Neutral Municipality
 | This article may be a rough translation from Portuguese. It may have been generated, in whole or in part, by a computer or by a translator without dual proficiency. (November 2023) |
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2022) |
| Neutral Municipality of the Court Município Neutro da Corte | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neutral municipality of the Empire of Brazil | |||||||||
| 1834–1889 | |||||||||
 Flag
.png) Coat of arms
| |||||||||
 Map of the Neutral Municipality in 1880 | |||||||||
| Capital | Rio de Janeiro | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| • Coordinates | 22°54′S 43°11′W / 22.900°S 43.183°W | ||||||||
• 1872 | 1,356 km2 (524 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1872 | 274,972 | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 12 August 1834 | ||||||||
| 15 November 1889 | |||||||||
| 24 February 1891 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Rio de Janeiro Niterói | ||||||||
The Neutral Municipality (Portuguese: Município Neutro), officially known during the imperial period as the Neutral Municipality of the Court (Município Neutro da Corte), was an administrative division of the Empire of Brazil. It covered the area of present-day Rio de Janeiro and existed from 12 August 1834, following the enactment of the Additional Act to the Constitution of 1824, until the proclamation of the republic on 15 November 1889.[1] It only officially ceased to exist with the promulgation of the 1891 Constitution in 1891.[2] The municipality was formally abolished under the 1891 Constitution, after which its territory became the Federal District of Brazil.[3]
History
[edit] | This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2025) |
After the Portuguese royal court was transferred to Rio de Janeiro in 1808, the captaincy came under direct administration of the central government, unlike other captaincies which enjoyed greater local autonomy.
Following Brazilian independence in 1822, Rio de Janeiro continued to be governed more directly than other provinces, largely because it remained the capital of the Empire of Brazil.
Allied to this was that the city of Rio de Janeiro remained as the capital of the Empire of Brazil, which caused the minister to administer the whole province using "notices", which he directed to the Municipal chambers of cities which, at that time, were growing at a rapid pace due to the expansion and strengthening of coffee plantations in the Paraíba Valley, which already surpassed the strength of sugarcane plantations in the North Fluminense region.
These differences in relation to the other administrative units of Brazil meant that, in 1834, the city of Rio de Janeiro was included in the Neutral Municipality, which remained as the capital of the empire and directly administered by the imperial government, while Rio de Janeiro had the same political-administrative organization of the others, having its capital in Vila Real da Praia Grande, which the following year was renamed Nictheroy (current Niterói).
The Neutral Municipality also had a Chamber elected by the local population and would take care of the daily operations of the entity without interference from the provincial president or the Cabinet of Ministers, except for services that were subordinated to the national government. In 1889, after the proclamation of the Republic in Brazil, the city of Rio de Janeiro continued as the capital of the country, and the Neutral Municipality become the Federal District after the Constitution of 1891 took effect.
References
[edit]- ^ "Artigo 10º do Decreto nº 1, de 15 de novembro de 1889". www.planalto.gov.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved August 29, 2025.
- ^ "Artigo 2º da Constituição da República dos Estados Unidos do Brasil de 1891". www.planalto.gov.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved August 29, 2025.
- ^ Recenseamento Geral do Brazil 1972: Municipio Neutro.