-
The Sesmaria in Rio Grande do Sul: A Successful Frontier Institution, 1737-1823
- Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers
- University of Hawai'i Press
- Volume 38, 1976
- pp. 49-63
- 10.1353/pcg.1976.0003
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
The Sesmaria in Rio Grande do Sul: A Successful Frontier Institution, 1737-1823 C. Gary Lobb* The southern frontier of Brazil historically formed that nation's only "borderland," as only in the state of Bio Grande do Sul did Portuguese settlers confront another expanding civilization—that of the Spanish. Permanent Portuguese settlement along this frontier in the early 1700's was motivated by an advancing Spanish presence from the west and south; by 1634, Spanish Jesuits had established nineteen mission settlements in what is now southern Brazil. In 1680, the Portuguese reacted by creating a military outpost at Colonia do Sacramento (Figure 1 ). Finally, in the early eighteenth century, royal land grants called sesmarias were issued as an incentive to Portuguese settlement in southern Brazil, followed by the emergence of a ranching system which fostered the utilization of the subtropical grasslands, thus strengthening Portuguese control of their southern frontier. This paper will demonstrate the importance of the sesmaria as a frontier institution, its relationship to the development of ranching, and its contributions to expanded Portuguese influence in what is today southern Brazil. Antecedents Sesmaria grants had an historical precedent in Portugal where, based on the Ordenaçôes Afonsinas of 1273, unused lands were made available to individuals for cultivation and other improvements. This practice influenced the Lei de Sesmarias, published in 1375, which * Dr. Lobb is Associate Professor of Geography at California State University , Northridge 91324. 49 50 ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS Sio Paulo BRAZIL Curiti!» Fforianopolis PARAGUAY Laguna Vacarla Santo Antonio Alegra», · 1 Uruguaiana W Santa Taci» il!* Rio Grand· URUGUAY Grasslands • Sie« Pueblo* 20OHm Coloni, do S«ram.nto -Meldonado Figure 1. Spanish-Portuguese borderland, circa 1750. The present state of Rio Grande do Sul extends from the Uruguay boundary to the Alto Uruguay River. YEARBOOK · VOLUME 38 · 197651 was designed to improve production.1 Thus, King Joäo I ( 1385-1433) justified the redistribution of large land holdings which were not being cultivated (inculta), and using the Código de Justiniano, Liv. XI titled "de omni Agro Deserto," he modified Portuguese law so that unoccupied lands taken up and cultivated could not be returned to the original owners.2 The first mention of the sesmaria in Brazil is of one on the central coast near Säo Vicente, given as early as 1530 to Martim Afonso de Souza who had brought from Portugal a Carta Regia giving him "sesmarias in the lands to be found abroad."3 He was also given and did use the authority to grant sesmarias to subsequent settlers. Only those persons who could prove they had the resources to develop the land adequately received grants, the proof being possession of large families and sufficient capital to purchase slaves. Obviously, such criteria worked in favor of the aristocracy, despite the definition of the sesmaria in the Ordenaçôes Filipinas of 1603 as a "grant of land formerly in the hands of the aristocracy, worked and utilized for agriculture but presently not in use."4 This document notwithstanding , the sesmaria became the legacy of the aristocrat in Brazil, who expected and usually received a large grant.5 Under the auspices of King Philip I ( 1581-1598), the sesmaria was widely applied in the northeast and central coast regions of Brazil where a system involving large properties and slave labor was considered the only way to make a profit in the new land, whether by means of cultivation or cattle ranching. 1 Virginia Rau, Sesmarias Medievais Portuguesas (Lisboa: Bertrand Irmäos Lda., 1946), pp. 35, 74. 2 Duarte Nunes de Leäo, Chronicus dos Reis de Portugal (Lisboa, 1774), parte 1, Vol. 11, pp. 373-374, cited in Ruy Cime Lima, Terras Devolutas: Historia , Doutrina, Legislaçâo (Porto Alegre: Globo, 1935), pp. 13, 15. 3 Ruy Cime Lima, op. cit., p. 30, translated by the present author. 4 Ordenaçôes Filipinas, Liv. IV, Tit. 43, quoted in Ruy Cime Lima, op. cit., p. 17. 5 Not all influential persons in Portugal were fidalgos (aristocrats). For the prominent role in Brazilian affairs of some people of very ordinary origins, see David Grant Smith, "Old Christian Merchants and the Foundation of the Brazil Company, 1649," Hispanic American...