Dutch forces take Recife

A Dutch West India Company (WIC) fleet seized Salvador, the capital of Portuguese Brazil. The occupation targeted a major sugar-producing colony and port in a region whose wealth depended on...

After a year-long occupation, a large Iberian expedition forced the Dutch garrison to surrender Salvador. The episode shows that Dutch colonial expansion faced organized resistance and depended on...

Piet Hein’s WIC fleet captured a Spanish silver convoy near Cuba. The prize financed the company’s Atlantic war effort. The event belongs to an imperial struggle over American silver, shipping, and...

A WIC fleet landed near Olinda and Recife, beginning a major invasion of Portuguese Brazil. Dutch plans to seize sugar wealth relied on plantation production sustained by enslaved Africans, while...

Dutch troops took Olinda after landing in Pernambuco. The seizure was part of the WIC campaign to control the region’s sugar economy and ports. Its colonial project intensified violence over land...

The WIC authorized a campaign to seize Curaçao from Spain. The decision was part of a wider project to control Caribbean ports, shipping, and strategic routes. Curaçao would later become a major Dutch...

Johan van Walbeeck’s WIC expedition took control of Curaçao. The conquest brought the island into a Dutch imperial system built around military power and Atlantic commerce. Indigenous Caquetío...

The remaining Spanish force on Curaçao capitulated to the Dutch. Dutch control of the island consolidated after the conquest, while Indigenous inhabitants faced displacement and coercive colonial...

The Portuguese garrison agreed to surrender Elmina Castle to the Dutch. The fort became a major center of Dutch trade and, later, the transatlantic slave trade. Its history must be read through...

VOC forces seized Batticaloa from the Portuguese with support from the Kingdom of Kandy. The alliance reflected Kandy’s own strategy against Portuguese power; Dutch expansion then used the foothold to...