The present article analises the role played by the overseas municipal councils in Portuguese Colonial Empire. It focus the Municipal Council of Rio de Janeiro during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in order to illustrate the composition of the municipalities, their routine functions, their action in times of crisis and war, and the kind of it's demands to the Crown representatives on both sides of the Atlantic. As the center of political administration, tax collection, commerce, and defense, Rio de Janeiro was the privileged stage for the exercise of metropolian dominance over the vast South-Atlantic world. This article intends to discuss the tensions, negociations, and compromises between metropolitan politics and the role of one of the most important luso-american municipalities.
Portuguese Colonial Empire; Municipal Councils