Military Commanders / Comandantes Militares
The captain-donatarios (1420-1580), the general governors (1580-1640), and the captain-generals (1640-1834), who were the superior authorities of the archipelago, exercised both civil and military functions. From 1834 onwards, these roles became independent and entirely distinct, although sometimes performed by the same individual, with one of the roles being exercised on an interim basis. We then present the list of military commanders, along with the year they began their government, omitting, for brevity, the names of the many army officers who temporarily and interimly held this position:
Luiz da Silva Mousinho de Albuquerque (1834), Antonio de Padua da Costa (1836), Baron of Lordelo (1838), Manuel José Julio Guerra (1847), Antonio de Padua da Costa (1847), José Teixeira Rebêlo (1853), José Antonio de Sequeira (1853), José Gerardo Ferreira Passos (1854), Antonio Rogerio Gromicho Couceiro (1856), José Maria Baldy (1858), José Herculano Ferreira da Horta (1859), D. Luiz de Mascarenhas (1861), José Julio do Amaral (1861), Jacinto Augusto Camacho (1868), José Ribeiro de Mesquita (1869), Antonio Augusto Macedo e Couto (1870), Alexandre Cesar Mimoso (1878), Antonio Ferreira Quaresma (1881), Vasco Guedes de Carvalho e Meneses (1881), José Maria Lage (1884), Domingos Alberto Cunha (1888), Antonio Maria Celestino de Sousa (1894), Fernando Rodrigues do Rêgo (1896), João Francisco Regis do Rio Carvalho (1899), José Pedro Kukenbuk de Vilar (1900), Joaquim Maria Alves (1903), José Joaquim Bettencourt da Camara (1905), Joaquim Maria Alves (1906), Valeriano José da Silva (1910), José Justino Botelho Moniz Teixeira (1911), João Alfredo de Alencastre (1915), José de Sousa da Rosa Junior (1917), Luiz Correia Acciaioly de Meneses (1918), José Marceliano da Silva Pereira (1918), Alvaro Nobre da Veiga (1919), João Maria Ferraz (1920), Aires Luiz de (Castro (1924), Ricardo José de Andrade (1925),José Maria de Freitas (1927), Vasco Crispiniano da Silva (1930), José Maria de Freitas (1931), General Adalberto Gastão de Sousa Dias, in the Revolutionary Movement, (1931), Jaime Sepulveda Rodrigues (1931), Antonio Tomás de Aquino Tavares (1933), Carlos Alberto Gonçalves Marques (1935), Frederico de Magalhãis de Meneses Vilas Boas Vilar (1937), Francisco Silvestre Varela (1938), João Pedro da Silva (1940), and Francisco Silvestre Varela (1940). We must note that we do not make a distinction here between the denominations of military governor, division commander, military commander, and sub-division commander, as they all represent the same position, which we include under the generic name of military commanders. According to the current organization (Decree of April 8, 1940), the position of military commander of Madeira will be held by a brigadier or colonel, who has a direct assistant officer and carries out his actions through a secretariat, headed by a captain of any branch, an assistant, an archivist, and two sergeant clerks.