Formação da elite colonial dos sertões de Mombaça: terra, família e poder (Século XVII)

Abstract

This research intends to analyze the colonial elite process of formation in the Hinterlands of Mombaça, situated in the Captaincy of Siará Grande, along the XVIIIth century. For this purpose, I have looked at the means that enabled the establishment of these colonial elite, such as, the grant allotments procedures, the justifications provided by its applicants, the individual or collective nature of the requests, and the social background of those who received allotments. Those aspects herein examined served to identify the patterns which were presented by the recipients to justify such endowment. Specifically about the Hinterlands of Mombaça, located on the banks of the river Banabuiú in the Hinterlands Central Ceará, the applications were mostly justified for the military services rendered in the so-called fair-wars (Guerras Justas) against the indigenous nations and also as economic justification for the inlands occupations through the opening up cattle ranches. Then, I seek to analyze the configuration and the historical development of those cattle ranches, the family agreements and the economical joints that favored the formation of these local colonial elite whose economic strength was based on the ownership of lands, cattle and slaves.