Portugal Expels Dutch from Brazil
After the Portuguese Restoration of 1640 under João IV ended the Iberian Union, Portugal resumed war with the Dutch to recover Brazil. A series of battles at Guararapes in 1648–1649 saw a multiracial Portuguese-Brazilian army defeat Dutch forces, and the final Dutch surrender at Recife followed in January 1654. The recapture of Brazil was of enormous strategic and economic importance to Portugal; it also displaced Dutch sugar planters and enslaved Africans to the Caribbean, giving rise to the plantation societies of Barbados, Jamaica, and the French Antilles. The episode demonstrated that Portugal retained sufficient maritime and colonial strength to challenge the VOC/WIC system.
- Year: 1648 CE
- Category: Military
