How was the Dutch occupation in Brazil?

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1. Even before occupying part of the Northeast, the Dutch were already active in Brazil’s economy. With support from Portugal, they had invested in processing machinery for the sugar cane and took care of part of the refining. The partnership between the countries ended in 1580, when Spain took advantage of a power vacuum in Lisbon and incorporated the Portuguese kingdom (and its colonies).

two. You Spanish they broke the agreement on the production of sugar, which yielded good profits for the Dutch. This further soured the relationship between the two peoples, which was already bad because, in 1581, Holland, a former colony of Spain, achieved its independence. The invasion of Brazil in 1624 was almost a “revenge”, integrating a series of conflicts between the two nations.

3. The first military onslaught of the Netherlands against Brazil was in Salvador. It lasted only one year, between May 1624 and May 1625. On February 14, 1630, they docked in another place: Pau Amarelo, on the coast of Pernambuco. They spent the next seven years facing several pockets of resistance, until, finally, they dominated a territory that went from Maranhão to Alagoas.

4. In 1637, the West India Company (a Dutch company that managed trade routes around the world) sent a representative to bring order to “New Holland”, destroyed by the seven years of conflict. It was Johan Maurits von Nassau-Siegen, or Mauritius of Nassau. He arrived with his own “publicity agency”, formed by 46 artists, chroniclers and naturalists.

5. Until then, Olinda was the most important city in the state. But Nassau wanted to transform Recife into the “capital of the Americas”. He invested in a major renovation in the current neighborhood of Santo Antônio, renamed Mauritsstad. The chaotic village, where people threw feces in the street, became an urbanized city, with new streets, squares, gardenscanals and the first bridge in Latin America.

6. By the standards of the time, New Holland was quite tolerant of other religions. Many Jews fleeing Europe settled in Recife, where they inaugurated the first synagogue das Américas (in the current Rua do Bom Jesus). Pastors of the Reformed Christian Church built 22 temples, tried to translate the Bible into Tupi and even sent six Indians to learn the new faith in Europe.

7. The Companhia das Índias brought officials from various parts of the world to the region. And the port of Recife began to boom with the export of sugar and the arrival of slave ships (whose cargo was passed on throughout the Northeast, the Caribbean and Virginia, in the USA). Soon, the city became a cosmopolitan hub, with some of the busiest brothels in the world.

8. Nassau became well-liked in the region – but it was less and less popular in the Netherlands. His salary was high, his team was very large and his works were expensive. To make matters worse, he was not strict with the planters when it came to charging the loans made by the government. Accused of administrative impropriety, he was forced to return to Europe in 1644.

9. When Nassau left, Portugal had already separated from Spain. But it took time to send soldiers to retake the Northeast. The region was only reintegrated into Brazil after the efforts of the local inhabitants themselves, revolted by the new debt collection policy instituted by the Netherlands. Same poorly armed and in smaller numbers, managed to expel the invaders, in January 1654.

+ Which Indians dominated the coast of Brazil at the time of the Discovery?

+ How did Brazil form its current territory?

+ How many flags has Brazil had?

+ How many inhabitants were there in Brazil at the time of the Discovery?

SOURCES Books Brazil and the Dutchby Evaldo Cabral de Mello (org.), War, Sugar and Religion in Dutch Brazilby Adriana López Dutch Brazil: History, Memory and Shared Heritageby Hugo Coelho Vieira, Nara Neves Pires Galvão and Leonardo Dantas Silva

CONSULTANCY Marcos Galindo, historian and professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE)