These essays are the product of an academic conference celebrating the end of the Dutch occupation of Brazil (1654) and the 400th birthday of its most famous governor, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen. The book’s unassuming goals are to introduce Dutch Brazil to a Spanish-reading audience and to place this issue into international perspective. Contributions from American, Brazilian, Chilean, Dutch, and Spanish professionals create an academic work that will serve as a useful reference for specialized historians.
The main theme of the collection is how the West Indies Company occupied northeast Brazil as part of the Dutch republic’s strategies to break Spain’s stronghold in the Americas. The collection is ordered chronologically, starting with essays on the WIC’s strategies in the Atlantic and the military reactions of the Dutch conquests, followed by in-depth chapters on governance and interethnic relations during the Dutch occupation of northeast Brazil and on the impact of Dutch...
