The Dutch Wars, 1624-1654 (Part 1)

If the Union of the Iberian Crowns (Portugal and Spain) 1580-1640 attracted traditional enemies of Spain to Brazil, it also made possible its expansion beyond the meridian of the Tordesillas by bandeirantes from São Paulo and by captain Pedro Teixeira in the Amazon. Expansion to the kingdom of Portugal, in the name of the king of the two Iberian crowns.

This expansion took place almost at the same time as the history of the struggles to expel the French from Maranhão, the English, Irish and Dutch of the Lower Amazonas and of the Dutch from the Northeast, where they acted between 1624-54.

Causes of The Dutch wars

Periods of the war:

1st - Invasion and recovery of Bahia, 1624-1625;

2nd - Invasion and conquest of Pernambuco, 1630-1636;

3rd - Government of Prince Maurice of Nassau, 1637-1644;

4th - Insurrection and the Pernambucan Restoration, 1645-1654.

The commercial and religious dispute (Spanish Catholicism X Dutch Calvinism) ended up involving Brazil after Union of the Iberian Crowns. To invade Brazil, a Portuguese colony under the Spanish crown, the Netherlands organised the West Indies Company and provided them ships, troops and money. This company was forced to invade the Northeast of Brazil twice. The first in Bahia, in 1624, the second in Pernambuco, in 1630. The invasions gave rise to the Dutch Wars (1624-1654) or War of the Thirty Years of Brazil, extension of the Thirty Years War in Europe (1618-1648). The greatest wealth of the Northeast of Brazil was sugarcane that found an ideal environment in the massapê1 lands, near the coast. This product was ensuring excellent profits for Portugal and Spain.The North east was unprepared militarily to face a potent and planned invasion. Only the ports of Recife and Salvador possessed the satisfactory conditions to repel piracy, but not those of squadrons.

Invasion of Bahia - 1st Period

On May 8, 1624, a powerful Dutch fleet commanded by Admiral Jacob Willekens  consisting of 26 ships armed with 500 guns and garrisoned by 3,300 men, of those 1,700 soldiers for land operations and occupation, appeared in front to Salvador. It was an impressive fraction of one of the most famous armies of the time. 

On the 9th, the Dutch attacked and the Portuguese fortresses responded. The invader sought to avoid being hit by using a detailed plan of the fortifications. Using 16 vessels, the Dutch fixed the defenses of Salvador and attracted the reserves.

While the fortresses were duelling with the enemy fleet, five ships, which the Dutch had left outside the estuary, approached the St. António Fort and landed on the beach a force of approximately 1,500 men.

Without stopping the avalanche of well-planned invasion and against which it was futile to resist, the military garrison and the population left Salvador overnight inland. The next day, by land and sea, the Dutch launched attacks on the abandoned city.

Realising the exodus, the invader entered Salvador, plundering everything and imprisoning the Governor General who had not left his post. The headquarters of the General Government of Brazil fell into foreign hands.

Near a league of the walls of Salvador, the Bahians raised the Arraial of the Red River. Henceforth this camp became an obstacle to the expansion of the invasion to the west, in combination with the system of ambushes, or guerrillas, against the invader.

Through judicious use of the terrain and the use of tactics of native Brazilian wars, the Bahians organised the ambush companies composed of 25 to 40 men, to take the fight without quarter to the invader.

There arose in Brazil a new type of war, the Brazilian war, which would cause so much surprise and admiration among the Europeans, with a genuine local military doctrine.

In a short time, the ambushes completely surrounded Salvador, bringing death and destruction to every enemy who left the walls trying to find supplies to maintain the conquest.

The Dutch governor Van Dorth and his successor, Colonel Albert Shouten, commander of the ground force, fell under the ambush. The success of the ambushes and the dread of which the invader was taken increased the confidence, the audacity and the determination of the defenders, in order to expel him.

The testimony of Father António Vieira, then living in Bahia, gave an account of the heroism and sacrifices of the Bahians to liberate the invaded land.

'... They spent nights and days without sleeping and resting, they lived and slept without a roof, they precariously fed on flour, they suffered at times cold, hungry and thirsty, and lacking in ammunition that was achieved with their own enemy, through ambushes ... '

The only abundant thing among the Luso-Brazilians was the spirit for the struggle and the great desire to free Bahia.

Valuable offensive instruments and particularly noted in the reaction during this acute period of ammunition shortage were the Indian archers of Bahia villages.

Dutch dense formations were often seen tumbling under their breasts, by surprise, clouds of arrows that have caused them many deaths and injuries. The more daring enemies, in preparing the arquebus to revoke the attack, fell to the ground, with the chest struck by arrows.

They found, lastly, that the West Indies Company had erred in its strategic appraisal. He had not noticed the soul of the people, worried that it was easy profits and high dividends, all resulting in the happy expression of Luis Delgado - "a confrontation of a soul x a business", in which the soul would come out victorious. It was to give time to time! It was necessary to complete the siege of Salvador with the maritime blockade.

In short, improvised squadrons, of canoes and armed boats, sailed the bay and realised the isolation of the invader by sea.

It was difficult for the Dutch to land in other parts of the Recôncavo to seek survival resources. The siege of Salvador has become more and more rigorous. Inside the wall about 2,800 enemies were trapped. 1,600 Dutch soldiers, 700 mercenaries of various nationalities and 500 armed slaves were besieged by more than 1,400 Luso-Brazilians.

On March 29, 1624, he founded, near Ponta do Padrão, a powerful Portuguese-Spanish fleet under the command of Fradique de Toledo. It consisted of 52 warships and about 12,000 men, including soldiers and sailors, of whom approximately 4,000 were Portuguese. There were close to 1,200 cannons..

Even more significant was the reinforcement of the Bahian resistance by a contingent of whites and Indians brought from Rio de Janeiro, by sea, Salvador Correia de Sá e Benevides, and from Pernambuco by Jerónimo de Albuquerque Maranhão. The tradition of solidarity and mutual support of the different parts of nascent Brazil continued, in favor of the territorial and cultural integrity of the country.

Salvador was submitted to a strict siege, which gradually tightened until the invader, yielding ground, abandoned the forts and sought protection on the city walls.

As of April 6, 1625, the struggle became more and more intense and, according to Fr. Vincent of the Savior, an eyewitness, "for twenty-three days there was not a quarter of an hour, day and night, without to hear the roar of bombards, grenades, and muskets from side to side. "

The invader capitulated, in the face of evidence of the futility of reaction, on the 30th of the same month of April.

Delivered Salvador with all his values, in addition to the armament and ammunition, ships, slaves and released the prisoners. On the other hand, they allowed him to return to the Netherlands with clothes, supplies for three months, weapons and ammunition for the defense on the journey. The officers kept their swords.

On May 1, 1625, Fradique de Toledo, in front of the brave Luso-Brazilians from Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and the powerful troops brought from Spain, triumphantly entered Salvador before Dutch domination completed one year.

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1. Massapé is a very dark, almost black soil type found in the coastal region of northeastern Brazil. The massapé is a very fertile soil and therefore excellent for the practice of agriculture. In the colonial period, it was greatly exploited in sugarcane farming. The massapé has in its composition a high presence of clay. It forms through the decomposition of granite, in tropical regions that have well defined dry and humid seasons. In the humid season, the massapé has a sticky consistency and in the dry season it becomes rigid.