A new Maranhão law regulates Indigenous “rescue” and captivity

On 10 September 1611, the Crown enacted a law defining conditions under which Indigenous people could be captured in “just wars” and setting rules for their treatment and service. In practice,...

On 12 January 1616, Portuguese forces founded the settlement that became Belém, extending colonial occupation into the Amazon region. Military outposts, missions, and settlements were used to claim...

A Dutch military expedition entered Palmares in March 1645. A chapter built around the dated report of 21 March follows the killing of an unnamed Palmarista woman by a Dutch bugler. The surviving...

On 10 March 1649, João IV established the Companhia Geral do Comércio do Brasil by royal charter. It organized protected commerce and shipping between Portugal and Brazil and served military aims...

On 26 January 1654, Dutch authorities signed the capitulation ending their control of Recife and surrounding territories. The transfer changed the European power governing a major sugar-producing...

On 1 April 1680, a royal law prohibited the captivity of Indigenous people in the State of Maranhão, including cases previously treated as exceptions. It ordered officials to free people held...

On 28 April 1688, the Crown partially revoked the 1680 prohibition and restored rules from 1655 that permitted Indigenous captivity under specified “rescue” and war conditions. The reversal followed...

On 6 February 1694, artillery and a large colonial force breached the Cerca Real dos Macacos, Palmares’s principal fortified settlement. The attack destroyed a major center, killed and captured...

On 20 November 1695, Zumbi was located and killed by colonial forces after continuing resistance following the fall of Macaco. The date and details come largely through colonial reports, which...

On 11 February 1719, a royal law ordered new foundry houses in the mining districts, required gold to be cast and stamped there, and replaced an annual quota with the fifth (one fifth) levied on gold....