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A Captaincy-General of the Azores (1766—1832) was a politico-administrative structure of governance imposed in the Azores on 2 August 1766, with its seat in Angra. It remained the ''de facto'' system of governance for 65 years, until it was abolished on 4 June 1832 by D. Peter IV, but by 1828 its ''de jure'' status had made it nonoperational, owing to the revolutionary movements that lead to the Liberal Wars. The creation of the Captaincy-General was part of the Pombaline reforms to the Portuguese administration, during the reign of Joseph I, under the initiatives of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, the Marquess of Pombal, then prime minister. A Captaincy-General operated from the Palace of the Captains-General, under the direction of the titular Captain-General, who operated as the Governor of the Azores, with additional jurisdiction on every island of the Azorean archipelago. The Captaincy-General was succeeded by the Province of the Azores, an ephemeral administrative structure that was collapse in the immediate years. ==History== The settlement of the Azores coalesced in the second half of the 15th century, in a late medieval context, that translated into the establishment of a governing structure based on the signeur system. Effective governorship of each island was confided in a donatary, and his subordinates, the donatary-captains, resulting in a patchwork of development. Living far from direct power, the donatary-captains functioned with individual vice-regal rights, that allowed them to operate as local kings.〔Carlos Melo Bento (2003), p.70〕 But, parallel with this system, evolved the traditional Portuguese municipal model, wherein the islands were structured into municipalities, where the municipal organs assumed a great deal of the local governance.〔Within the 15th century, during the donatary regime, the municipalities of Vila do Porto, Vila Franca do Campo, Angra, Praia, Horta, Santa Cruz da Graciosa, Velas and Lajes do Pico. On the island of Flores, under a signeur, during the first half of the 16th century, the municipalities of Lajes (1515) and Santa Cruz (1548) were established. With the end of the Donatary system, the King created the municipalities of Ponta Delgada, in 1499; São Sebastião, in 1503; Ribeira Grande, em 1507; Topo, in 1510; Nordeste, in 1514; Água de Pau, in 1515; Lagoa, in 1522; Calheta de São Jorge, in 1534; São Roque do Pico, in 1542; and Praia da Graciosa, in 1546. The municipalities of Madalena do Pico, created in 1723, and Vila do Corvo, created in 1832, completed the restructuring of the municipalities of the Azores, and the historical municipality of Capelas (that existed between 1839 and 1855) was abolished.〕 Royal power, until this time was represented in the Corregedor,〔Between 1534 and 1544, there were two corregedores: one for the islands of São Miguel and Santa Maria; and other for the remaining islands.〕 that traveled between the islands correcting, verifying and resolving issues associated with municipal laws and conflicts with the Donatary-captains. Spiritual power, was bestowed in the Order of Christ, and later in the Archdiocese of Funchal, before passing to the Bishopric of Angra after 1534. With the ascension of King Manuel I, who was donatary of the islands,〔It is unclear whether the statue applied to the islands of Flores and Corvo, which was then under the signeurial powers, and outside the donatary system.〕 the donatary possessions were integrated into Crown possessions, resulting in a clear delineation of Royal and donatary powers. This alteration had an important effect on the islands, since the functions of the donatary captains were transferred, without exception, from resident officials on the islands to members of the high nobility resident in Portugal, who were represented locally by ''Ouvidores''. The distancing of the Donatary-captains〔Except on the island of São Miguel, where the Gonçalves da Câmara family, the Counts of Ribeira Grande, maintained their privileges through strategic marriages and power-plays.〕 meant that the renting of lands to serfs no longer occurred, since all land remained the property of the Crown, through its assigned representatives: land distribution on the islands was essentially complete. This process essentially transferred feudal power to the aristocracy, who received 10% of the land rents and had little to no influence on local governance. The abolish of the Donatary-captains, an institution imposed due to the irregularity of the maritime communication, meant that power shifted to the municipal authorities, moderated by the interventions of the Corregedor. This resulted in increased local autonomy, with each municipality obtaining a independence based on distance from Royal or signeurial power, with any influence resulting from their proximity to other islands or local municipalities. This level of autonomy was interrupted by the Spanish conquest of the islands, under Phillip II of Spain, who placed their governance in the hands of his Military Governor in Angra. The concentration of administrative power in Angra during this period meant that, following the Portuguese Restoration War, the Crown made obliged to provide assurances to local politicians that the Azores would not function as a Vice-Regal fiefdom in the future. This guarantee was obtained during the Lisbon Cortes of 1645-1646, and the islands returned to its former administration for the preceding century. The initiation of the Pombaline reforms were, therefore, anachronistic and contrary to the enlightened and centralizing spirit that inspired those policies. A reflection of a centralized and authoritarian system developing from the Pombaline reforms, although fundamentally a military institution, the jurisdiction of the Captaincy-General encompassed the civil administration, justice and economic sectors, conferring Vice-Royal status and series of powers that permitted the control of the public administration, including municipal institutions.〔 The creation of the Captaincy-General marked the end of signeurial power on the islands, then embodied in the Donatary-captains and their overseers.〔 After 65 years of functioning and various events, the Captaincy-General was abolished under decree 28, 4 June 1832, signed in Ponta Delgada by Pedro IV, who created the Province of the Azores, a new administrative structure that collapsed within the immediate years. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Captaincy-General of the Azores」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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