The Captaincy General was a division of a viceroyalty in Spanish or Portuguese colonial administration. Captaincies general were established districts that were under threat from foreign invasion or Indian attack. Their governors were the Captains general. Captaincies general, on account of their independence and distance from the crown, became virtual viceroyalties, having a direct relationship with the king and the Council of the Indies, in Madrid.

A Captaincy ( , , ) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule administrations of medieval feudal governments, wherein the monarch delimited territories for colonization that were administered by men of confidence.