The political apparatus of Luanda and Lisbon at the end of the Ancien R.gime

Abstract

This text does not intend to compare the town of Lisbon and Luanda, as this would be proper to a greater debate on the empire, with a comparative analysis of Brazilian cities. The objective of our analysis is only to evaluate the administrative resources of each câmara municipal and their jurisdictional scope to exercise power in their territories. This will reveal the enormous difference between the two towns, emphasizing the problems of disease and mortality that involved the royal service in Luanda. What we know about the administrative resources of Luanda is very little; it virtually boils down to the works of Maria Goretti Leal Soares referred to throughout the text. Therefore, we chose to make use of symbolic resources much worked on by Catarina Santos (see bibliography). The second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century corresponded to a singular period of reforms in the Kingdom, with consequences in the overseas domains (Hespanha, 2001). Comparing the political apparatus of Lisbon, head of the Kingdom and the Empire (see Santos, 2008; Hespanha, 1998), with Luanda, capital of the Angola colony, allows us to unveil the signs of this reform and its weaknesses (Hespanha, 2001 and 2006).