Poder e territorialização na América portuguesa (segunda metade do século XVIII)

In this text, we aim at presenting and discussing some of the actions of the Portuguese Crown held in the second half of the 18th century, with the purpose of institutionalizing the occupation of their domains in America. These actions included the identification of territories, measuring distances between settlements and counting and classifying the population; it was also in the interests of the Crown to install municipalities in regions that lacked this administrative apparatus, so that, within five decades, almost 130 municipalities were created (against about 90 already existing). Thus, based on the administrative documentation of the time, it was verified that, in the second half of the Eighteenth Century, a policy was implemented that, with relative success, guaranteed the possession and integrity of the territory that constituted Brazil.