At Dutch invasions in Brazil occurred when the Dutch occupied territories in northeastern Brazil in the 17th century. This invasion was directly related to the diplomatic issues involving Portugal, Spain and Holland itself in that period. The Dutch sought to build their own colony in America by appropriating one of the main squares producing sugar gives Portuguese America.
The Dutch stayed in Brazil from 1630 to 1654, and his presence here was deeply marked by the administration of Mauritius of Nassau, German military sent by West India Company to govern the Dutch colony. The expulsion of the Dutch took place through popular mobilization against the Dutch motivated by the War of Restoration, which began in 1640.
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Why did the Dutch invade Brazil?
The invasion of northeastern Brazil by the Dutch resulted directly from the diplomatic relations between Portugal, Spain and Holland at the end of the 16th century. Until 1580, the Netherlands had a direct involvement with the sugar business produced in Brazil, as they were the ones who financed the development of the business here and they also participated in the refining and marketing of sugar in the Europe.
![With the crisis of the Avis dynasty, the king of Spain, Philip II, was eventually crowned king of Portugal.[1]](/f/01dc70a2d4f149779622ea7790d9911b.jpg)
The sugar activity yielded a lot of profit for Portugal and the Netherlands. However, this situation underwent profound changes with the Avis Dynasty Crisis in Portugal, at the end of the 16th century. This succession crisis broke out when d. Henrique, King of Portugal, died and left no direct heirs.
Therefore, a dispute took place and resulted in the coronation of Philip II of Spain, as king of Portugal. As an offshoot, the crowns of Spain and Portugal were unified under the same king. This became known as Iberian Unionand it represented, of course, that drastic changes would take place in the diplomatic relations between Holland and Portugal, for Holland had been at war with Spain since 1568.
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This war between Spain and Holland was related to the struggle of the Dutch for their independence (until 1581, Holland was under the rule of the Habsburgs, the dynasty that reigned in Spain). Due to this context, the enemies of Spain became enemies of Portugal, since the two countries came to be governed by the same king.
Thus, the Dutch ended up being excluded from the sugar business and this resulted in an action by the Dutch against Portugal. In 1595, the Dutch plundered Portuguese ports on the African continent and, in 1604, they attacked the city of Salvador, Bahia, but the Dutch attack failed. After that, the Dutch remained in truce with the Spanish until 1621.
Invasion of the Northeast
Holland's truce with Spain ended in 1621 and, in the same year, the West India Company (West-Indische Compagnie, in Dutch) was founded. These events caused the war to be resumed. WIC (the company's acronym in Dutch) was intended to take control of local sugar producers from Portugal, as well as the slave trading posts in Africa.
In 1624 came the first major attack by the Dutch against the capital of Brazil, the city of Savior, and they conquered it after 24 hours of battle. The domain of the Dutch was concentrated in the city limits, since the resistance of the settlers and the Portuguese did not allow the Dutch to expand into the Recôncavo Baiano.
After a year, the Portuguese resistance managed to expel the Dutch from Salvador. This was possible, in large part, thanks to the arrival of approximately 12,000 men to fight the Dutch. After being expelled in 1625, the Dutch returned two years later, in 1627, to plunder the capital of Brazil.
Accessalso: The representation of Brazil in the painting by Frans Post, a 17th century Dutch artist
Invasion of Pernambuco
After being expelled from Salvador, the Dutch turned against Pernambuco, another Brazilian captaincy that prospered with the production of sugar. In 1630, a Dutch expedition consisting of 65 ships and 7280 men attacked Olinda|1|. With this force, the Dutch managed to conquer Olinda on February 14, 1630.
![With the Dutch invasion, Maurice of Nassau was appointed to administer the Dutch colony in the Northeast.[2]](/f/e2b3eb4a8cd341b5a94b5c11e68e865e.jpg)
Between 1630 and 1637, the Dutch extended their domain throughout Northeastern Brazil and conquered regions such as Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte. For this, they had the precious help of a colonist called Sunday Fernandes Calabar. His knowledge of the land was crucial to the success of the Dutch.
From 1637, the German was sent by the WIC Mauritius of Nassau to administer the Dutch colony. He was a military man and was appointed to the post and remained here until 1643. Nassau's administration was an important moment for the establishment of the Dutch in Brazil.
Maurício de Nassau carried out numerous actions for the development of the colony. He sought to restore Pernambuco's sugar economy by selling sugar mills that had been abandoned during the war between the Portuguese and the Dutch and it sought to establish some norms to improve life, such as the obligation to plant cassava, prohibition of littering in the streets, among others measures.
Maurício de Nassau also encouraged the coming of scientists and artists to Brazil. Scientists carried out a series of studies on the local fauna and flora, as well as studying tropical diseases that affected the population. The artists, in turn, portrayed the local way of life, some portraying everyday landscapes, while others portrayed indigenous peoples and slaves who inhabited the region.
From the 1640s onwards, the WIC went into bankruptcy, and Mauricio de Nassau came into conflict with the WIC administration. In 1643, Nassau was ordered to return to Holland. From then on, the Dutch colony in Brazil only went into decline.
Accessalso: The quilombo that grew during the dispute between the Dutch and the Portuguese
Decay of the Dutch colony
![In the two battles at Guararapes, in 1648 and 1649, the Dutch were defeated by the Portuguese.[2]](/f/e7041393d2271a5cd7117de16f697376.jpg)
The decline of the Dutch colony can be explained by a number of factors. First, there was the bankruptcy of the West India Company, which ended up severely harming the enterprise, since they were responsible. In this issue, we can also highlight the resignation of Mauritius of Nassau of his role as governor general of the colony.
WIC's economic problems ended up making it didn't invest what is necessary to ensure the safety of your colony. This was a very big mistake, because since the Restoration of Portugal, in 1640, the rumors that the Portuguese would launch a war against the Dutch for Pernambuco only increased.
THE Restoration of Portugal occurred when Portugal regained its independence, and its throne was occupied by d. John IV, inaugurating the Bragança dynasty. With this event, the Portuguese began efforts to recover their colony and began to encourage settlers so that the Dutch were expelled from the Northeast.
The war between the Dutch and the Portuguese broke out from 1645 and lasted until 1654. This period of battle was known as Brazilian Wars and had important local leaders in the fight against the Dutch, such as André Vidal de Negreiros and João Fernandes Vieira. The mobilization against the Dutch had the participation of plantation owners, blacks and indigenous people.
The Dutch weakened considerably with the two defeats suffered in the Battle of Guararapes, in 1648 and 1649. Dutch resources, which were already scarce, diminished even more from 1652, when Holland and England went to war. In this scenario, it was impossible to keep the colony in the Northeast.
Finally, in 1654, a Portuguese squadron besieged Recife and ended up retaking the region after 24 years of Dutch rule. The reconquest of territories by the Portuguese also took place in Africa, with the expulsion of the Dutch from regions they had taken from the Portuguese in the 1630s.
Note
|1| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloísa Murgel. Brazil: A Biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 59.
Image credits:
[1] jorisvo and Shutterstock
[2] commons
By Daniel Neves
History teacher
