Machiavellianisms and governments in Portuguese America: two analyses of ideas and political practices

Maquiavelismos y los gobiernos en la América portuguesa: dos estudios de las ideas y prácticas políticas

Machiavélisme et les gouvernements dans l'Amérique portugaise: deux études d'idées et de pratiques politiques

Abstract

This article describes two studies regarding political practices and ideas that are relevant to the context of Portuguese America and its possible relations with the opuscule The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli. In the general government of the Count of Óbidos (1663-1667), some similarities with the advisement written by the Florentine secretary can be observed. However, during the administration of the famous Count of Assumar, in the captaincy of São Paulo and Minas do Ouro (1717-1721), a document was produced, and its ideas of power are strongly associated with the classic culture. However, this was not a reason for its coauthor to be distant from the condemned renaissance author. Both cases indicate the pertinence of analyzing the ideas by Machiavelli in the scope of Portuguese monarchy and its literate culture, be it by the approximation between types of government or be it because of a strategy that probably aimed at dissimulating its inspiration.

Machiavellianism; Portuguese America; political practices and ideas