Abstract:
This thesis aims to analyze the resistance of protestant Potiguaras who took refuge in the Ibiapaba mountains, Ceará, after the expulsion of the Dutch in 1654 until the arrival of the Jesuit priest Antônio Vieira in 1660. The thesis argues that since the first meeting between Potiguaras and the Dutch in 1625, at Baía da Traição, Paraíba; an alliance was formed between the two nations. This portion of the Potiguara nation contributed [in this alliance], from the invasion plans in 1630 in Pernambuco, to the expansion and consolidation of Nova Holanda, and even after the expulsion of the Dutch in 1654. They did not accept the Portuguese pardon contained in the Capitulation of Taborda in 1654, they formulated a plan of resistance, migrated to Serra da Ibiapaba, in Ceará, and sent Antônio Paraupaba to inform the Dutch States General of this plan, which initially would be a two-year wait. However, the Potiguaras resisted for at least six years, which aroused the Portuguese interest in sending Antônio Vieira. This thesis argues that the fact that these Potiguaras converted to the reformed faith, associated with political and military interests on both sides, was a determining factor for this alliance. And, specifically, in the case of the refuge in Ibiapaba, the concept of resistance was expressed in the practice of a waiting on God; within this specific context, it became, in addition to a religious waiting, a political resistance. The thesis concludes that it is no longer possible to look at Dutch Brazil, only as Dutch, without the decisive participation of the Potiguaras. For they saw in this colonizing project the opportunity to free themselves from the danger of slavery, as well as the real possibility of being part of this state, protected in the proper proportions. And that its temporality would extend until the signing of the Hague Treaty in 1661, as there was political-religious resistance from Potiguara in Ibiapaba between the expulsion in 1654 and the signing of the Treaty in 1661. The thesis analyzed primary sources, both produced by the indigenous, as well as those that contain impressions about them, to verify the amount of theological knowledge contained in them, comparing them with the doctrinal documents of the Dutch Reformed Church. And the Social Sciences were used to provide the specific critique of the sources, especially the new indigenous history that considers the protagonism of indigenous populations.
