Brazil
Page 8
The first sugar mills began to operate in Pernambuco in 1535, under the direction of the owner of the captaincy, Duarte Coelho. From then on their numbers grew: 4 plantations in 1550; 30 in 1570; and 140 by the end of the sixteenth century. The production increased both numerically and geographically, spreading across the entire region, southwards to Bahia and northwards to Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte. But it was in Pernambuco and Bahia, above all in the region of the Recôncavo, that sugar production really prospered. Thus began the golden years of Brazilian sugar production. By the end of the sixteenth century production had reached 350,000 arrobas20 a year, with the colony virtually monopolizing the market. Sugarcane became an intrinsic part of the identity of Brazil: the entire colony was directed at its production and the Crown established it as a royal monopoly.
However, the sugar trade very soon became dependent on Dutch cargo ships transporting goods to the northern hemisphere.21 It is even arguable that the sugar boom in Brazil was only possible due to the commercial and financial know-how of the Dutch, who were also the main providers of the capital indispensable for the establishment and expansion of the country’s sugarcane industry. What is known for certain is that the use of Dutch ships grew steadily year by year as they were faster and better equipped than Portuguese ones. They disguised themselves as Portuguese vessels and thus accounted for most of the traffic between Brazil and Europe.
The Portuguese had no alternative. No matter how hard they tried to control every stage of the operation, command of the trade in sugar was to escape their hands, or rather, those of the owners of the land where the crops were produced. The major importers were located in Amsterdam, London, Hamburg and Genoa,22 and they had the power to establish prices. Thus Brazil’s sugarcane economy became increasingly international, and, in its own way, globalized.
ANOTHER BRAZIL: THE FRENCH AND DUTCH
Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as soon as the other European countries found out that another American colony had been ‘discovered’, the Brazilian coast became a target for frequent invasions. First by Algerian and Moroccan pirates on their way from the island of Madeira to Lisbon, and then by French, Dutch and English corsairs, who patrolled the coast on both sides of the Atlantic, attacking any ship carrying sugar cargo. Vessels that set sail from Brazil loaded with merchandise also fell victim to pirates. Between 1588 and 1591 alone thirty-six of these ships were captured.23 The Portuguese caravels were small and light, weighing between 80 and 120 tons, and with their small crews they became an easy prey. The Jesuit writer Padre Vieira referred to these ships as ‘cowards’ schools’, since their only act of defence was to flee – a rarely successful tactic, since they were usually so overloaded with cargo. In 1649, in an attempt to reduce the vulnerability of their maritime transport, the Portuguese passed a law obliging the vessels to travel in fleets. From then on the caravels, now larger and heavier, were escorted by galleons that were lighter, faster and well equipped with artillery.
Pirates were not the only problem the Portuguese had to face. In defiance of the Treaty of Tordesillas, as referred to in Chapter 1, on two occasions France attempted to establish a colony in Brazil. The first attempt – France Antarctique – was led by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon, who disembarked in Rio de Janeiro in 1555 with an extensive group, and stayed there for three years. Although his stay was short, it was to have broad repercussions. From the writings of André Thevet and Jean de Léry to those of Montaigne, Indian civilization was held up as a model, more as a criticism of European civilization than from any real knowledge of Brazil’s indigenous peoples.
France constantly fought against Portugal to gain control of the trade with the Tupinambá and Tupiniquim. After the failure of France Antarctique, the French returned in 1612, this time invading São Luís in Maranhão, where they attempted to establish the colony of Equinoctial France.24 The adventure was hardly new for the French, whose experience of the region dated from several years prior. In 1594, Captain Jacques Riffault had set out on an expedition to Brazil that ended in failure. However, part of the crew stayed behind in the Portuguese colony, including Charles des Vaux, who later returned to France and convinced Henry IV of the need for a colonial campaign. Shortly afterwards he set out on an expedition to the ‘Island of Maranhão’.25 By this time the French had already established an outpost on the island of São Luís (Upaon-Açu) and gained the confidence of the local Indian population, even learning their language.
Equinoctial France was created with the support of the French monarchy and the collaboration of the Queen Regent, Mary of Medici, who granted the concession for the establishment of a colony south of the equator, stretching fifty leagues on either side of the fort that had been constructed on the ‘Island of Maranhão’. She also appointed Capuchin missionaries to evangelize the Tupinambá in the region. The colony was founded in March 1612, under the command of Daniel de la Touche, an aristocrat who had become famous eight years earlier for exploring the coast of Guiana. With three ships and five hundred settlers on board he set out in the direction of what is today the state of Maranhão. When they arrived in Equinoctial France they founded a settlement that they named Saint Louis, after King Louis XIII. On 8 September 1612, Capuchin friars conducted the first Mass, symbolically claiming the location as a Christian domain.
The territory they occupied was vast, stretching from the coast of Maranhão to the north of the present-day state of Tocantins. The French also controlled almost all the eastern part of Pará and a large amount of what is today Amapá. They established several settlements, including Cametá, on the banks of the Tocantins river, and others around the mouth of the Araguaia river. Portugal’s reaction was proportional to the size of the invasion. They gathered their troops in the captaincy of Pernambuco from where they marched on the settlement of Saint Louis. The expedition ended with the capitulation of the French on 4 November 1615. Portuguese settlers then occupied the area and introduced the cultivation of sugar. The French, however, did not give up. Their next attempted colonization was at the mouth of the Amazon river, from where they were once again expelled by the Portuguese. In 1626 they colonized the territory of what is today French Guiana, where they finally met with success. Although its capital city Cayenne was founded in 1635, the French only acquired control of the region in 1674; the region has been administered by the French state ever since.26 Nonetheless, after 1615 the French made no further attempt at establishing colonial settlements in Brazil.
If the French attempts at colonization were circumstantial, those of the Dutch were very different. Relations between Portugal and Holland had never been easy, and they were seemingly destined to confront each other directly in the New World.27 With the end of the Avis dynasty in 1580, the succession crisis in Portugal came to a head, and the throne passed to the Spanish Crown, during the period now known as the Iberian Union. During the period known as the ‘Philippine Dynasty’ it was not only the two Crowns that were shared, but also the respective colonies of Spain and Portugal. Although the ‘Iberian Union’ is a term that was coined by modern historians, it appropriately describes the situation in which Portugal not only came under Spanish rule but also ‘acquired’ Spain’s enemies, which included, of course, the Netherlands.
The Netherlands had only recently become independent; previously the country had been a part of the Habsburg Empire that was ruled from Spain. Since Spain refused to recognize Dutch independence, relations between the two countries were strained. Holland and the Low Countries, previously allies of the Portuguese, now became enemies. And with the new status quo the Dutch felt justified in invading Portugal’s wealthiest colonies. After all, as an ally of Portugal, the Dutch had previously controlled the commercialization and refinement of sugar from Brazil; they would now, at least theoretically, have to relinquish them.
They did not delay. In 1595 the Dutch pillaged the African coast and, in 1604, launched an attack on the city of Salvador, then Brazil’s capital city.28 They w
ere confident they could count on the inexperience of the local military defence and imagined (wrongly as it turned out) that after conquering the city the Portuguese inhabitants would accept them. They were, however, in doubt as to whether their military forces would be able to defend the vast extent of the colony’s entire coastline.29 Apart from these strategic considerations, the Dutch relished the prospect of the profits they could make in Brazil. They also thought that a Dutch conquest would weaken the Spanish Crown, and consequently the Iberian Union. The plan was simple: attack the capital, the head of the colony. However, this first assault in 1604 failed, and it would be some time before the Dutch tried again.
After relative tranquillity for several years, tensions rose again for Portugal. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was founded, an event that was to alter the status quo and mark the end of the truce between the two countries. The company was financed with state money as well as by private financiers, and its principal aims were to take over sugar production areas in Brazil and control of the supply of slaves from Africa: two highly complementary activities. As Padre Antonil,30 one of the most important chroniclers of Portuguese America, stated at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the slaves were ‘the hands and feet’ of the sugar-mill owners, and without them there would be no sugar.
The population of Salvador was aware of Dutch intentions and expected an attack. Since the end of the truce, a recommencement of the conflict between Spain and the Netherlands was thought to be highly plausible and it seemed likely that it would spill over into Portuguese America. The next Dutch attack on the capital came on 9 May 1624, on which occasion they held the city for twenty-four hours. According to the historian Charles Boxer, ‘such was the panic, and so generalised, that neither whites nor Indians were of any use at all, each looking for a safe place to hide without even thinking of fighting back’.
However, the Dutch didn’t manage to go beyond the limits of the city. Led by Matias de Albuquerque – the new Portuguese governor of the colony – and by Bishop Marcos Teixeira, the so-called ‘good men’ organized the resistance and prevented the farms from being taken. They used guerrilla tactics until the arrival of a surprisingly large contingent of reinforcements from Portugal – 56 man-of-wars, 1,185 pieces of artillery and 12,463 men from Castela, Portugal and Naples – who managed to prevent the expansion of the invasion. Portugal was determined not to lose its richest colony; after suffering prolonged fighting, ambushes and going without food, the Dutch surrendered. They had been in Bahia for almost a year. There was to be another attack in 1627, but on that occasion the Dutch force was smaller and the city was better fortified. The Dutch seemed more interested in sacking the city than invading it, to the extent that they took 2,654 crates of sugar (approximately one-sixth of the annual production of the Recôncavo), as well as leather, tobacco, cotton, gold and silver.31
But the Dutch refused to give up. They set their eyes on the prosperous captaincy of Pernambuco, which at that time rivalled Bahia in wealth. With its 121 sugar mills the captaincy had awakened the interest of the directors of the Dutch West India Company.32 In addition, the journey from Salvador to Luanda took thirty-five days, whereas from Recife it took only twenty-nine, a difference that the Dutch would have been well aware of.33 They launched the attack in early 1630, with sixty-five vessels and 7,280 men. Olinda, the capital, fell on 14 February.
The first reaction from Madrid, when it heard of the catastrophe, was to send an order to Lisbon to pray ‘that a greater evil be avoided’. The Inquisition was told to redouble its efforts and apply harsher punishments, as the event could only be understood as ‘punishment from God’, who must have been angered by the freeing of the Jews and heretics. But the prayers did not do the job and a resistance army had to be formed. At the same time a guerrilla campaign – the guerra brasílica – was organized. Nevertheless, between 1630 and 1637 the Dutch consolidated their control of the region between Ceará and the São Francisco river. At this time a local plantation owner named Domingos Fernandes Calabar became notorious in Portugal and Brazil for his treachery. Calabar left the Portuguese forces and joined the Dutch, using his knowledge of the local terrain to facilitate the enemy’s advance. In the end he was arrested and executed. Today he is still seen as a paradoxical figure in Brazil: a hero for some, a villain for others. Traitor of the Portuguese interests or defender of another Brazil: a Dutch Brazil.
Rather than casting the deciding vote, it would be wiser, perhaps, to describe the period of peace that followed the wars of resistance. Although the Portuguese continued fighting in the interior, abandoning the cities and fortresses to the enemy, the Dutch were already certain of their victory and began to invest in the colony they had conquered. The Council of Nineteen, which governed the West India Company responsible for the administration of Dutch Brazil, invited a young army colonel to become governor-general from 1637 to 1644: the German count Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen, who was thirty-two at the time. When Nassau arrived in the captaincy the situation was extremely disheartening: the sugar mills were destroyed and abandoned and the population terrified and dismayed, both at the destruction that had been wrought and at the idea of being ruled by a foreign conqueror.
With the aim of reinvigorating the economy and gaining credibility, Nassau had the abandoned sugar mills sold on credit, the owners having fled to Bahia. He re-established the slave traffic to the region (the Dutch had invaded a number of slave markets in Africa); provided credit for the purchase of factories and equipment; and solved the food supply crisis by obliging landowners to plant ‘the bread of the country’ – manioc – in proportion to the number of slaves they owned. A Calvinist, the count decreed freedom of religion, was tolerant towards the Catholics and, according to documents of time, also towards the so-called ‘Crypto-Jews’, the New Christians,34 who until then had practised their religion in secret. Traders of Jewish origin were active in Recife, which, in the 1640s, boasted two synagogues. Nassau also encouraged artists, botanists and academics to come to Pernambuco.
The few depictions of Dutch Brazil were painted by artists invited by Nassau to Pernambuco during this period. Since the majority of Portuguese paintings were religious in nature, intended for churches, artists such as Frans Post (1612–1680) and Albert Eckhout (1610–1666) are essential references for this period. Post was only twenty-four when he arrived in Brazil, a member of Nassau’s retinue. Very little is known about him, except that he was born in 1612 in the city of Leiden, where there was a concentration of important artists who had been trained at the local university. He painted innumerable views of ports and fortifications, and appears to have been enchanted with the placid tropics of Pernambuco, Maranhão and Bahia. With the dearth of pictures of daily life of the time, his paintings have become part of the Brazilian imaginary, as if they faithfully depicted Dutch Brazil of the seventeenth century. But they do not. Whereas in Holland most of the painters illustrated family and urban scenes, Frans Post preferred Brazilian landscapes. Cloudy skies, magnificent waterfalls, isolated houses, boats on paradisiacal rivers, exotic fruits and animals – all depictions of the harmonious, unchartered tropics.
Albert Eckhout also visited Nassau’s Dutch captaincy, where he concentrated on depicting the Indians and fruits of the region. Initially seen as a reliable, ethnographic source, the details of this Dutchman’s paintings actually reveal a number of folkloric elements. The artist gave his viewers what they wanted to see: ‘the exotic practices of these cannibal people’. This must have been the reason why, in a painting of a tranquil Tapuia couple, Eckhout insisted on including the hands and feet of their dead enemies, deposited in baskets which the couple carried on their backs, in an obvious allusion to cannibalism and the stories that surrounded it. In addition to Eckhout and Post, Zacharias Wagenaer (1614–1688) left a rich legacy of drawings representing a dance of the African cult of Xangô, the sugar mill at Maciape and the slave market in Recife.
The importance of the name Nassau goes beyond
the incentives he gave to the arts and commerce. The count undertook far-reaching improvements to the city of Recife, which the Dutch elevated to the capital of the colony, replacing Olinda. Near to the rundown area of the port, Nassau constructed the Cidade Maurícia, designed by the architect Pieter Post; a tropical replica of the Dutch capital, built on a grid system intersected by canals. The new town greatly improved the precarious hygiene and housing conditions of the population, estimated at around 7,000. This is the town that appears as Mauritz-Stadt on the maps and panoramas included in the work of Gaspar Barlaeus, published in Amsterdam in the year 1647. The governor also built palaces, a Calvinist temple, and installed Brazil’s first observatory (which registered a solar eclipse in 1640). He went on to pave some of the streets and create a sewage system. He ordered that all the streets be covered with sand to prevent flooding. The operation had to be repeated twice a day, or risk a fine of six florins. The same fine was charged to anyone who ‘threw rubbish on the streets’35 or sugarcane bagasse36 into the rivers or reservoirs, as it prevented the proliferation of freshwater fish, which was the basic diet of the population. Nassau also ordered the construction of three bridges, the first ones of major proportions to be built in Brazil.