«Em nome do rei». O levantamento dos Rios de Sena de 1763

Abstract

In 1763, the governor João Pereira da Silva Barba arrived at Mozambique to execute the major reforms in the colony, since the autonomy from the Estado da Índia, decreed in 1752. His government faced the armed resistance of the dependent government of the tenente-general of the Rios de Sena, Marco António Azevedo Coutinho Montaury. Unlikely others episodes of resistance in the colonial areas, the insurrection of 1763 remains totally ignored by the Mozambique historiography. This article aims to present an initial overview of this event in the context of the conflicts between Rios de Sena and Mozambique, of the reforms planed by the central government to the colony and the european Seven Years War. Contrarily to the succeeded with other contemporary revolts, the judicial inquiry of this insurrection failed to be finished. Therefore, the reconstitution of the events is based mainly on the correspondence of the Mozambique governor and the few documents produced by the tenente-general of Rios de Sena.