Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado (9 October 1701–1769) was a Portuguese military officer and politician who served in the Portuguese Navy rising from soldier to sea-captain. Mendonça Furtado then became a colonial governor in Brazil, and finally Secretary of State of the Navy and Foreign Dominions in the Portuguese government. His major achievements included the extension of Portugal's colonial dominions in South America westward along the Amazon basin and the carrying out of economic and social reforms according to policies established in Lisbon.Santos, Fabiano Vilaça dos. "A Casa e o Real Serviço: Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado e o Governo do Estado do Grão-Pará e Maranhão (1751-1759)" (The House and the Royal Service: Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado and the Government of the State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão (1751–1759)). Revista, Instituto Histórico Geográfico Brasileiro (Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute) (IHGB). Rio de Janeiro, January–March 2010. Vol. 446, pp. 75-125 (in Portuguese) Accessed 8 January 2019.
Early life
Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado was born in Mercês, Lisbon on 9 October 1701 and baptised on 12 October 1701 in the Chapel of our Lady of MercyErmida das Mercês (Chapel of Mercy), Lisbon. (in Portuguese).Toponímia de Lisboa (Placenames of Lisbon). "A Travessa da primeira Igreja das Mercês, a do Marquês de Pombal" (The Crossroad of the first Church of Mercy, the Marquis of Pombal). . Accessed 23 December 2019.) on the Travessa das Mercês.The Capela das Mercês should not be confused with the Igreja de Nossa Senhora das Mercês (Parish Church of Our Lady of Mercy) located in the Largo de Jesus. (:pt:Igreja de Nossa Senhora de Jesus). His father was Manuel de Carvalho e Ataíde, a member of Portugal's armed forces and a genealogist, and his mother was Teresa Luisa de Mendonça e Melo.Santos, Fabiano Vilaça dos. "A Casa e o Real Serviço: Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado e o Governo do Estado do Grão-Pará e Maranhão (1751-1759)" (The House and the Royal Service: Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado and the Government of the State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão (1751–1759)). Revista, Instituto Histórico Geográfico Brasileiro (Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute) (IHGB). Rio de Janeiro, January–March 2010. Vol. 446, p. 80. (in Portuguese). Accessed 8 January 2019.For information about Teresa Luisa de Mendonça e Melo see Queralt del Hierro, María Pilar. As Mulheres do Marquês de Pombal (The Women of the Marquis of Pombal). (In Portuguese) A Esfera dos Livros, 2014. .
As biographer Fabiano dos Santos says, "At the age of 11, when he was known by the name Francisco Xavier de Carvalho, he became a nobleman of the Royal Court (Portuguese: fidalgo da Casa Real), as his father was.Santos, p. 81. Nothing is known about Mendonça Furtado's education and activities until he was 35 years old. It is possible that he dedicated himself to taking care of the family properties."
One of twelve children, his most significant siblings and half-siblings were Sebastião José de Carvalho e MeloOne historian refers to Carvalho e Melo and Mendonça Furtado as stepbrothers. (See Hemming, John. Red Gold: The conquest of the Brazilian Indians. Harvard University Press, 1978. p. 476. (in English). Available online at . Accessed 22 December 2019. .) but there is no evidence to support this. who became King Joseph I's Secretary of State of Internal Affairs and was elevated by the king in 1769 to the title by which he is most often referred, Marquis of Pombal, and Paulo António de Carvalho e Mendonça, a member of Lisbon's clergy who became Inquisitor-General for the period 1760–1770. These three brothers were closely bonded within the family, a relationship which was further revealed in their adulthood in the way they supported each other professionally.Although the context is Pombal's expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal and elsewhere in the empire, historian Francisco Malta Romeiras summarises the family's activities as follows: "From the 1750s, this powerful secretary of state to King José (1714–77, r.1750–77) promoted his relatives — including his younger brothers Paulo de Carvalho e Mendonça (1702–70) and Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado (1701–69) — to the most prominent ecclesiastical, diplomatic, and political positions in the Portuguese Empire. They played a direct role in Pombal’s battles with the Jesuits, and their activities greatly increased the wealth of the Carvalho family."(See Romeiras, Francisco Malta. Jesuits and the Book of Nature: Science and Education in Modern Portugal. Brill, 2019. p. 24. doi:https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004382367_00 Accessed 20 January 2024.
Military service On 14 April 1735, aged 35, Mendonça Furtado joined the Portuguese Navy where he served for 16 years rising from the rank of soldier to sea captain.Santos, p. 82.Cruz, Miguel Dantas da. Furtado, Francisco Xavier de Mendonça (1701-1769). E-Dicionário da Terra e do Território no Império Português, 2015. Doi:10.15847/cehc.edittip.2015v003.
His first order was to sail to Rio de Janeiro, and then, leaving on 1 December 1736, to proceed to the Río de la Plata where Spain was attempting to drive Portuguese settlers out of Colonia del Sacramento on the north shore of the estuary.
Although referred to as a "war", the Spanish–Portuguese War of 1735 was never formally declared by either parties.It was only one part of an ongoing struggle between Spain and Portugal regarding each empire's rightful ownership of South American territory. Christopher Columbus's first voyage had prompted the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas to avoid colonial conflict, but its demarcation line between the empires notionally 370 "leagues" west of "the Cape Verde Islands" had never been formally computed or recognised.(See Harrisse, Henry (1897), The Diplomatic History of America: Its First Chapter 1452—1493—1494, London: Stevens. pp. 83-87.) Even once the Spanish discovered that the agreement entitled the Portuguese to only a sliver of South America, they ignored Portugal's moves to extend far beyond the line, claiming lands as far as the Amazon. (see "Historical Setting: The Colonial Era, 1500-1815: Frontier Expansion That Shaped Brazil." Brazil: A Country Study. Edited by Rex A. Hudson. Government Printing Office, Library of Congress, 1997. (in English). Accessed 2 February 2019.)From the early days of settlement, Colonia del Sacramento passed backwards and forwards several times between the two empires. Portugal's establishment of the settlement began in late February 1680 when 5 ships containing about 400 soldiers, craftsmen, carpenters and stonecutters, and 18 guns arrived. Almost immediately, Spain demanded the Portuguese leave. This was ignored, and the colony was attacked by Spanish troops in August 1680 and was held by them until Spain and Portugal signed a treaty the following year and Colonia del Sacramento was returned to Portugal's control. Colonia del Sacramento was under Portuguese control when the war began. Spain had troops on its outskirts and had set up a naval blockade on the Río de la Plata. But with the arrival of Portugal's naval and military forces, they broke through with ease and by the last year Colonia del Sacramento was temporarily restored to Portuguese control.
Mendonça Furtado was involved in that action for five months. At the end of the war, he travelled to Rio de Janeiro and on to Pernambuco to join forces defending the Fernando de Noronha archipelago from the French.Ironically, although originally discovered by the Portuguese at the beginning of the 16th century and soon after occupied by them, the archipelago was progressively invaded or occupied by the English (1534), the French (1556-1612) and the Dutch (1628-1630 and again 1635–1655). The second French "occupation" began in 1736 when the islands were unoccupied and the French East India Company set up a trading post there. Portugal's military operation took place in 1737 and immediately after the French had departed, they set up permanent occupation and built several forts to strengthen their use of the islands as a way of safeguarding their shipping routes against foreign powers. Mendonça Furtado continued his involvement with that campaign until he returned to Lisbon in 1738. From the end of that decade until 1750 he led eight military expeditions including two in the Azores and one in Tenerife, being promoted as lieutenant in 1741. Shortly before the end of his military career he was promoted again to the rank of sea captain.
Mendonça Furtado as governor Carvalho e Melo's reforms and Mendonça Furtado's appointment
King John V's son and successor, Joseph I, with no interest in the day-to-day responsibilities of government, delegated authority to Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo as Secretary of State of Internal Affairs. Carvalho e Melo, at the same time highly authoritarian and dictatorial but also a vigorous reformist,An insightful analysis of Carvalho's many successes and failures can be found in Maxwell, Kenneth. Pombal, Paradox of the Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, 1995. . had among his many goals the rebuilding of the country's economy so it could recover from its own demise in the last years of John V's reign.Amaral, Luciano. "Prosperity In The Early 1700s Gives Way To Decline." Economic History of Portugal. EH.Net Encyclopedia, 2008. Available online at
His approach was highly centralist; he saw himself at the helm of the entire structure and he always wanted to know what was going on. This was not only in regard to Portugal's internal operation but the colonies as well, and this quickly flowed into a reshaping of the governmental and administrative structure in Brazil from which he required regular reporting to himself and unquestioning obedience to any directives issued by him.Cruz, Miguel Dantas da. "Pombal and the Atlantic Empire: political impacts of the foundation of the Royal Treasury." Tempo, 2014, Vol. 20, pp. 1–24. .Osório, Helen. "Colonização." E-Dicionário da Terra e do Território no Império Português, 2014. . Among Carvalho e Melo's broad range of reforms, possibly the most significant for the operation of the empire's economy was the creation of the Royal Treasury in 1761. In theory it involved the abolition of the old model in which the treasury's operation had been under the direct and absolute control of the monarch (as it had been, for example, under King John V). This new treasury was under Carvalho e Melo's direct control, it had seniority over all other executive and administrative bodies except, theoretically, the king himself, and it processed and administered all income and expenditure related to those bodies in both Portugal and the rest of the empire.Cruz, "Pombal and the Atlantic Empire". See chapters "Before the Royal Treasury: some aspects of political-administrative dispersion" and "The Royal Treasury and the political control of the overseas territories".