Provinces of Brazil

This article is about subdivisions of the Empire of Brazil. For the modern subdivisions, see Federative units of Brazil.

The provinces of Brazil were the primary subdivisions of the country during the period of the Empire of Brazil (1822 – 1889).^[1]

Provinces of Brazil
The Empire of Brazil in 1889. Cisplatina had been lost since 1828 and two new provinces had been created since then (Amazonas and Paraná)
Category	Province
Location	Empire of Brazil
Number	20 provinces and 1 neutral municipality (as of 1889)
Populations	57,610 (Amazonas) – 2,039,735 (Minas Gerais) (as of 1872)

On February 28, 1821, the provinces were established in the Kingdom of Brazil (then part of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves), superseding the captaincies that were in place at the time.

Provinces of 1821

Name	Entity since	Note
Alagoas	1817	Capitania de Alagoas split from the Capitania de Pernambuco
Bahia Province	1501
Ceará Province	1822
Cisplatina	1821	Banda Oriental (present-day Uruguay) annexed by the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves and incorporated into the Kingdom of Brazil under the name of Província Cisplatina.)
Espírito Santo Province	1534
Goiás Province	1744	Capitania Geral de Goiás split from Capitania Geral de São Paulo
Grão-Pará Province	1775
Maranhão Province	1535
Mato Grosso Province	1748
Minas Gerais Province	1720
Paraíba Province	1574
Piauí Province	1718	Split from the Estado do Maranhão as the Capitania do Piauí
Pernambuco Province	1534
Rio de Janeiro Province	1565
Rio Grande do Norte Province	1530	created as the Capitania do Rio Grande
Santa Catarina Province	1738	Capitania de Santa Catarina split from the Capitania de São Paulo
São Paulo	1720	Capitania de São Paulo split from the Capitania de São Paulo e Minas de Ouro
São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul Province	1760
Sergipe Province	1590

Changes from 1821–1889

The provinces of the Empire of Brazil in 1822

1821

The captaincies of Brazil are renamed provinces.

The present-day Uruguay is occupied by the Portuguese Army and incorporated in Brazil as its Cisplatine Province.

1822

Independence of Brazil, with the provinces becoming provinces of the Empire of Brazil.

1823

The last Brazilian provinces that remained loyal to the Portuguese Government in Lisbon adhere to the Empire of Brazil.

1828

Cisplatina Province became the independent state of Uruguay.

1834

The city of Rio de Janeiro, the imperial capital, was removed from the province of Rio de Janeiro, and was included in the Neutral Municipality. At the same time, the capital of the province of Rio de Janeiro was transferred to Niterói.

1850

Brazil in 1851

Grão-Pará split into Amazonas and Pará.

1889

In 1889 the Empire of Brazil became the Republic of the United States of Brazil and the provinces became states. The Neutral Municipality that included the city of Rio de Janeiro became the Federal District.

See also

• States of Brazil
• Captaincies of Brazil