Baud, M.

English

International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion online publications

UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl)UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository)[Review of: Van Groesen, M. (2014), The Legacy of Dutch Brazil]Baud, M.Publication date2017Document VersionFinal published versionPublished inNew West Indian GuideLicenseCC BY-NCLink to publicationCitation for published version (APA):Baud, M. (2017). [Review of: Van Groesen, M. (2014), The Legacy of Dutch Brazil]. NewWest Indian Guide, 91(3-4), 278-279.General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s)and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an opencontent license (like Creative Commons).Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, pleaselet the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the materialinaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letterto: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Youwill be contacted as soon as possible.Download date:09 Mar 2023278 book reviews© michiel baud, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/22134360-09103007This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-nc licenseat the time of publication.Michiel van Groesen (ed.)The Legacy of Dutch Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. x + 363pp. (Cloth US$129.00)The short period of Dutch colonization of the region around Recife in today’sNorthEasternBrazil presents a curious footnote toLatinAmerican colonial his-tory. Between 1624 and 1654 theDutchWest IndiaCompany governed this smallbut lucrative tropical part of Latin America. Its importance for the Atlanticslave trade and the naval struggle with Spain made the region a pivotal partof the Dutch Caribbean, and “Dutch Brazil” continues to attract attention fromBrazilian, Caribbean, and Atlantic historians. At the same time, among Brazil-ians it also became a symbol of what Brazil could have “become” had theDutchnot been expelled in 1644.Dutch historianMichiel vanGroesen’sThe Legacy of Dutch Brazil is themostrecent example of the continuing interest among historians for this period. In12 articles by well-known experts in the field, the book covers a wide rangeof topics. Four of the articles analyze the Atlantic dimension of Dutch colo-nization and show the complex struggle between the Dutch United Provincesand Spain, including a war in which Portugal changed sides several times.WimKlooster elucidates the importance for Caribbean history of this episode. Oneof the reasons for the conquest of Brazil was its windward location, whichprovided the Dutch a base for carrying out attacks on the Spanish Caribbeanislands. In this way, the Dutch conquest of its Brazilian colony became a Carib-bean event. The Spanish authorities tried to bolster the protection of its trea-sure fleets and strengthened the defense works of cities such as Havana, Carta-gena, and San Juan. Klooster concludes that in this way the Dutch presence inBrazil added to Spain’s imperial overstretch and prevented a more prominentSpanish role in the Caribbean. Interestingly, the same can be said for the Dutchsince the costs of their Brazilian adventure put a brake on furtherDutch expan-sion in the Caribbean.A number of the contributions reject outright the much heralded religioustolerance of the Dutch, showing that African slaves were never included in theso-called system of Dutch tolerance. Evan Haefli seems to suggest that the lackof missionary effort toward conversion of the slave population in the Dutchcolonies should be considered a cornerstone for tolerance. Reading this book,I come to a different conclusion, which is that the Dutch did not “include”the slave population in their societal design and “tolerated” their religiousautonomy because of what we could call racist neglect. Despite some of theunique humanistic features of the governance of Johan Maurits, JonathanIsrael’s analysis of Dutch tolerance as an “essentially pragmatic matter tailoredDownloaded from Brill.com12/21/2018 03:06:55PMvia UvA Universiteitsbibliotheekbook reviews 279New West Indian Guide 91 (2017) 271–400to suit the harsh circumstances of an embattled colony” still seems the mostadequate one.Several of the essays discuss the cultural and religious significance of Dutchcolonization. Johan Maurits, a keen collector of natural and ethnographicobjects, stimulatedDutch scientists and artists to portray and analyze Brazilianreality. The paintings by Frans Post and Albert Eckhout became world famousand, asMarianaFrançozomakes clear, played an important symbolic role in thegift-giving of European diplomacy. Neil Safier shows the long-lasting influenceof the famous Historia Naturalis Brasilia (1648) by Georg Marcgraf andWillemPiso, which remained an essential point of reference for naturalists until latein the eighteenth century.The book’s final two chapters, by Rebecca Parker Brienen and Julie BergerHochstrasser, nicely connect to Françozo’s, focusing on thework of the paintersPost and Eckhout and their continuing impact, first in European diplomaticcircles, then in Brazil, and finally in the global art market. More than anything,these paintings, like the scientific studies done in service of the Dutch colonialproject, explain why the legacy of Dutch Brazil has been so enduring. It shouldnot be forgotten that they were explicitly ordered by Johan Maurits, who inthis way not only increased Dutch local knowledge, but also guaranteed thelong-lastingmemory of this short-lived experiment. Joan Pau Rubiés pointedlyobserves that it also supported his own personal glorification.This collection gives an excellent “Atlantic” view on the Dutch Braziliancolony and its legacy. Taken together, the articles nicely demonstrate whyDutch Brazil should be considered part of Caribbean history. Most of them canbe read separately as examples of today’s historical knowledge. The chapters byFrançozo, ParkerBrienen, andHochstrasser,whicharemeaningfully connected(though, oddly enough, they are not presented together in the book), showhowstrongly our vision of Dutch Brazil has been determined by what Rubiés calls“the triumph of the visual legacy,” something that has been missing in otherparts of the Dutch Caribbean.Michiel BaudCentre for Latin American Research and Documentation (cedla),1018WB Amsterdam, the NetherlandsJ.M.Baud@cedla.nlDownloaded from Brill.com12/21/2018 03:06:55PMvia UvA Universiteitsbibliotheek

[Review of: Van Groesen, M. (2014), The Legacy of Dutch Brazil]

https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/30778369/_22134360_New_West_Indian_Guide_Nieuwe_West_Indische_Gids_The_Legacy_of_Dutch_Brazil_edited_by_Michiel_van_Groesen.pdf

[Review of: Van Groesen, M. (2014), The Legacy of Dutch Brazil]

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion online publications