This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão Estado do Grão-Pará e Maranhão | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1751–1772 | |||||||||||
| Status | State of the Portuguese Empire | ||||||||||
| Capital | Santa Maria de Belém | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Portuguese | ||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | ||||||||||
| Government | Dependent territory under anabsolute monarchy | ||||||||||
| Monarch | |||||||||||
• 1751–1772 | John V Joseph I | ||||||||||
| Governor General | |||||||||||
• 1751–1759 | Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado | ||||||||||
• 1763–1772 | Fernando da Costa de Ataíde Teive | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Established | 1751 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1772 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Portuguese Real | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
TheState of Grão-Pará and Maranhão (Portuguese:Estado do Grão-Pará e Maranhão) was one of thestates of the Portuguese Empire.
The state was created on 31 July 1751 by order ofSebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, the Secretary of the State forJoseph I of Portugal.[1]
The state was the successor to theState of Maranhão. While there were limited territorial changes, Maranhão was politically and economically restructured and its capital was moved fromSão Luís, in theCaptaincy of Maranhão, toSanta Maria de Belém, in theCaptaincy of Pará, which was raised to a unified state with Maranhão and had its name changed to Grão-Pará (English: Great wide river).
The purpose of creating this state was to stimulate economic activities.[2]
In 1772, the state was split into two different states, theState of Grão-Pará and Rio Negro and theState of Maranhão and Piauí.
The State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão, for the most part, retained all the same captaincies from the State of Maranhão: