Atlantic Tapuia: Trade and Alliance between Indigenous People and Zealanders in the Amazon (1600-1641)

During the period of the Iberian Union (1580-1640), merchants from Zeeland, one of the richest provinces of the Netherlands, with or without the support of the two Great Trading Companies, began trading with indigenous groups from Maranhão and Grão-Pará. Considered by the Portuguese and Spanish to be heretics and pirates, these “Dutch” agents mainly used the Amazon and Xingu rivers as channels for trafficking a variety of natural products of great value in Europe. The indigenous people took advantage of this commercial interest to build advantageous military and political alliances, often manipulating the financial circuits of Dutch cities. This text aims to discuss the insertion of Amazonian products into the commercial networks of northern Europe, but also to understand how the indigenous peoples of the region took political and military advantage of the competition between the European powers.

Keywords:
Tapuias; Trade; Zeeland; Dutch; Amazon; 17th century