Francisco dias D’Ávila, senhor da torre de Tatuapara: sertanismo e cultura política na segunda metade do século XVII

Abstract

The present work has as its central object the life trajectory of the sertanista and lord of Torre de Tatuapara, Francisco Dias d’Ávila. It analyzes his (and his family's) participation in the conquests of the northeastern hinterlands of Portuguese America and the dynamics of the political culture of the modern Portuguese Empire in the second half of the 17th century. This period was marked by the so-called War of the Barbarians, which were territorial conflicts carried out by the Luso-Brazilians who wanted to expand their domains and also by the peoples who traditionally occupied the northern hinterland (regions that today make up the Brazilian northeast) and sought to defend their territories. Through the investigation of Francisco Dias d’Ávila’s actions, in the expeditions and conquests of the hinterlands and his participation in the war, we seek to problematize and highlight some characteristics of the Overseas administration of the Modern Portuguese Empire at that moment in Brazilian Colonial History. The favor system shows how, through the delegation of tasks in exchange for positions, patents and land grants (as occurred largely among the d’Ávilas) the Portuguese overseas empire sought to base its government. The practice of sertanismo, the donation of land grants with continental dimensions and the formation and consolidation of a local elite that called itself Nobreza da Terra are implications of that administration in which the object of this research is inserted.