History
The Geopolitical impact of Dutch Brazil on the Western Hemisphere
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
Soon after the end of the Twelve Years Truce, when Spain and the United Provinces resumed their hostilities, the Americas became a major war theater. Of course, the Dutch rebels had not abstained from taking the war to the New World before 1621, but subsequent bellicose actions, at least during the West India Company's first two decades, were much larger in scale and continuous rather than incidental. The Company directors developed a “Grand Design” on the Atlantic world that made sense on paper. In its first stage, one fleet was to conquer Brazil's capital of Salvador de Bahia, and another one was to take Luanda, Portugal's main slave trading port in Africa. Occupying Bahia would enable the capture of the sugar region of northeastern Brazil, whereas dominance in Luanda would ensure a steady migration of Africans to work the plantations. Although the plan's execution left much to be desired, the conquest of Salvador did succeed according to plan. The Dutch East India Company also harassed the hereditary enemy in its American possessions in the post-Truce years, fitting out an expedition in 1623 that was more ambitious than its previous raids of the Pacific coast. This so-called Nassau fleet even eyed the possibility of capturing the famed silver mines of Potosí. This chapter examines the geopolitical impact of the Dutch invasions of Brazil. After the Dutch conquest of Salvador in 1624-25 and invasion of Pernambuco of 1630, Habsburg Spain found itself fighting the Dutch in and off the coast of Brazil, while trying to protect its two treasure fleets from being captured and seeking to prevent the enemy from landing in the Caribbean. Given the numerous visits of Dutch fleets to the Caribbean, this sea was especially vulnerable to Dutch attacks. Indeed, the Caribbean and Brazil were linked in Dutch Atlantic strategy. One director of the West India Company later confided that one of the reasons for the conquest of Brazil was its excellent windward location from where the Dutch could carry out attacks on the Spanish West Indies.
Publication Title
The Legacy of Dutch Brazil
Publication Date
2013
First Page
25
Last Page
40
ISBN
9781107447776
DOI
10.1017/CBO9781107447776.003
Keywords
West India Company, Dutch Republic, Dutch East India Company, New World, Atlantic world, Brazil
Repository Citation
Klooster, Wim, "The Geopolitical impact of Dutch Brazil on the Western Hemisphere" (2013). History. 50.
https://commons.clarku.edu/historyfac/50
