Table Of ContentAmsterdam’s Atlantic
Z
The eArly Modern AMericAs
Peter c. Mancall, series editor
Volumes in the series explore neglected aspects of
early modern history in the western hemisphere.
interdisciplinary in character, and with a special
emphasis on the Atlantic World from 1450 to 1850,
the series is published in partnership with the
Usc- huntington early Modern studies institute.
Amsterdam’s Atlantic
Z
Print culture and the Making of dutch Brazil
Michiel van Groesen
University of Pennsylvania Press
PhiladelPhia
copyright © 2017 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly
citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written
permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104–4112
www.upenn.edu/pennpress
Printed in the United states of America on acid- free paper
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
library of congress cataloging- in- Publication data
isBn 978-0- 8122-4866-1
conTenT s
Z
introdUction Amsterdam, dutch Brazil,
and the Atlantic World
1
chaPter 1 Anticipation
14
chaPter 2 Jubilation
44
chaPter 3 Appropriation
72
chaPter 4 Friction
102
chaPter 5 “Amsterdamnified”
127
chaPter 6 recollection
157
conclUsion Toward a Public Atlantic
187
notes
199
BiBliograPhy
231
index
255
acknowledgments
263
IntroductIon
Z
Amsterdam, Dutch Brazil,
and the Atlantic World
In his popular guidebook The Present State of the United Provinces (1669), the
English physician and diplomat William Aglionby made two important ob-
servations about the people of Holland. First, “they all love their Liberties, even
those that have made but a few years stay in that Province, as if the genius of it
had a secret power of mens inclinations.” And, second, “the Hollanders are
very constant in their resolutions, and seldome desist till they have obtain’d
their end.”1 Many seventeenth-c entury English travelers echoed these cultural
characteristics and emphasized how privileges and resolve converged in public
life. “The people say and print what they please, and call it liberty” observed
John Ray, the naturalist who visited Holland in 1663.2 Most Englishmen viewed
the relative freedom of expression with a mixture of envy and contempt. As
early as 1617, the trader James Howell with thinly veiled admiration described
“this City of Amsterdam” as “a great Staple of News.”3 Others, however, were
quick to point out that the relatively unimpeded circulation of rumors and
opinions was not always a blessing. When analyzing the growing popular dis-
content on the eve of the Civil War in 1641, the pamphleteer John Taylor com-
plained that “too many places of England [are] too much Amsterdamnified by
severall opinions,” a choice of words that showed little appreciation for the end-
less political exchanges that at times disrupted the young republic’s stability.4
If there was one political issue in the United Provinces that divided opin-
ions at the time when Taylor coined his term, it was Dutch Brazil. Despite
being nearly five thousand miles away, the rise and fall of Dutch Brazil was
one of the most heavily covered news stories of the Dutch Golden Age. The
stakes in Brazil were high. The attack on America signified the desire of the
2 Introduction
States General, the main political body of the United Provinces, to relieve the
country of Spanish military pressure after the first phase of the Eighty Years’
War, from 1568 to 1609, had been fought mainly on Dutch soil. The founda-
tion of the West India Company in 1621, immediately after the expiration of
the Twelve Years’ Truce, represented the perfect opportunity to turn the tables
on the Habsburgs and transfer part of the war to America, where the threat to
the religious freedom and economic interests of the Dutch was minimal and
the vulnerable Spanish treasury could be dealt a potentially crippling blow.
Initially the plan worked. From 1624 onward, the West India Company ruled
in northeast Brazil, first in Bahia, and later in Pernambuco and six adjacent
captaincies (Figure 1). Targeting Brazil was a collective effort. The West India
Company represented the interests of thousands of shareholders, urban dwell-
ers from the middle classes who had invested small sums in the Company in
the hope of making a profit. The active participation of ordinary citizens and
the intimate connection between military progress in the Atlantic world and
the fortunes of the war in the Low Countries are the main reasons that news
from Brazil was avidly followed at home until 1654, when Dutch imperial
ambitions finally collapsed.
The city of Amsterdam played a pivotal role in gathering, constructing,
and disseminating Atlantic news. During the rise and fall of Dutch Brazil, it
was both the leading financial center and the main information hub of early
modern Europe. Its relatively tolerant religious and ideological climate attracted
authors, free thinkers, and opinion makers, while its extensive trade network
ensured that newspapers, pamphlets, prints, maps, and scientific treatises pub-
lished here were certain to make an impact across the Continent.5 As a result,
Amsterdam’s political power was much greater than the theory of republican
government in the United Provinces permitted. The city council’s opinion
carried great weight in the provincial States of Holland, which in turn domi-
nated the process of decision making in the States General.6 A similar tension
between federal theory and political disparity shaped the dynamics in the board-
room of the West India Company. Although the organizational setup ensured
that Amsterdam did not have a majority vote, the city had raised nearly half of
the starting capital, was home to the largest and most powerful chamber, and
often provided the venue for the meetings of the Company’s CEOs, the Heeren
XIX (Gentlemen Nineteen). The decentralized system generally worked well,
but it also “promoted an exceptional amount of controversy, power struggles,
and non- official commentaries.”7 The domination of Amsterdam’s cultural
Amsterdam, Dutch Brazil, and the Atlantic World 3
FIgure 1. Dutch Brazil, c. 1643. Map prepared by UvA- Kaartenmakers.
Reprinted with permission.
sector, and its preeminence in public debate, further undermined the formal
checks and balances devised in the charter of the West India Company.
Like most cities in the Northern Netherlands, Amsterdam was a semi-
autonomous entity, its power founded on privileges, exemptions, and unwrit-
ten yet long-p racticed customs. In the absence of a strong central government,
many political decisions were taken by the urban authorities, from the burgo-
masters in the town hall and the clergymen and elders in the consistories to
