Mascate War
Encyclopedia
Mascate War, The War of the Peddlers or Guerra dos Mascates (Portuguese) was a conflict fought between rival groups of commerce in Olinda
and Recife
, Pernambuco
, Brazil
from 1710 to 1711.
Conflicts between the landowners and mills from the state were concentrated in Olinda and Recife Portuguese traders, called pejoratively of peddlers. When there was sedition among the peddlers of Recife and the European gentry of Olinda, the sectarians of the hawkers was nicknamed Tundacumbe, vines and Cameroon
, and the nobles and their partisans, shaved legs - because when they would take arms, they went barefoot, with less embarrassment for the manning, and so were known as skilful in them, and very valuable, so in the history of Pernambuco
, the moniker is synonymous with shaved legs nobility.
crisis led to Portugal forming a personal union with Spain under the Habsburg
King Philip II
. The unification of the two Iberian kingdoms, known as the Iberian Union
, lasted until 1640, although the institutions of both kingdoms remained separate. The Netherlands (the Seventeen Provinces) obtained independence from Spain in 1581, leading Philip II to prohibit commerce with Dutch ships, including in Brazil.
Since the Dutch had invested large sums in financing sugar production in the Brazilian Northeast, a conflict began with Dutch privateers plundering the coast: they sacked Salvador
in 1604, from which they removed large amounts of gold and silver before a joint Spanish-Portuguese fleet recaptured the town.
From 1630 to 1654, the Dutch set up more permanently in commercial Recife and aristocratic Olinda, and with the capture of Paraiba
in 1635, the Dutch controlled a long stretch of the coast most accessible to Europe (Dutch Brazil
), without, however, penetrating the interior. The large Dutch ships were unable to moor in the coastal inlets where lighter Portuguese shipping came and went. Ironically, the result of the Dutch capture of the sugar coast was a higher price of sugar in Amsterdam
. During the Nieuw Holland episode, the colonists of the Dutch West India Company
in Brazil were in a constant state of siege, in spite of the presence of the Count
John Maurice of Nassau
as governor (1637–1644) in Recife. Nassau invited scientific commissions to research the local flora and fauna, resulting in added knowledge of the territory. Moreover, he set up a city project for Recife and Olinda, which was partially accomplished. Remnants survive to this day.
After several years of open warfare, the Dutch formally withdrew in 1661; the Portuguese paid off a war debt in payments of salt. Few Dutch cultural and ethnic influences remain.
After the expulsion of the Dutch in the Northeast of Brazil, the region's economy, dependent on the agro-manufacture of sugar, no capital to invest in crops, equipment and manpower (slave), compared to the decline in product prices in international market due to competition from the like product produced in the West Indies, went into crisis.
Economically dependent on Portuguese merchants, to whom aggravated by falling into debt in international sugar prices, the landowners did not accept the Pernambuco political-administrative emancipation of Recife, by then a county subject to Olinda. The emancipation of Recife was seen as an aggravating the situation of local landowners (debtors) before the bourgeoisie Lusitanian
(creditor), which passed by this mechanism is put in the level of political equality.
The competition has affected the wealthy planters of Olinda, which fell into decay and did not get more profits from sugar production, had no capital to pay off their debts. In search of an exit, the planters were to borrow money. At that time the Portuguese traders called peddlers, occupied the city of Recife and had money to lend to you at Olinda, but were charging very high interest rates for loans, caused the increasing indebtedness of the olindeses.
Until the late seventeenth century, Olinda was the main city of Pernambuco, where the rich plantation owners lived, who thought their fortune would never end. But it happened due to a price war in the European market for sugar and sugar planters of Olinda began to borrow money from traders from Recife, a mere village. Gradually, hatred and conflicts arose. Aware of its importance, traders asked the king of Portugal that the village was elevated to town. As he was being implemented the separation between the two cities in 1710, the lords of Olinda revolted, having as one of the leaders mill owner Bernardo Vieira de Melo
. No condition to resist, the wealthiest merchants of Recife fled to avoid being captured. The city intervened in the region in 1711, arresting the leaders of the rebellion. Recife was elevated to the status of capital of Pernambuco.
After the victory of the hawkers traders perceive the predominance of trade in relation to colonial production that had already occurred since the lords of Olinda caught the interest on money borrowed so the peddlers can keep their colonial system.
Having members of the landed aristocracy abandoned Olinda to escape the plantations where they lived, hostilities commenced in Vitória de Santo Antão
, led by their Captain General, Pedro Ribeiro da Silva. These forces, thickened in Afogados with reinforcements from São Lourenço
and Olinda, under the leadership of Bernardo Vieira de Melo and his father, Colonel Leonardo Bezerra Cavalcanti, invaded Recife, demolishing the Pillory
, tearing the Provincial regal, freeing arrested and persecuting people connected to the governor Sebastião de Castro Caldas Barbosa (peddlers). This, in turn, in order to ensure their safety, he withdrew to Bahia
, and left the government over the captaincy of Bishop Manuel Álvares da Costa.
The peddlers fought back in 1711, Olinda invading and causing fires and destroying villages and plantations in the region.
The appointment of a new governor, Félix José de Mendonça, and the intervention of troops sent from Bahia ended the war. The commercial bourgeoisie was supported by the metropolis and Recife maintained its autonomy.
In the nineteenth century Frei Caneca
write about it: "When the country lacked the arms and blood of their sons, along with the browns have not given him his arms and blood whites and blacks? When those tears have washed their irons despotism, did not go well with the edge of tears? Before the pernambucanos have suffered more than other major storms in Pernambuco. Sedition in the last century, all entering the fray, only about white people came the plagues and lightning, the dungeons were full of the most respectable people of Pernambuco, others piled on more entrenched in the woods and distant hinterlands, and they were loaded irons and sent to Portugal Colonel Leonardo Bezerra Cavalcanti and his two sons, Maj. Bernardo Vieira de Melo, and with a son (Andrew) and his brother, the Commissioner General Manuel Cavalcanti Bezerra, Captain André Dias de Figueiredo and his brother Lieutenant colonel, the licensee José Tavares de Holanda, Captain João de Barros Correia, Captain Cosme Bezerra Cavalcanti and others. ' («Frei Joaquim do Amor Divino Caneca», Coleção Formadores do Brasil, 1994, p. 283).
The autonomist and anti-Lusitanian feeling of Pernambuco, which came from the fight against the Dutch continued to manifest itself in other conflicts such as the Conspiracy of Suassuna
, Pernambucan Revolution
of 1817 and the Confederation of the Equator
.
Olinda
Olinda is a historic city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, just north of Recife and south of Paulista...
and Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
, Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
from 1710 to 1711.
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, and the nobles and their partisans, shaved legs - because when they would take arms, they went barefoot, with less embarrassment for the manning, and so were known as skilful in them, and very valuable, so in the history of Pernambuco
History of Pernambuco
The history of Pernambuco begins before the discovery of Brazil, when the current state of the territory was populated by Tabajara Indians.- Colonial Period: the province of Pernambuco :...
, the moniker is synonymous with shaved legs nobility.
Background
In 1580, a successionSuccession
Succession is the act or process of following in order or sequence. It may further refer to:*Order of succession, in politics, the ascension to power by one ruler, official, or monarch after the death, resignation, or removal from office of another, usually in a clearly defined order*Succession...
crisis led to Portugal forming a personal union with Spain under the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
King Philip II
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
. The unification of the two Iberian kingdoms, known as the Iberian Union
Iberian Union
The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...
, lasted until 1640, although the institutions of both kingdoms remained separate. The Netherlands (the Seventeen Provinces) obtained independence from Spain in 1581, leading Philip II to prohibit commerce with Dutch ships, including in Brazil.
Since the Dutch had invested large sums in financing sugar production in the Brazilian Northeast, a conflict began with Dutch privateers plundering the coast: they sacked Salvador
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
in 1604, from which they removed large amounts of gold and silver before a joint Spanish-Portuguese fleet recaptured the town.
From 1630 to 1654, the Dutch set up more permanently in commercial Recife and aristocratic Olinda, and with the capture of Paraiba
Paraíba
Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east...
in 1635, the Dutch controlled a long stretch of the coast most accessible to Europe (Dutch Brazil
Dutch Brazil
Dutch Brazil, also known as New Holland, was the northern portion of Brazil, ruled by the Dutch during the Dutch colonization of the Americas between 1630 and 1654...
), without, however, penetrating the interior. The large Dutch ships were unable to moor in the coastal inlets where lighter Portuguese shipping came and went. Ironically, the result of the Dutch capture of the sugar coast was a higher price of sugar in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. During the Nieuw Holland episode, the colonists of the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
in Brazil were in a constant state of siege, in spite of the presence of the Count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
John Maurice of Nassau
John Maurice of Nassau
John Maurice of Nassau was count and prince of Nassau-Siegen.He was born in Dillenburg...
as governor (1637–1644) in Recife. Nassau invited scientific commissions to research the local flora and fauna, resulting in added knowledge of the territory. Moreover, he set up a city project for Recife and Olinda, which was partially accomplished. Remnants survive to this day.
After several years of open warfare, the Dutch formally withdrew in 1661; the Portuguese paid off a war debt in payments of salt. Few Dutch cultural and ethnic influences remain.
After the expulsion of the Dutch in the Northeast of Brazil, the region's economy, dependent on the agro-manufacture of sugar, no capital to invest in crops, equipment and manpower (slave), compared to the decline in product prices in international market due to competition from the like product produced in the West Indies, went into crisis.
Economically dependent on Portuguese merchants, to whom aggravated by falling into debt in international sugar prices, the landowners did not accept the Pernambuco political-administrative emancipation of Recife, by then a county subject to Olinda. The emancipation of Recife was seen as an aggravating the situation of local landowners (debtors) before the bourgeoisie Lusitanian
Lusitanian
Lusitanian may refer to:*Lusitanians, an ancient people of western Iberian Peninsula.**Lusitanian language, the language of the ancient Lusitanians.**Lusitanian mythology, the mythology of the ancient Lusitanians....
(creditor), which passed by this mechanism is put in the level of political equality.
The competition has affected the wealthy planters of Olinda, which fell into decay and did not get more profits from sugar production, had no capital to pay off their debts. In search of an exit, the planters were to borrow money. At that time the Portuguese traders called peddlers, occupied the city of Recife and had money to lend to you at Olinda, but were charging very high interest rates for loans, caused the increasing indebtedness of the olindeses.
Until the late seventeenth century, Olinda was the main city of Pernambuco, where the rich plantation owners lived, who thought their fortune would never end. But it happened due to a price war in the European market for sugar and sugar planters of Olinda began to borrow money from traders from Recife, a mere village. Gradually, hatred and conflicts arose. Aware of its importance, traders asked the king of Portugal that the village was elevated to town. As he was being implemented the separation between the two cities in 1710, the lords of Olinda revolted, having as one of the leaders mill owner Bernardo Vieira de Melo
Bernardo Vieira de Melo
Bernardo Vieira de Melo was the first Governor of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte.-Biography:Vieira was born in the parish of Muribeca in 1658, and began life as a Brazilian backwoodsman...
. No condition to resist, the wealthiest merchants of Recife fled to avoid being captured. The city intervened in the region in 1711, arresting the leaders of the rebellion. Recife was elevated to the status of capital of Pernambuco.
After the victory of the hawkers traders perceive the predominance of trade in relation to colonial production that had already occurred since the lords of Olinda caught the interest on money borrowed so the peddlers can keep their colonial system.
The conflict
In February 1709, shortly after receiving the Royal Charter which brought the town to a village, traders opened the Pelourinho and the town hall, formally separating the Recife Olinda, the seat of captaincy.Having members of the landed aristocracy abandoned Olinda to escape the plantations where they lived, hostilities commenced in Vitória de Santo Antão
Vitória de Santo Antão
Vitória de Santo Antão is a city in the State of Pernambuco, in Brazil, located at -Geography:* State - Pernambuco* Region - Zona da mata Pernambucana...
, led by their Captain General, Pedro Ribeiro da Silva. These forces, thickened in Afogados with reinforcements from São Lourenço
São Lourenço
São Lourenço may refer to:*São Lourenço, Cape Verde, a village and a cove*São Lourenço, Minas Gerais, Brazil*São Lourenço , a parish in the municipality of Portalegre, Portugal...
and Olinda, under the leadership of Bernardo Vieira de Melo and his father, Colonel Leonardo Bezerra Cavalcanti, invaded Recife, demolishing the Pillory
Pillory
The pillory was a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse, sometimes lethal...
, tearing the Provincial regal, freeing arrested and persecuting people connected to the governor Sebastião de Castro Caldas Barbosa (peddlers). This, in turn, in order to ensure their safety, he withdrew to Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
, and left the government over the captaincy of Bishop Manuel Álvares da Costa.
The peddlers fought back in 1711, Olinda invading and causing fires and destroying villages and plantations in the region.
The appointment of a new governor, Félix José de Mendonça, and the intervention of troops sent from Bahia ended the war. The commercial bourgeoisie was supported by the metropolis and Recife maintained its autonomy.
In the nineteenth century Frei Caneca
Frei Caneca
Joaquim da Silva Rabelo, later Frei Joaquim do Amor Divino Rabelo , commonly known as Frei Caneca , was a Brazilian religious leader, politician, and journalist who was involved in multiple revolts in Northeastern Brazil during the early 19th century.-Biography:Frei Caneca was the firstborn son of...
write about it: "When the country lacked the arms and blood of their sons, along with the browns have not given him his arms and blood whites and blacks? When those tears have washed their irons despotism, did not go well with the edge of tears? Before the pernambucanos have suffered more than other major storms in Pernambuco. Sedition in the last century, all entering the fray, only about white people came the plagues and lightning, the dungeons were full of the most respectable people of Pernambuco, others piled on more entrenched in the woods and distant hinterlands, and they were loaded irons and sent to Portugal Colonel Leonardo Bezerra Cavalcanti and his two sons, Maj. Bernardo Vieira de Melo, and with a son (Andrew) and his brother, the Commissioner General Manuel Cavalcanti Bezerra, Captain André Dias de Figueiredo and his brother Lieutenant colonel, the licensee José Tavares de Holanda, Captain João de Barros Correia, Captain Cosme Bezerra Cavalcanti and others. ' («Frei Joaquim do Amor Divino Caneca», Coleção Formadores do Brasil, 1994, p. 283).
The autonomist and anti-Lusitanian feeling of Pernambuco, which came from the fight against the Dutch continued to manifest itself in other conflicts such as the Conspiracy of Suassuna
Conspiracy of Suassuna
The Conspiracy of Suaçunas also known for its archaic spelling - The Conspiracy of Suassuna - was a conspiracy to overthrow Portuguese rule in Brazil at the dawn of the 19th century...
, Pernambucan Revolution
Pernambucan Revolt
The Pernambucan Revolt of 1817 occurred in the province of Pernambuco in the Northeastern region of Brazil, and was sparked mainly by the decline of sugar cane production and the influence of the Freemasonry in the region...
of 1817 and the Confederation of the Equator
Confederation of the Equator
The Confederation of the Equator was a short-lived rebellion that occurred in the northeastern region of Brazil during that nation's struggle for independence from Portugal. The secessionist movement was led by wealthy landowners who opposed early reforms by the nation's first leader, Emperor...
.