Governance, administration and justice in the Portuguese empire (17th-18th centuries) (presentation)

This special issue articulates the action of royal agents and other colonial authorities in the context of governance and justice administration in the various regions of the early modern Portuguese Empire. In this logic, by opening up to the broader scale, the Crown engaged in multifaceted dynamics, assuming different roles, as a protagonist, as a supporting partner, or even of political-administrative neutrality. One of the strategies of the Portuguese monarchy was to appoint/insert officers to ensure the royal prerogatives in the local level, and, through these same officers, sought to maintain control of those political-administrative spaces through state bureaucracy, or sought to converge with local interests through agreements and negotiations.

Keywords:
Governance; Administration; Justice