As ilhas do rio São Francisco:

Conflitos de jurisdição na formação de uma fronteira interna na América Portuguesa (1732-1758)

Abstract

This article analyses the process of formation of the São Francisco River as an internal frontier in Portuguese America, characterizing the complex social interactions between the inhabitants of its two banks between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In the first part, it is demonstrated that, at the same time as this river configured as a natural boundary, which marks the separation between different captaincies and/or comarcas it also enables the means of communication, exchange and integration of the peoples living on both its margins. In the second part of the article, through some particularly suggestive cases, we analyse the disputes that arose, on one bank and on the other, around the jurisdiction over the islands which lie, precisely, in the middle of the river and which mobilised the residents, local potentates, municipal councils and some of the main royal authorities of Pernambuco, Bahia and Sergipe de El Rei. We analyse the legal, economic and topographical arguments used by the parties in dispute to support their right to possession of the islands and which were considered valid by the Portuguese Crown to end the conflicts. It is verified, precisely, that it is the interests and the social interactions that allow characterizing the São Francisco as an internal frontier space.