The General Government in the Brazilian historiography's approach

Abstract

Based on the paths covered by the Brazilian a historiography to explain the role of the general government and its representatives, we aim to reflect about the different interpretative strategies, which in some cases had become an explanatory tradition. In this way, we propose a dialogue possibility between them, particularly between the conceptions of “Ancient Colonial System”, proposed by Fernando Novais in his famous thesis, and the “Corporate Theory of the Old Regime government”. Historians are revisiting these both conceptions about the relations between the Portuguese Crown and the Portuguese America in order to deepen the traditional interpretations about the administration in the Portuguese Empire and its conquests.