Violence in the gold-mining districts of the future Minas Gerais escalated into the War of the Emboabas, pitting paulistas (São Paulo–based discoverers and their allies) against emboabas (newcomers from Portugal and other captaincies) over mining rights, offices, and access to supply routes.
One of the conflict’s most violent episodes occurred at Cachoeira do Campo (today a district of Ouro Preto), highlighting how disputes over control of production and local authority had turned into organized armed confrontation.
Antônio de Albuquerque Coelho de Carvalho was named governor in 1709 and traveled to the mining zone, where his early months were focused on restoring order and stabilizing administration after the Emboabas conflict.
As fighting spread across mining settlements, colonial authorities increasingly supported the emboabas, contributing to the defeat of the paulistas and paving the way for tighter royal administration of the gold region.
In the war’s aftermath, the Portuguese Crown created the Captaincy of São Paulo and Minas de Ouro (a royal captaincy) by purchasing donatary rights and reorganizing jurisdiction, signaling a shift from negotiated local power to more direct imperial oversight of mining revenue.
A Carta Régia dated 9 November 1709 separated São Paulo and the mining districts from Rio de Janeiro’s administration and entrusted their government to Antônio de Albuquerque, reinforcing the Crown’s reorganization of the region after the war.
The Revolta do Sal (Salt Revolt) erupted amid Crown monopoly controls over essential goods, showing how post-war centralization and supply constraints could quickly provoke unrest in the mining economy.
Antônio de Albuquerque formally took office as the first governor of the Captaincy of São Paulo and Minas de Ouro, marking the start of a more centralized regime meant to secure taxation and regulate mining claims.
Albuquerque convened a junta at Ribeirão do Carmo to deliberate on the best means of collecting the quinto and other taxes and to advance municipal organization—key tools for converting turbulent gold rush settlements into governable, taxable towns.
Ribeirão do Carmo (later Mariana) was elevated to vila status in 1711, part of the Crown’s strategy to impose municipal institutions, courts, and taxation frameworks over the gold region after the Emboabas conflict.
The settlement that became Vila Rica (later Ouro Preto) was elevated to vila status by Governor Albuquerque, consolidating multiple mining encampments into a formal municipality—an administrative outcome closely tied to the Crown’s post-Emboabas reordering.
Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Sabarabussu (Sabará) became one of the first vilas created in Minas in 1711, extending municipal governance across the contested mining zone and helping stabilize the region after the Emboabas War.
Conflicts over Minas: the War of the Emboabas and related disputes (1708–1711)
