The timely story of Dutch Brazil (1631-1654), intriguing in itself, opens a window on a clash of ideas. What is liberty? Is it freedom for a narrow class to run things as it pleases? Or is it an equality of rights for all? By the seventeenth century, the Dutch and Portuguese had diverged on this point. The invasion of Portugal’s prize colony of Brazil by the Dutch Republic can serve to highlight the move to contemporary views. Today both nations are comembers of the European Union, NATO, and other bodies, and embrace democratic norms. What changed? This question is addressed throughout the book’s three parts. The first part discusses liberty, freedom, and equality, and the events in both Portugal and the Netherlands that led up to the Dutch invasion. The second part is an abridged translation of an eyewitness account first published in 1648. By using the perspective of someone with unique access to both sides, we gain a visceral sense of what the shift to individual rights meant at the time. The era was brutal. Religious intolerance was pervasive. Part three covers the aftermath of Dutch Brazil and then some of the key influences that pushed Europeans out of a medieval mindset. Although Europe is the focus due to the historical subject matter, the contributions of indigenous peoples and the African diaspora in shaping Brazil stand out. The full story is little known even in Brazil. A balanced advance of liberty, the author concludes, can help mitigate present-day divisiveness. Foreword Clarion Reviews says:
… popular history done right and a necessary corrective to an often overlooked epoch … written in modern and easy-to-understand prose. The clarity of its language is mirrored in its clarity of thought … the battle between the Dutch and Portuguese in Brazil was in fact a battle between the future … and the past. … {A] true service to the study of history.
