).

With the Portuguese expansion to the south of the colony, to the Río de la Plata region, there was a need to form a new administrative unit of the kingdom to guarantee the possession of these lands. Created on August 11, 1738, its government was installed on March 7, 1739, with the arrival of Brigadier José da Silva Pais as its first governor. The territory included the current states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul until the latter was emancipated as the Captaincy of Rio Grande de São Pedro in 1760.

Portuguese interests in southern Brazil required the maintenance and strengthening of coastal settlements. To this end, Laguna was elevated to the category of village in 1774 and became an outpost for the conquest of Rio Grande do Sul. From there, expeditions left to reach the colony of Sacramento and Montevideo, and in the journey, they collected cattle and imprisoned Indians. Desterro, being heavily fortified by Silva Pais since his arrival in Santa Catarina, was its capital. Many of the fortresses built in the period, resisted the Spanish occupation of 1777 and the centuries, and are standing to this day.

After 1807, with the creation of the general captaincy of São Pedro do Rio Grande (future Rio Grande do Sul), its borders comprised: To the north, the Saí Guaçu river (Joinville), to the south the Mampituba river (Torres), to the west the Serra Geral, which runs from north to south, closer to the coast and the east of the Atlantic Ocean.