Insurrection of Pernambuco: the Dutch expelled from Brazil
Portuguese planters, Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous fighters rose against the Dutch West India Company in north-eastern Brazil; after victories in the two battles of Guararapes (1648 and 1649) they forced Recife to surrender in 1654, and Dutch Brazil ceased to exist.
- Date
- 15 May 1645 – 26 January 1654exact date · duration: ≈ 9 years
- Place
- Guararapes Hillstoday: Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Pernambuco, Brazil · Latin America
- Participants
- Kingdom of Portugal, Dutch West India Company, John IV of Portugal
- Threads
- History of Portugal since the Battle of Aljubarrota
- Also known as
- Battles of Guararapes; Insurreição Pernambucana; Guerra da Luz Divina; Битвы при Гуарарапис
The WIC had held Pernambuco since 1630, and under Johan Maurits of Nassau (1637–1644) Recife flourished. After his departure the company pressed the indebted sugar planters, and on 15 May 1645 eighteen rebel leaders swore at a sugar mill to fight Dutch rule; the rising began in June under João Fernandes Vieira and André Vidal de Negreiros, joined by the Black commander Henrique Dias and the Potiguar chief Filipe Camarão. John IV, bound by a truce with the Dutch, officially disowned them, while the governor-general in Bahia secretly helped.
On the Guararapes hills south of Recife the rebels defeated larger Dutch forces on 19 April 1648 and again on 19 February 1649. When the First Anglo-Dutch War cut off Dutch reinforcements, a Portuguese fleet blockaded Recife, and on 26 January 1654 the Dutch capitulated. By the Treaty of The Hague of 1661 the Dutch Republic gave up its Brazilian claims in return for a large indemnity.
Connections
Related events
- Founding of São Jorge da Mina (Elmina)January 1482 · Africathe Dutch West India Company, which took Elmina in 1637, then also held north-eastern Brazil
- Restoration of Portuguese independence1 December 1640 · Western and Central EuropeJohn IV at first kept his truce with the Dutch, but in 1653 he sent the fleet that forced the surrender of Recife
Same participants
- Gold rush in Minas Geraisbetween 1692 and 1698 · Latin Americavia Kingdom of Portugal
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Restoration of Portuguese independence1 December 1640
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Dutch capture of Malacca3 August 1640 – 14 January 1641
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Insurrection of Pernambuco
- Wikipedia (English): Dutch Brazil
- Wikipedia (English): Second Battle of Guararapes
- Wikipedia (Russian): Вторая битва у холмов Гуарарапис
- Wikipedia (Russian): Первая битва у холмов Гуарарапис
- Wikipedia (Russian): Голландская Бразилия
- Boxer C. R. The Dutch in Brazil, 1624–1654. — Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.
- Wikidata: Q10303008