History of Pernambuco

Flag of Pernambuco

The history of Pernambuco begins before the Discovery of Brazil, when the current state of the territory was populated by tabajara indians.

Colonial Period: the province of Pernambuco

James Lancaster

In 1501, when the expedition of Gaspar de Lemos founded trading posts along the coast of the Portuguese colony in America, then begins the process of colonization of Pernambuco. Years later, Cristóvão Jacques was incubated to defend the coast of Pernambuco against vessels of other nations. The factory of Cristóvão Jacques, erected at the entrance of the Canal de Santa Cruz, Itamaracá, aimed to establish a bond with the natives, seeking information about possible riches within and repel possible attacks from other nations to the Brazilian coast . The French under Bertrand d'Ornesan tried to establish a French trading post at Pernambuco in 1531.In 1534, the captaincy of Pernambuco was given by King João III of Portugal to Duarte Coelho Pereira. Coelho Pereira, an influential navigator and soldier, was the illegitimate son of the noble family from Entre-Douro e Minho. He directed military actions against the French-allied Caetés Indians and, upon their defeat in 1537, established a settlement at the site of a former Marin Indian village, henceforth known as Olinda, as well as another village at the Igaraçu, and would later helped found Recife. In addition, he started the cultivation of sugar cane, which would have an important role in the economic history of the country.

The captaincy of Pernambuco originally stretched for 60 leagues between the Igaraçu River and São Francisco River, and was called New Lusitania. He was responsible for most of the sugar production, the so-called white gold, in America and one of the most flourishing captaincy.

During the Colonial Period for centuries the captaincy of Pernambuco was the most prominent of Brazil, due to growing sugar cane. The importance and influence of the then captaincy was evident already in mid-1550, when the governor-general Sousa oversaw all of the captaincy of the colony, except that of Pernambuco, by the requirement of its donee Duarte Coelho.

In 1595, the coveted captaincy already suffered a severe blow. The English privateer James Lancaster took the village of Recife by assault plundering the wealth brought inside for a month. Sails with no less than fifteen ships crowded the looting. One of the biggest booty in the history of piracy.

The Dutch rule

Dutch Brazil Flag

In 1630 the Netherlands West Indies Company (WIC) turned their interests to the most promising of the captaincy of the Portuguese colonies in the Americas . With the Iberian Union (1580-1640) the Netherlands, first dominated by Spain after having achieved its independence through a blow to Spanish rule, at the same time would take the loss for the failure at Bahia. They sailed on December 26, 1629 from São Vicente, Cape Verde, a fleet of 66 ships and 7,280 men toward Pernambuco.

John Maurice of Nassau

In February 1630 the Flemish fleet sighted Pernambuco on the horizon, most of the fleet went to the north of the captaincy because the port of Recife was well fortified and garrisoned by artillery. The landing took place on the shore of Pau Amarelo. A weak resistance was organized at the crossing of the Rio Doce, but soon defeated by the superior numbered Dutch. Olinda also did not oppose major setbacks. The few structures of defense and military disorganization contributed to a faster fall of the Portuguese defense. Then the invading troops went into the village of Recife, which would oppose a higher resistance due to already being built strong.

By 1654 the captaincy came under the dominion of the West Indies Company. Dutch Brazil passed through important cultural, economic and social government of Count Maurice of Nassau. Olinda, was a difficult point of defense, according to Dutch design, it was abandoned and burned by the Flemish troops. Nassau's government built Maritania or Mauritsstad (present day Recife on delta islands, which had similarities to Holland's topography. Unlike Olinda, the low swamplands of Mauritsstad were easier to defend. Nassau's Dutch administration was noted for advancements in urbanism, culture, and science. Under Nassau's command, the future Recife would surpass Olinda in regional importance with the construction of bridges, schools, infrastructure and sanitation. The Dutch legacy is still recognizable, 500 years later, in Pernambuco's people, accent and architecture.

The occupation was strongly resisted and the Dutch conquest was only partially successful. The Dutch, who allowed sugar production to remain in Portuguese hands, regarded suppression of Palmares important, but they were unsuccessful.

John Maurice of Nassau.

Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, count of Nassau, was appointed as ruler of the Nieuw Holland. This change of tack by the government, almost entirely from exploitation by Portugal to something closer to a colony of settlement, some colonists did rebel against Portugal. Among them, we have the name of Domingos Fernandes Calabar, who fought against the Portuguese resistance until the end of his life.

City of Mauritsstad

Due to the cultivation of sugar and cotton, Pernambuco had become one of the few prosperous captaincies (the other notable one being São Vicente). With the support of the Dutch West India Company, sugar mills (engenho) were built and a sugar-based economy developed. In 1612, Pernambuco produced 14,000 tons of sugar; in the 1640s, more than 24,000 tons of sugar were exported to Amsterdam alone. While the sugar industry relied at first on the labor of indigenous peoples, especially the Tupis and Tapuyas, high mortality and economic growth led to the importation of African slaves from the late 17th century. Some of these slaves escaped the sugar-producing coastal regions and formed independent inland communities called mocambos, including Palmares.

Pernambuco Uprising

On May 15 in 1645 meeting on the São João Plantation, 18 insurgent leaders in Pernambuco signed commitment to fight against the Dutch rule in the captaincy. With the agreement signed, thus started the counter-attack on the Dutch invasion. The first major victory of the insurgents took place in Mount of Tabocas (now located in the municipality of Vitória de Santo Antão) where 1200 mazombos insurgents armed with guns, sickles, sticks arrows and defeated 1900 well-armed and well trained Dutch, in an ambush. The success has given leading Antonio Dias Cardoso the nickname Master of the Ambush. The Dutch who survived went on to Recife, and again defeated by an alliance of mazombos, Indians native and black slaves. They retreated back to the fortification in Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Pontal de Nazaré, Sirinhaém, Rio Formoso, Porto Calvo and Forte Maurício, was successively defeated by insurgents. Finally, Olinda was recovered by the rebels. Surrounded and isolated by a rebel band that became known as New Holland, going from Recife to Itamaracá, the invaders began to suffer from lack of food, which led them to attack cassava plantations in the villages of São Lourenço, Catuma, and Tejucupapo. On April 24 in 1646, there was the famous Battle of Tejucupapo, where peasant women armed with farm implements and arms drove out the Dutch invaders, humiliating them permanently. This historic fact established itself as the first major military participation of women in defense of the Brazilian territory.

On April 19 in 1648, the Dutch broke the siege, turning to Cabo São Agostinho. The site was the scene of two important battles of Brazilian military history - the two Battles of Guararapes. The fate of the invaders was sealed with the second Battle of Guararapes, but the invaders remained surrounded by 1654. On January 20 that year, the last Dutch defenses were penetrated, forcing the invaders to conclude a treaty of surrender. After 24 years of Dutch rule over Pernambuco, after 62 hours of negotiation, on January 27 in 1654 in Campina da Taborda, the Dutch surrendered unconditionally, delivering 73 keys of Recife to victorious Pernambucanos.

The uprising was a milestone in Pernambuco, Brazil, both militarily and with the consolidation of ambush and guerrilla tactics, the socio-politically, with the increase of miscegenation between the three races (black African, white European and native Indian) and the beginning a sense of nationhood.

Pernambucano Revolts and conspiracies

Pernambuco was the scene of several riots, revolutions and conspiracies in general inspired by the French Revolution by Freemasonry and Enlightenment. European ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity were scattered among the more fortunate Pernambuco, usually the aristocrats of the literary devices of cane sugar. She even exist a few months the Republic of Pernambuco, the result of 1817 Revolution. Although the latest revolution dating from the middle of nineteenth century, all of which profoundly influenced the state, and still do - the current flag, for example, was established in the 1817 Revolution.

The 1817 Revoltion Flag, with three stars representing Pernambuco, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte.

• War of the Peddlers 1710 to 1711
• Conspiracy of Suassuna 1801
• 1817 Revolution 1817
• Confederation of the Equator 1824
• November Rebellion 1831
• April Revolt 1832
• Cabanada 1832 to 1835
• Praieira Revolution 1848 to 1850