Recife dos Holandeses began with the Dutch invasion, which was part of the Dutch project to occupy and administer the north-east of Brazil through the Dutch West India Company.

By 1624, the Dutch had already established the West India Company and were planning to expand their overseas territories in Africa and the Americas, as the East India Company was enjoying relative commercial success in Asia.

But how to conquer places already occupied and colonised by the Portuguese and the Spanish, and even more so at the time of the Iberian Union?

The only way was by force. And so the Dutch managed to control Salvador, then the capital of Brazil, for about a year.

For the Dutch, it was important to transport slaves to the plantations in the north-east and to eliminate the middlemen – in this case the Iberians – in the sugar trade.

Expelled by the vassals’ voyage in 1625, the Dutch joined forces for five years and conquered Olinda and Recife in 1630.

And this is where we begin our text, talking about the Dutch influence in the region over twenty-four years of domination.

The conquest of Olinda, then Recife: the lack of Portuguese defences was a decisive factor in the Dutch success.

History of the Dutch invasion of Recife

In February 1630 (the Dutch left Brazil for good in 1654), 56 Dutch ships with 3780 crew and 3500 soldiers under the command of Diederik van Waerdenburch arrived in Olinda.

They quickly took the city as there was little Portuguese resistance.

They then moved on to Recife and, after taking that city as well, received reinforcements of around 6,000 men, who were sent to help defend the conquered area and expand their territories. But the Portuguese response was not long in coming.

Matias de Albuquerque, brother of Duarte de Albuquerque Coelho – the Count of Pernambuco – organised an offensive against the Dutch the following year, supported by a squadron of 23 Spanish and Portuguese ships.

His greatest merit was his ability to use the support of the natives and his guerrilla tactics to drive the Dutch out of Olinda, who decided to leave the city and concentrate all their defences in Recife.

Once in control of Recife, the Dutch began trading in slaves brought from Africa and sold to the plantation owners of Pernambuco – the main sugar and tobacco producing region at the time – as well as trading with the plantations in the region, as the port of Recife was the main outlet for Pernambuco products.

The conquered territory even had its own flag, as the Dutch considered the conquered territories to be the “New Netherlands”.

After this retreat and a period of being unable to leave Recife, the Dutch tried to conquer the nearby coastal regions – in Paraíba in 1634 and Rio Grande do Norte in 1635 – and were relatively successful, relying mainly on the help of Domingos Calabar, who is considered by many to be a traitor to the Portuguese crown, as he reported to the Dutch various details of the towns and fortifications the Portuguese were defending.

What many don’t know is that the region’s sugar producers themselves came to like the Dutch rule, as there was an almost immediate injection of capital into the business, and the Dutch way of trading, which was more liberal, was more profitable for the producers.

In 1637, with a view to the definitive administrative consolidation of the region, the Netherlands sent to Brazil the man who would become the main figure in this occupation, Count Maurício de Nassau.

The capital of Dutch Brazil

Nassau promoted important changes in the ‘New Netherlands’.

Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, better known to Brazilians as Maurício de Nassau, served as governor, captain and admiral-general of Brazil for the West India Company.

A skilful negotiator, he always sought to reconcile Dutch interests with local merchants and mill owners, regardless of their nationality, and to put an end to the disputes with the Portuguese, which, although isolated, caused losses to both local producers and the Dutch.

To this end, Nassau ordered the occupation of new territories. Parts of Sergipe and Maranhão were conquered by the Dutch.

The count also created the Chamber of Scabbards, modelled on the municipal councils of the time, with the function of legislating and judging cases of first instance while still in the colony.

But it was in urban, cultural and religious terms that Nassau left his mark on Brazil forever.

– Urbanisation of Recife

The architect Pieter Post designed Mauritstad, or “Mauritius City”, which today includes the districts of Santo Antônio and São José in Recife.

Bridges, canals, dikes and buildings were built, as well as the Freeburg Palace, the seat of the Nassau government.

The botanical garden, the natural history museum and the astronomical observatory, the first in the Americas, were also built.

Other architects and engineers helped with the urbanisation of Recife, focusing on basic sanitation. Nassau also ordered the creation of a rubbish collection service and a fire brigade.

It was also during this period that several forts were built by the sea, such as Forte do Brum and Forte Orange, to defend the occupied territories.

– Cultural expedition

Nassau brought a number of scientists to Brazil, including the physician Willem Piso and the mathematician, astronomer and naturalist Georg Marcgraf, who studied the local fauna, flora and diseases.

Both wrote the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, considered the first scientific work on Brazilian nature.

Also in the entourage were the landscape painter Frans Post – brother of the architect Pieter Post – and the portrait painter Albert Eckhout.

The painting opposite, ‘African Woman’, is by Eckhout, who also painted several canvases depicting the natives and African slaves who lived in the region.

The Nassau-sponsored expedition also included the cartographer Cornelis Golijath and the humanist Caspar Barlaeus.

There’s no need to dwell on the importance of the arrival of these scientists and artists in Brazil at a time when the European metropolises were already enjoying relative cultural progress, while the colonies were receiving very little attention in this respect.

Much important information about our country during the colonial period was produced by this and other expeditions that brought European scholars to Brazil.

Unlike the first Portuguese, who came to Brazil to settle and produce in the hereditary captaincies, the Dutch didn’t just want to trade with the local people, but also to develop the conquered territory.

– Religious tolerance

Nassau was a Calvinist, but he placed no restrictions on the Catholicism already established in the region by the Portuguese. He also encouraged the arrival in New Holland of Jews of Portuguese origin, refugees from the Netherlands.

Despite the Nassau government’s guarantee of freedom of worship, there was some anti-Semitism in the region, mainly motivated by the Portuguese. The first synagogue in the Americas, the Kahal Zur Israel, was founded in Recife.

For those interested in learning more about the Dutch contributions, I recommend a visit to the Recife City Hall website, which contains other interesting information.

But when you read about the time when the Dutch controlled part of Brazilian territory, the thought immediately comes to mind: “What would these regions be like today if the Netherlands had controlled them longer?”

Unfortunately, we can only imagine, because Nassau left the administration of Recife in 1644, unhappy with the West India Company’s interference in the territory.

The new administrators who came to Brazil eventually provoked the Pernambuco uprising.

The “War of Divine Light

Out with the Dutch!

A certain bearded German once said that everything in history can be summed up in economic – or production – relations. With all due respect, we can say that Brazilian merchants and producers provoked the Pernambuco uprising because they started losing money.

The Dutch, who had replaced Nassau in the administration of New Holland, tore the Count’s political will to shreds and began charging the cane growers for the debts they had incurred with the Dutch.

Not that the growers didn’t pay, but apparently it was all collected at a time when the weather wasn’t helping much and the sugar cane and tobacco crops were very poor, causing losses on both sides.

The main leaders who fought against the Dutch were: the mill owner João Fernandes Vieira; the soldier André Vidal de Negreiros, who was named Master-in-Camp during the fighting, and the soldier Antonio Dias Cardoso, today the patron of the 1st Special Forces Battalion of the Brazilian Army; the local Felipe Camarão, better known as Potiguaçu, who led several guerrilla actions; and the black Henrique Dias, who commanded several former slaves who fought with the Portuguese and Brazilians for the liberation of the region.

The Pernambucanian uprising is considered by traditional Brazilian military historians to be the first patriotic movement in Brazil, and was marked by very violent battles, such as the Battle of Guararapes, depicted in the painting above by Victor Meirelles, which was painted as recently as 1789.

The Dutch left Brazil for good in 1654, although a final peace treaty was not signed until 1661, after part of the Dutch Armada threatened Lisbon and demanded compensation for the loss of territory.

Recife of the Dutch

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