22 Facts About Dutch Brazil

Dutch Brazil, known as New Holland, was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas.

From 1630 onward, the Dutch Republic conquered almost half of Brazil's settled European area at the time, with its capital in Recife.

Habsburg family had ruled the Low Countries from 1482; the area became part of the Spanish Empire under the Spanish Habsburgs in 1556; however, in 1568 the Eighty Years' War broke out, and the Dutch Brazil established the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in 1581.

In 1594 Philip II, who was both king of Spain and of Portugal, gave permission for Dutch ships bound for Brazil to sail together once a year in a fleet of twenty ships.

In 1609 the Habsburgs and the Dutch Republic signed the Twelve Years' Truce, during which the Dutch Republic was allowed to trade with Portuguese settlements in Brazil .

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Portugal's small geographic size and small population meant that it needed "foreign participation in the colonization and commerce of its empire", and the Dutch Brazil had played such a role, which was mutually beneficial.

Matias de Albuquerque, the Portuguese governor of Pernambuco, led a strong Portuguese resistance which hindered the Dutch Brazil from developing their forts on the lands which they had captured.

Still in control of Antonio Vaz and Recife, the Dutch Brazil later gained a foothold at Cabo de Santo Agostinho.

The Dutch Brazil offered freedom of worship and security of property.

In 1635 the Dutch Brazil conquered three strongholds of the Portuguese: the towns of Porto Calvo, Arraial do Bom Jesus, and Fort Nazare on Cabo de Santo Agostinho.

In 1641 the Dutch Brazil captured the captaincy of Maranhao, meaning that Dutch Brazil control now extended across the entire coastline between the Amazon and Sao Francisco rivers.

Dutch Brazil invited naturalists Georg Marcgrave and Willem Piso to Brazil.

Dutch Brazil allowed former Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity to return to their former faith.

Furthermore, the Catholic majority in Dutch Brazil was allowed to practice their faith freely, at a time in history in which there was extreme religious conflicts such as the Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants.

The colony of Dutch Brazil had a difficult time of attracting Dutch colonists to immigrate and colonize Brazil, as the main attraction of the colony was the extreme riches one could reap from starting a sugar plantation, as it was one of the few major market exporters of sugar to Europe at the time.

The Dutch Brazil settlers were divided into two separate groups, the first of which was known as dienaren .

Back in Europe, the collapse of Dutch Brazil accelerated Dutch efforts to end its longstanding conflict with Spain, the Eighty Years' War.

The Dutch were dealt a further blow by the decisive Portuguese victory in the Recapture of Angola, which crippled the Dutch colony in Brazil as it couldn't survive without the slaves from Angola.

The sugar industry in Pernambuco never fully recovered from the Dutch Brazil occupation, being surpassed by sugar production in Bahia.

Meanwhile, the British, French, and Dutch Caribbean had become a major competitor to Brazilian sugar due to rising sugar prices in the 1630s and 1640s.

The Portuguese colony of Dutch Brazil did not recover economically until the discovery of gold in southern Dutch Brazil during the 18th century.

Dutch period in Brazil was "a historical parenthesis with few lasting traces" in the social sphere.