Captaincy of São Vicente in the context of "Bandeirantes"

The Brazilian sugar cycle, also referred to as the sugar boom or sugarcane cycle, was a period in the history of colonial Brazil from the mid-16th century to the mid-18th century. Sugar represented Brazil's first great agricultural and industrial wealth and, for a long time, was the basis of the colonial economy.

The cycle began in 1530, when sugarcane was introduced on the island of Itamaracá, off the coast of Pernambuco, by the colonial administrator Pero Capico. With the creation of the hereditary captaincies, Pernambuco and São Vicente rose to prominence in sugar production, the latter being overtaken by Bahia after the establishment of the general government. In 1549, Pernambuco already had thirty sugar mills; Bahia, eighteen; and São Vicente, two. Sugarcane farming was prosperous and, half a century later, the distribution of the engenhos totaled 256.

The Captaincy of Rio de Janeiro was established in the northern portion of the Captaincy of São Vicente, encompassing territory from Macaé (now part of Rio de Janeiro) to Caraguatatuba (now part of São Paulo). This region had been abandoned by its donatário Martim Afonso de Sousa, who, uninterested in its settlement, directed his attention and resources to the area along the current São Paulo coast.

Laguna is a Brazilian municipality located in the southern state of Santa Catarina, 120 kilometers south of the state's capital, Florianópolis, and north east of Porto Alegre. The population is 46,122 (2020 est.) in an area of 336.4 km. The elevation is 2 m. The BR-101 coastal highway passes through the municipality.

The city was founded in 1676 by rural people of the capitania of São Vicente. In 1714, the locality was recognized as a municipality, and in 1847 it received the status of city. It was the capital of the short-lived Juliana Republic in 1839. The city's flag is a tricolor with yellow, white and green, and has a coat of arms in the middle.

The Royal Captaincy of São Paulo (Portuguese: Capitania Real de São Paulo) was one of the captaincies of Colonial Brazil. It received this name on December 2, 1720, when John V of Portugal created the Captaincy of Minas Gerais from the division of the Captaincy of São Paulo and Minas de Ouro, which had been created in 1709 with the purchase by the Portuguese crown of the Captaincy of São Vicente (acquired from the Marquess of Cascais).

The Captaincy of Pernambuco or New Lusitania (Portuguese: Nova Lusitânia) was a hereditary land grant and administrative subdivision of northern Portuguese Brazil during the colonial period from 1534 to 1821, with a brief interruption from 1630 to 1654 when it was part of Dutch Brazil. At the time of the Independence of Brazil, it became a province of United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Captaincies were originally horizontal tracts of land (generally) 50 leagues wide extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Tordesillas meridian.

During the earliest years of colonial Brazil, the Captaincy of Pernambuco was one of only two prosperous captaincies in Brazil (the other being Captaincy of São Vicente), primarily due to growing sugar cane. As a result of the failure of other captaincies, in part due to the invasion of the Northeast coast of Brazil by the Dutch during the Seventeenth Century, Pernambuco's geographical area grew as failed captaincies were attached. At its height, the Captaincy of Pernambuco included the territories of the modern states of Pernambuco, Paraíba, Alagoas, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará and the western portion of Bahia (north and west of the São Francisco River) having thus a southern border with Minas Gerais. In the years surrounding Brazilian independence, the captaincy was reduced by repartitioning of several previously merged territories, until today's state with the same name was left.