THE COLONIZER’S FALTERINGS: transfers of towns and villages in Maranhão, Brazil

Abstract

The high number of transfers of towns and villages in colonial and 19th century Maranhão was due to various causes. One of them was the unsuitability of the sites chosen for the urban centres to be developed, such as banks of rivers subject to flooding. If those transfers were the result of an environment hostile to the plans and intentions of the colonizers, they were also caused by the hostility of the natives of the land, who opposed their enslavement. When captured or "ransomed" by the settlers, or taken down to missionary villages (in so-called “descimentos”), the natives were not only forced to work, but also suffered from epidemics such as smallpox. Such large death toll in turn led to villages being abandoned or relocated. Finally, local disputes between elites only led to changes in the territoriality and insignia of municipal power, without necessarily implying a transfer of settlements. The article explores these themes based mainly on the case of the towns and villages of eastern Maranhão, the region between the ocean and the Itapecuru and Parnaíba rivers, up to the surroundings of Caxias.