A governorate was equivalent in status to a viceroyalty, though the title viceroy didn't come into use until the early 18th century.

The Governor General had direct authority over the constituent royal captaincies, and nominal but ill-defined authority over the donatary captaincies.

One captaincy, that of Duarte Coelho in Pernambuco, was exempt by royal decree from the authority of the Governors General.

In 1549, in order to solve the governance problem of his South American colonies, King John III of Portugal established the Governorate General of Brazil.

[1] The governorate united the fifteen original donatary captaincy colonies some of which had reverted to the Crown, and others of which had been abandoned, into a single colony, but each captaincy would continue to exist as a provincial administrative unit of the governorate.