2Francisco Bethencourt, who holds the Charles Boxer Chair of History at King’s College London, challenges the supposed opposition between “Northern” (British and Dutch) and “Southern” (Spanish and Portuguese) colonial systems. Bethencourt rightly argues that this view lumps the Spanish and Portuguese together when, in fact, they were quite different. The Portuguese crown, for example, used market strategies and capitalized on a porous monopoly. The author does agree that there were differences between the “Northern” and “Southern” empires. He points specifically to matters of religion and the Catholic propensity for establishing an ecclesiastical infrastructure that quite quickly became institutionalized. This in contrast to the Dutch which meant, in turn, that the latter did not have the entrenched structures in Brazil through which to govern. Moreover, unlike the Portuguese, the Dutch were unable to attract settlers to any real degree, a failure that ultimately meant they were unable to hold onto the colony.

3Christopher Ebert and Thiago Krause delve into trade in their aptly named “The Dutch Republic’s Brazil Trade after 1654”. They look at the Dutch West India Company (WIC) as a partnership between the state and private enterprise. Though the book sets very clear – and narrow – chronological boundaries, this chapter diverges from these confines and ventures into the eighteenth century. By the eighteenth century, the importance of trading companies such as the WIC and the Portuguese Brazil Company were in decline. This chapter challenges some of the existing historiography by questioning Portugal’s dependence on Great Britain. Instead, the authors show that Dutch imports made up close to a third of the British imports. While that number may not seem particularly impressive at first glance, it certainly sheds a different light on the relationships between these countries. The Portuguese and Dutch seem to have been more entangled economically than has commonly been believed.

4José Manuel Santos also challenges historiographical discourses by asserting that the Dutch threatened the Portuguese in Brazil long before they actually invaded the colony. He shows this by focusing on the myriad contacts made by Dutch sailors and merchants from the Low Countries and what information on the surprisingly vulnerable colony they brought back with them. Santos points out that the vast territory was an easy conduit for European rivals. To that end, this chapter places the Dutch-Portuguese rivalry in Brazil into the larger context of global European politics. The chapter masterfully demonstrates that this contestation should be understood within the framework of the Spanish American empire. As Santos shows, the Portuguese crown depended on the Jesuits as intermediaries between the indigenous population and the colonizers. The Spanish crown, in contrast, sought to enslave the indigenous population. Ultimately, Santos doubts the success of the Spanish Crown’s attempt to establish a uniform empire throughout Latin America.

5The volume hopes to go further, though. The “New Research Agenda” proposed by editor Cátia Antunes (pp. 8-11) seeks to “describe the ordeal of single individuals and communities in spaces bound by conquest and colonial competition, and the ability of these individuals and communities to develop mechanisms for coping with physical and psychological violence, distress, economic crisis, social disruption, exclusion and matters of basic survival”. Antunes goes on to argue that “This lack of perspective has resulted in little historiographical interest in colonial societies and their day-to-day experiences of conquest and their resilience as diverse, but unified, bodies of colonial expression” (p.10). While one could argue that this is overstated and that, in fact, there is a large and every growing body of work dealing with just these important issues, the point is well-taken. Studies of the economic and institutional histories of empire have dominated. This is especially the case of the Dutch empire where, until relatively recently, economic history of empire, especially the Dutch empire in the East, comprised the overwhelming majority of works published. That’s why it is somewhat surprising that, despite these lofty and welcome goals, only three of the chapters in the volume actually deal with the societies and the individuals that comprise these societies and their day-to-day encounters.

6One of these is Anne B. McGinness’ “Martyrdom after Tolerance: Solidifying Confessional Boundaries in Dutch Brazil”. This is an excellent addition to the volume which highlights confessional divides between Catholics and Protestants. While this is an oft-studied subject in European history, it tends to be left out of histories of empires in the Americas. In fact, the separation between these Christian denominations even in the “tolerant” Dutch Republic was untenable in Brazil. Even so, the Dutch tried to expel the Portuguese Jesuits. Despite this, there is evidence of a rather peaceful coexistence in the sources that McGinness expertly employs – a co-existence that was needed, if not by any sort of moral imperative, then by Dutch economic goals. In the end, though, McGinness shows that coexistence was not enough, and that the Portuguese uprising against the Dutch was brought about, at least in part, by (Catholic) religious fervor.

7Bruno Miranda also looks at the daily life of people in Brazil. His chapter “Daily Life and Resistance in the Dutch West India Company Army in Brazil (1630-1654)” delves with exquisite and fascinating detail into the Dutch sources to look at what life would have been like for soldiers serving in the Dutch WIC forces in the colony. He documents their chronic hunger and need for supplemental income to buy food and necessities. Miranda shows how informal network structures, such as outside employment, but also connections with the local population held the colony together. Perhaps the most innovative and interesting point made in the chapter is the fact that many of the soldiers chose to stay in the colony after their terms were up and served the WIC as civilians, often as clerks and writers. This shows a certain level of literacy that is surprising. The chapter also charts with precision the contacts that wove together the WIC, the Reformed Church, the military, and Portuguese and Dutch-owned businesses in the colony.

8Marco Antônio Nunes da Silva bases his chapter on inquisitorial records and also looks at the role of religion in the colony. His “Daily Life in Dutch Brazil: Insights from the Notebooks of the Inquisitorial Prosecutors” is self-evidently titled. He shows the extent of intermarriage between Portuguese women, either Catholic or New Christian, and Dutch officers. Some of these marriages were conducted in the Dutch Reformed Church. However, interestingly, others were held in Catholic churches. The chapter deals with the role of the Jewish community not only as New Christians but as practicing Jews, and what this meant for the Inquisition after the Portuguese regained the territory. What the sources reveal is how complex the social and cultural life was in the colony, and how diffuse, fluid, and shifting religious practices were. In this, the chapter aligns most closely with the stated goals of highlighting the role of individuals and communities in Brazil under Portuguese and Dutch rule.

9Granted, Ribeiro da Silva’s chapter on “Dutch and Portuguese Encounters in the South Atlantic: A Business Perspective, 1590s-1670s” looks at individual encounters by trodding the well-traveled path of trade and business relationships. Ribeiro da Silva argues that cooperation between merchants of different backgrounds such as Sephardic Jews, German, Flemish, and Dutch merchants both reinforced the state (including the Dutch West India Company) and served as a counterweight to these institutions. Her conclusion is that “members of the Dutch and Portuguese merchant communities … joined forces with partners in Brazil and Angola to participate in the South Atlantic economy. By combining their business expertise, they managed simultaneously to penetrate the monopolies of the Iberian Crowns and the WIC”. This is a conclusion and a methodology followed by the editor herself in her chapter “Trading to Brazil: Continuities and Changes in Cross-cultural Business Networks, 1621-1668.” Nevertheless, these chapters share a focus on economic and political histories, with a particular focus on institutions, flavored though they are with interesting and well-researched micro-histories. Despite the undoubted quality of these and all the contributions, it is really the three chapters sandwiched in the middle that add the most to the proposed new research agenda. The sum of the parts of this volume, in any case, add great value to our understanding of this often-overlooked period of imperial rivalry. The mastery of the various languages and excellent use of sources is to be commended, especially in a field that is so frequently dominated by a focus on the British and Anglo-American literature.