Capitania
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Capitanias were the organisational units of the Portuguese state in its colony of Terra de Santa Cruz, or Land of the Holy Cross, which was later divided in the vice-kingdom of Brazil and that of Grão-Pará. Each was delivered to a single Capitão-Mor, who was usually an impoverished Portuguese nobleman. They were straight stripes of variable height of land divided parallel to the Equator from the coast to the Tordesilhas Line.
All but two failed. The Capitania de Pernambuco succeded by the plantation of sugarcane, and thus formed the basis for the vice-kingdom of Grão-Pará. The Capitania de São Vicente succeeded by the explorations of the hinterlands known as Bandeiras, and was at the origin of the vice-kingdom of Brazil and of the province of São Paulo.