State of Brazil

For the modern states of the federal republic, see states of Brazil.

State of Brazil Estado do Brasil
1548–1815
Coat of arms
The State of Brazil in 1750
Status	State of the Portuguese Empire
Capital	Salvador (1645–1763) Rio de Janeiro (1763–1815)
Common languages	Portuguese
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Government	Dependent territory under an absolute monarchy
Monarch
• 1521–1557	John III (first)
• 1777–1816	Maria I (last)
Governor General/Viceroy
• 1549–1553	Tomé de Sousa (first)
• 1806–1808	Count of Arcos (last)
History
• End of hereditary captaincies	1548
• Transference of the capital to Rio de Janeiro	1763
• Inconfidência Mineira	1792
• Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil	22 January 1808
• Elevation of Brazil to Kingdom	16 December 1815
Currency	Portuguese Real
ISO 3166 code	BR
Preceded by Succeeded by Governorate General of Brazil State of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro State of Maranhão and Piauí 1654: Dutch Brazil 1630: Dutch Brazil 1815: United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves Kingdom of Brazil

The State of Brazil (Portuguese: Estado do Brasil) or Government-General of Brazil was one of the states (an administrative division) of the Portuguese Empire in the Americas during the period of Colonial Brazil. It was in force between 1548 and 1815. Created in the context of the reorganization of the Portuguese imperial system in the Atlantic, its central purpose was to centralize the administration of the hereditary captaincies, ensure the defense of the territory, and consolidate royal authority over the southern portion of the Crown's American domains.

Established during the reign of John III of Portugal, the State of Brazil had as its first capital the city of Salvador, seat of the Government-General of Brazil, the body responsible for the political, military, fiscal, and judicial coordination of the territory. Throughout its existence, the entity underwent successive administrative reorganizations, including temporary divisions into regional governments and the separation of northern areas, which gave rise to the State of Maranhão.

From a juridical-administrative point of view, the State of Brazil was not designated in royal documents as a "colony", but rather as a "state", "domain", or "conquest", terms characteristic of the administrative language of the Portuguese Empire in the Ancien Régime. The modern notion of colony, associated with a rigid hierarchical relationship between metropolis and subordinate territory, was constructed later by historiography, especially from the nineteenth century onward, and does not correspond directly to the normative terminology employed by the Portuguese Crown.

From the seventeenth century onward, especially after the creation of the Overseas Council in 1642, the State of Brazil became more structurally integrated into the administrative system of the empire, maintaining a direct relationship with the Portuguese Crown. Although its governors progressively adopted the title of viceroy from the eighteenth century onward, the official designation of the unit remained unchanged, and from a juridical-administrative standpoint no formal viceroyalty was constituted.

In 1763, in the context of the economic and strategic centrality of the south-central region of Portuguese America, the capital of the State of Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro, which became the principal political center of the Portuguese domain in the Americas. From 1808 onward, with the Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil, the territory came to host the Portuguese monarchy itself, implying profound institutional transformations and the reconfiguration of relations traditionally described as colonial.

The State of Brazil was formally extinguished in 1815, when it was elevated to the category of the Kingdom of Brazil, with a status equivalent to that of the kingdoms of Portugal and the Algarves, becoming part of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. This elevation marked the end of the colonial administrative model of the Ancien Régime and constituted a decisive milestone in the political transition that would culminate in the Independence of Brazil.