Holding the Empire at Bay : the elites of Salvador da Bahia and the Hispanic monarchy in Brazil (1581-1640)

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the composition of the elite in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, and seeks to understand how their actions shaped the Estado do Brasil's administration during the period when the Portuguese empire belonged to the Hispanic Monarchy (1581- 1640). Focusing on the practices of Bahian elites, this thesis explores the political, institutional, and economic administration of Habsburg Brazil through the dynamics and practices of a colonial city’s elite. In examining Bahian elites as agents caught in between imperial and local agendas, this work uncovers the “collective construction” of the Spanish empire, and labels it as a polity built upon the interactions woven by a wide variety of sociopolitical actors acting at the ground. Elites and networks are presented as the pillars of the empire, and, consequently, their study provide an updated understanding of the construction of early modern empires, like the Hispanic Monarchy, in America and, more specifically, in Brazil.