Subject

dutch and Brazil slavery

Dutch Brazil was a Dutch colony in South America, from 1630 to 1654. It was made after Piet Hein found the Spanish silver fleet and the WIC made by that a lot of money. The WIC had so much money that it did a attack on the Portuguese habitants in Brazil. In 1637 the WIC decided to send Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen to the colony. He going to rule as a king over the colony. He formed Mauritsstad and had several palaces built. The people from there think that Johan do a very well job. Johan Maurits is also trying to restart the sugar production. This was difficult because there were not much workers. Johan Maurits therefore decided to sail to the African Gold Coast with an armed force at the end of 1637. Here he won that Elmina could be from him. Important, because he take over part of the slave trade. The fact that the Dutch also started the slave trade was special, because first the people were against slavery. Now, because there were not enough workers, the directors of the WIC decided to allow slavery. This was the start of the Dutch slave trade, which would have dured more than two centuries. Johan Maurits y returned to the Netherlands in 1643, It was a longer time not calm in the colony. The Dutch were with lesser people and there were many tensions with the Portuguese inhabitants. In 1645 a big fight broke out, it would never be completely peaceful again. In 1654 the Dutch were finally defeated by the Portuguese. The peace of “Den haag” was signed on August 6, 1661.