First Battle of Guararapes

First Battle of Guararapes
	Part of the Insurrection of Pernambuco
	; Batalha dos Guararapes by Victor Meirelles, 1875–1879
Date	19 April 1648
Location	Morro dos Guararapes (present-day Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Pernambuco, Brazil)
Result	Portuguese victory
Belligerents
West India Company	Kingdom of Portugal State of Brazil ;
Commanders and leaders
S. van Schoppe (WIA)	Francisco Barreto ; Filipe Camarão
Strength
5,000; 5 cannons	2,200
Casualties and losses
1,000; 1 cannon captured	480:; 80 killed; 400 wounded

Last updated December 20, 2024

The First Battle of Guararapes took place during the Insurrection of Pernambuco, between Dutch and Portuguese forces in Pernambuco, in a dispute for the dominion of that part of the Portuguese colony of Brazil.

Beginnings

On 18 April 1648, around forty five hundred Dutch soldiers and five artillery pieces marched south, coming from Recife. On their way south, they eliminated a small defensive outpost at the village of Barreta. The few survivors regrouped at the village of Arraial Novo do Bom Jesus [ pt ], headquarters of the Portuguese resistance, where they reported the incident.

Commanders of the resistance called for a march of 2,000 combatants towards the Jaboatão dos Guararapes ("Drums" in native language) Hills against an enemy better equipped and in superior numbers.

Forces involved in the conflict

Dutch Forces

Sigismund van Schoppe, the Dutch commander, experienced in Brazilian campaigns where he used to fight since he was a Captain, intended to proceed to the south, targeting initially the village of Muribeca - a key point to reach Santo Agostinho Cape. His plan was to isolate the resistance troops from reserves and supplies that might have come from the south, and then have them destroyed by his superior force.

Portuguese Forces

Francisco Barreto de Meneses, the Portuguese commander (Mestre-de-Campo-General), had recently arrived to that region and decided to follow his subordinate's suggestions: they would go to their enemy instead, and force the Dutch troops into a decisive encounter. This was a bold move, considering they had half the numbers of their adversaries, and no artillery. At this point, information sent from the fallen Barreta outpost had come to them, and they knew exactly the size and equipment available to the Dutch forces.

Battle

At the beginning of the fight, von Schoppe may have realized that he would have to fight a much stronger force than the one he had defeated in Barreta. Also, the opportunity to choose the proper place to meet a superior force was crucial for the Portuguese victory. The terrain was damp, mostly swamp, and did not allow for the classical in-line formation of European armies. Forced into a narrow front, the Dutch's advantages had been almost nullified.

The Portuguese forces were divided into five terços commanded by Barreto de Meneses, Fernandes Vieira [ pt ], Filipe Camarão, and Henrique Dias. André Vidal de Negreiros was the commander of the fifth terço kept in reserve.

Barreto de Meneses concentrated his efforts on the space between the East face and the main swamp. In the center, Fernandes Vieira's terço had the mission to penetrate as deep as possible into the enemy's formation. On the right flank, Filipe Camarão would use the long experience of the natives in fighting in the swamped terrain. Henrique Dias would use the "terço dos negros" (black's terço) to keep the Dutch from advancing and then avoiding the spear head advance from being flanked.

Limited by the lack of space for maneuver, von Schoppe concentrated most of his forces on the space between the east face and the main swamp. Three of his battalions were face-to-face against the terços of Vieira and Camarão, while two other battalions of his would try to flank the advancing forces and would be contained by the terço of Dias. Two Dutch battalions would not be allowed to maneuver and would stay back, out of action.

The closed space also did not allow the use of firearms to its full potential and maximized the use of native weapons and the short sword. Diogo Lopes Santiago, a possible eye witness of that event, gives his gruesome account of that encounter: "(...) and as they ran away, our soldiers would follow them with their swords with cuts and slashes, cutting legs, arms, heads, some killing, others wounding badly, laying on the field bodies without arms, trunks without heads (...) holding their sword in the middle of those squadrons, piles of enemies, giving spokes to some and to others death, showing the sword, tinted in blood".

Related Research Articles

Recife is the state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North and the Northeast Region of Brazil. It is the largest city in Pernambuco state, and the fourth-largest urban area in all of Brazil; the metro population of the city of Recife was 3,726,974 in 2022. Recife was founded in 1537, serving as the main harbor of the Captaincy of Pernambuco—known for its large-scale production of sugar cane. At one point, it was known as Mauritsstad, when it served as the capital city of the 17th century colony of New Holland of Dutch Brazil. Situated at the confluence of the Beberibe and Capibaribe rivers, before they drain into the South Atlantic Ocean, Recife is a major seaport along the Brazilian Atlantic coast. Its name is an allusion to the stone reefs that are present offshore. Together with the urban presence of the Beberibe and Capibaribe rivers and their tributaries, the many additional unique, small islands—and more than 50 bridges linking them throughout the city—create a distinct maritime or "riviera" atmosphere, leading to Recife being known as the "Venice of Brazil".

The Second Battle of Guararapes was the second and decisive battle in the Insurrection of Pernambuco between Dutch and Portuguese forces in February 1649 at Jaboatão dos Guararapes in Pernambuco. The defeat convinced the Dutch "that the Portuguese were formidable opponents, something which they had hitherto refused to concede." The Dutch still retained a presence in Brazil until 1654 and a treaty was signed in 1661.

D. Antônio Filipe Camarão was an Indigenous soldier from the Potiguara tribe near the Rio Grande do Norte area of the Portuguese colony of Brazil. His original tribal name was Poti, which means "prawn". He was born in the neighbourhood of Igapó, in Natal, or, according to some other historians, in the state of Pernambuco, or in Aldeia Velha.

Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas. The main cities of the colony were the capital Mauritsstad, Frederikstadt, Nieuw Amsterdam (Natal), Saint Louis, São Cristóvão, Fort Schoonenborch (Fortaleza), Sirinhaém, and Olinda.

The Confederation of the Equator was a short-lived rebellion that occurred in the northeastern region of the Empire of Brazil in 1824, in the early years of the country's independence from Portugal. The secessionist movement was led by liberals who opposed the authoritarian and centralist policies of the nation's first leader, Emperor Pedro I. The fight occurred in the provinces of Pernambuco, Ceará and Paraíba.

Jaboatão dos Guararapes is a city in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. It is a part of the Recife metro area. The population was 706,867 according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2020, making it the second most-populous city in the state of Pernambuco and the 27th in Brazil, ahead of major Brazilian state capitals such as Cuiabá and Aracaju. The city is a very important industrial center, hosting companies like Unilever and Coca-Cola. It is bordered by Recife in the north, Cabo de Santo Agostinho on the south, and Mangue forests to the west in Moreno.

Bernardo Vieira de Melo(1658-1718) was the first Governor of Rio Grande do Norte in the colony of Brazil.

The Fort of Santa Cruz de Itamaracá, popularly known as Fort Orange, is located on Itamaracá Island on the north coast of the state of Pernambuco in Brazil.

Domingos Fernandes Calabar was a Portuguese soldier, smuggler, and plantation owner during the time of the Netherlands intrusion into Brazil. He first fought for Portugal against the Netherlands before switching sides and fighting for the Netherlands. He was eventually captured and executed by the Portuguese for treason.

Francisco Barreto de Meneses was a Portuguese military officer and a colonial administrator in the colonies of São Tomé and Príncipe and Brazil.

The Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom is a cenotaph in the Brazilian capital Brasília, dedicated to the honour of national heroes. It was conceived during the national shock following the death in 1985 of president-elect Tancredo Neves, the first elected civilian president after twenty years of military rule.

André Vidal de Negreiros was a Portuguese colonial governor and military man born in the then colony of Brazil, known mainly for being one of the leaders of the Insurrection of Pernambuco, also known as the War of Divine Light, against Dutch colonization in Brazil (1624–1654).

The Church of Our Lady of the Conception of the Military is an 18th-century Roman Catholic church in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. It is located on Rua Nova in the historic center of Recife and is under the administration of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Olinda e Recife. The church was listed as a historic structure by the National Historic and Artistic Heritage Institute in 1941.

The Recapture of Recife was a military engagement between the Portuguese forces under Francisco Barreto de Meneses and the Dutch forces of Captain Walter Van Loo. After the Dutch defeats at Guararapes, their surviving men, as well as other garrisons of New Holland, joined in the area of Mauritsstad in order to make a last stand. However, after fierce fighting, the Portuguese victoriously entered the city and the remaining Dutch were ousted from Brazil.

Terço dos Homens is a Brazilian lay Catholic movement of Marian prayer by men only.

Batalha dos Guararapes is an oil painting created between 1875 and 1879. It represents a history painting from the first confrontation of the Battle of Guararapes that took place in the 17th century in the Captaincy of Pernambuco, which culminated with the banishment of the Dutch invaders from Brazilian lands. The canvas was painted by the Brazilian artist and professor of historical painting Victor Meirelles and the scene represents the victory of the Brazilian troops against the Dutch on April 19, 1648, in the first of the two confrontations that occurred in that battle, fought in the region of Guararapes Hill. The second confrontation would be fought months later at the same location, on February 19, 1649, leading to the definitive expulsion of the Dutch troops from the colony, which would only occur in January 1654, with the signing of their capitulation.

The Dutch invasions in Brazil, ordered by the Dutch West India Company (WIC), occurred during the 17th century.

The Insurrection of Pernambuco, also known as the War of the Divine Light, was a movement against Dutch rule in the Captaincy of Pernambuco. The revolution occurred in the course of the second Dutch invasion during the Dutch–Portuguese War and resulted in the expulsion of the Dutch from the northeast region of Brazil, followed by the reclamation of the territory by the Kingdom of Portugal.

The Parque Histórico Nacional dos Guararapes (PHNG) is a historical park located in the municipality of Jaboatão dos Guararapes, in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil.

The Battle of Casa Forte was the second major clash in the War of Divine Light, fought between Dutch troops and Portuguese militias. The confrontation took place in 1645 and ended in a Portuguese victory.

References

Citations

1 2 Marley 1998, p. 133.
↑ Marley 1998, p. 133: Von Schoppe marches out of Recife with five field pieces and 5,000 men in five regiments commanded by Colonel Brinck, van den Brande, van Elst, Hautyn, and Heerweer.
↑ Garcia 2012, p. 265.
↑ Marley 1998, p. 133: Von Schoppe is wounded and obliged to retire to Recife with 1,000 lost through death, injury or captured.
↑ Marley 1998, p. 133: (...) as opposed to 80 killed and 400 wounded in Barreto's ranks.

Bibliography

Garcia, Rodolfo (2012). Obras do Barão do Rio Branco VI: efemérides brasileiras (in Portuguese). Brasília: Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão. ISBN 978-85-7631-357-1.
Marley, David (1998). Wars of the Americas: a chronology of armed conflict in the New World, 1492 to the present. Abc-Clio. ISBN 978-0-87436-837-6.
Rocha, Sebastião da. History of Portuguese America. (in Portuguese)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[FOOTNOTEMarley1998133-1] 1 2 Marley 1998, p. 133.

[FOOTNOTEMarley1998p._133:_Von_Schoppe_marches_out_of_Recife_with_five_field_pieces_and_5,000_men_in_five_regiments_commanded_by_Colonel_Brinck,_van_den_Brande,_van_Elst,_Hautyn,_and_Heerweer-2] Marley 1998, p. 133: Von Schoppe marches out of Recife with five field pieces and 5,000 men in five regiments commanded by Colonel Brinck, van den Brande, van Elst, Hautyn, and Heerweer.

[FOOTNOTEGarcia2012265-3] Garcia 2012, p. 265.

[FOOTNOTEMarley1998p._133:_Von_Schoppe_is_wounded_and_obliged_to_retire_to_Recife_with_1,000_lost_through_death,_injury_or_captured-4] Marley 1998, p. 133: Von Schoppe is wounded and obliged to retire to Recife with 1,000 lost through death, injury or captured.

[FOOTNOTEMarley1998p._133:_(...)_as_opposed_to_80_killed_and_400_wounded_in_Barreto's_ranks-5] Marley 1998, p. 133: (...) as opposed to 80 killed and 400 wounded in Barreto's ranks.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]