O “Senhor absoluto dos Sertoes”. O “Capitao preto” José Lopes, a Amazônia e o Cabo Verde

This article discusses the deeds of José Lopes, a Cape Yerdean who became and influential and powerful figure in the hinterland of the Portuguese Amazon region, at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. To understand the nature of his actions one has to examine not only the political networks to which he was connected in the region, but also the specificities of the Cape Verdean historical experience and society at that time.