The regulation, as well as the negotiation of land access rights played a crucial role in all processes of colonization that were based on the occupation and productive use of land. This paper focuses on the three legal instruments that were most important in the Atlantic side of the Portuguese empire to organize property rights in land: the sesmarias (land grants), the emphyteusis and the morgadio (entailed property). In simple terms, it can be said that sesmarias worked for the initial distribution of lands, the emphyteusis served for its subsequent reallocation and the morgadio served to consolidate property and ownership.

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