The Second Battle of Guararapes was the second and decisive battle in a conflict called the Pernambucana Insurrection, between Dutch and Portuguese forces in February 1649 at Jaboatão dos Guararapes in

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the ...

. The defeat convinced the Dutch "that the Portuguese were formidable opponents, something which they had hitherto refused to concede." The Dutch still retained a presence in Brazil until 1654 and a

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal per ...

was signed in 1661.

Background

Facing an uprising by the Portuguese planters in

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil ( nl, Nederlands-Brazilië), also known as New Holland ( nl, Nieuw-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 Americ ...

and having concluded a

Peace Treaty A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surre ...

with the Spanish in 1647, the Dutch sent an expeditionary force to Brazil, consisting of 41 ships with 6000 men. This expeditionary force arrived late in

Recife That it may shine on all (Matthew 5:15) , image_map = Brazil Pernambuco Recife location map.svg , mapsize = 250px , map_caption = Location in the state of Pernambuco , pushpin_map = Brazil#South Am ...

(''Mauritsstad'') and faced numerous problems. In April 1648, the Portuguese routed the expeditionary force at the

First Battle of Guararapes The First Battle of Guararapes was a battle in the conflict called the , between Dutch and Portuguese forces in Pernambuco, in a dispute for the dominion of that part of the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Beginnings On 18 April 1648, around fo ...

, fought outside Recife.

History

The Dutch forces, led by Colonel Brinck, left Recife on February 17, 1649, and fought the Portuguese at Guararapes Plain on February 19. Though the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ...

fielded a larger, better equipped force, they suffered

morale Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...

problems as most of their army was made up of

mercenaries A mercenary, sometimes Pseudonym, also known as a soldier of fortune or hired gun, is a private individual, particularly a soldier, that joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a memb ...

from

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

(primarily

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

) who felt no real passion for the war in Brazil, as opposed to the Natives and Portuguese settlers who considered Brazil to be their home and were fighting for a patriotic cause. The Dutch force were also unused to fighting in the dense

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja� ...

and humid conditions of the country, wearing thick, brightly coloured European clothing and heavy metal

armour Armour (British English) or armor (American English; see spelling differences) is a covering used to protect an object, individual, or vehicle from physical injury or damage, especially direct contact weapons or projectiles during combat, or f ...

which inhibited their

dexterity Fine motor skill (or dexterity) is the coordination of small muscles in movement with the eyes, hands and fingers. The complex levels of manual dexterity that humans exhibit can be related to the nervous system. Fine motor skills aid in the growt ...

. Contemporary accounts describe Dutch troops at the battle as "pale and sickly". The Dutch army at Guararapes were armed with pikes,

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s, and an assortment of

blade A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Histor ...

d weapons. It is thought by historians that the use of short blades by the Dutch was an attempt to imitate previously successful Portuguese weaponry and

tactics Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to: * Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks ** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield ** Chess tactics ** Political tact ...

. The Portuguese force was made up of an assortment of natives, blacks, and whites who knew, and had experience fighting in, the difficult Brazilian terrain. They weakened Dutch troops with fusillades of

musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually di ...

fire from behind trees, and then charged with

mêlée A melee ( or , French: mêlée ) or pell-mell is disorganized hand-to-hand combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts. In military aviation, a melee has been defined as " air battle in which ...

weapons. The Dutch had expected the enemy to march down the well established coastal roads, and thus formed a line of defence covering these roads. However, the Portuguese force used a series of minor trails to reach Pernambuco, appearing out of the

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

to the west and Guararapes Hills (from which the battle derived its name) and flanking the Dutch. After several hours of fighting, the Dutch retreated northwards to

, leaving their artillery behind. Following the Dutch retreat, the Portuguese army marched into Pernambuco. An eyewitness account of the Dutch defeat by Michiel van Goch written a few days after the battle notes

The enemy's men
he Portuguese forces He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
are naturally agile and surefooted, able to advance or retreat speedily. They are also formidable from their natural ferocity, consisting as they do of Brazilians, Tapuyas, Negroes, Mamelucos, etc., all natives of this country; as also Portuguese and Italians, whose constitution enables them to adapt themselves very readily to the terrain, so that they can range the woods, cross the swamps, and climb or descend the hills (all of which natural obstacles are very numerous here), and that with remarkable speed and agility. Our utchmen, on the contrary, fight ranged in serried ranks, after the manner of the fatherland, and they are sluggish and flabby, unsuited to this kind of country.

With the defeats of the Dutch in the two battles, and the further setback of the Portuguese

Recapture of Angola The Recapture of Angola, or Reconquest of Angola, was a military campaign fought between the Portuguese and the Dutch occupiers of Angola. Its most important episode was the siege imposed by the Portuguese on the far larger Dutch garrison of ...

, which crippled the Dutch colony in Brazil as it couldn't survive without the slaves from Angola, opinion in Amsterdam considered that "Dutch Brazil by now no longer had a future worth fighting for," which "effectively sealed the fate of the colony." The participation of Henrique Dias and indigenous leader Filipe Camarão resulted in them receiving honors from the Portuguese crown.

Depictions in art

Antwerp painter Gillis Peeters painted an image of the battle in 1650, showing the rocky landscape and combat between Dutch soldiers armed with rifled and stereotypical Amerindians with bows and arrows.Van Groesen, ''Amsterdam's Atlantic'', pp. 150-51. The image is on page 151. Nineteenth-century Brazilian painter

Victor Meirelles Victor Meirelles de Lima (18 August 1832 – 22 February 1903) was a Brazilian painter and teacher who is best known for his works relating to his nation's culture and history. From humble origins, his talent was soon recognized, being admitted as ...

produced a vivid image of the battle as well as a portrait of Filipe Camarão, as Brazil claimed its role in defeating the Dutch. A painting depicting the Battle of Guararapes is located in the lower choir of the

Church of Our Lady of the Conception of the Military The Church of Our Lady of the Conception of the Military ( pt, Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição dos Militares) is an 18th-century Roman Catholic church in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. It is located on Rua Nova in the historic center of Reci ...

in Recife.

Important participants

* Henrique Dias - Son of

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, he was the ''governador da gente preta'' (governor of the black people), ex-slaves from farms reached by the conflict. * Filipe Camarão -

Native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

from the Potiguar tribe, leader of the forces from that tribe. * João Fernandes Vieira - Land owner from

Funchal Funchal () is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugal's Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it the sixth largest city in Portugal. Because of its hig ...

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

, commanded one

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

terço. *

André Vidal de Negreiros André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...

- Commander of one

terço.

Notes

{{Coord, 08, 06, 44, S, 35, 00, 56, W, display=title Guararapes Guararapes 1649 Guararapes Guararapes Guararapes Guararapes II 1649 in South America Pernambuco Portuguese colonization of the Americas 1640s in Brazil 1649 in the Dutch Empire Dutch Brazil

Background

History

Depictions in art

Important participants

See also

Further reading

Notes