The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654 by Charles Boxer

Boxer, Charles. The Dutch in Brazil, 1624-1654. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.

Charles Boxer’s seminal book remains a significant text for all interested in Dutch Brazil to consult. Boxer methodically details the progression of the fate of the Dutch in Brazil throughout their brief 30-year period of power. Beginning with the motivations for the Dutch to conquer Brazil, which stem as much from conflicts in the European realm as a desire to gain land in the Americas, Boxer describes the war between the two powers. The Dutch successfully take Pernambuco and thereafter establish a colony on what was formerly Portuguese land, more or less adopting the same system of sugar production and continuing the slave trade. Unlike the Portuguese, the Dutch allowed religious freedom of conscience in their territories, extending privileges to the Jewish population. In power from 1637 to 1644, Boxer describes Johan Maurits as a capable governor and a humanist who gathered around him a court of artists, scholars, and craftsmen. From the latter half of the 1640s to the fall of Dutch Brazil in 1654, battle with the Portuguese plagued the colony. Portugal had regained its independence from Spain in 1640 and was hungry for the economic power that accompanied the sugar industry. Boxer describes the conflicts between the Dutch and Portuguese, including significant battles and their effects on life in Recife. Four appendices supplement the text. Appendix II, “a balance-sheet of Netherlands Brazil and West Africa in 1644,” and Appendix III, “a list of Portuguese shipping in the Brazil trade taken by the Dutch in 1647 and 1648,” are of particular note.

Palmares is not referenced in Boxer’s history.