FORT ORANJE (ORANGE), ITAMARACÁ A DUTCH FORTRESS IN BRAZIL
Written by Marco Ramerini
 

Fort Orange is situated 60 km north of Recife (Pernambuco). In this area starting in 1516 the Portuguese founded a trading factory (feitoria). Itamaracá was one of the captaincy of Portuguese Brazil, it was a small one, but prosperous, sugar-planting was well established, it also produced tobacco, brazilwood and flax. The Brazilan North East was the more rich part of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, it was the main objective of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) when it decided to attack the Portuguese possession in Latin America. Recife and Olinda were the main Portuguese settlements in Pernambuco.

A Dutch fleet of 67 ships, 1170 guns and 7000 men under Hendrick Corneliszoon Loncq arrived at Pernambuco on February 1630 and soon they attacked the Portuguese defenses. By the evening of 16 February 1630 the Dutch were in possession of Olinda; by the 3rd of March all Portuguese resistance was over and the Dutch were masters of Recife, Olinda and the island of Antonio Vaz.

In the following year, in 1631, the Dutch decided to occupy also the Island of Itamaracá. This attempt was not crowned by success, the Dutch were repelled, but returning to Recife the Lieutenant Colonel Steyen Callenfels determined that a fort with 33 cannons had to be constructed near the Canal of Santa Cruz, that separates the island from the continent, this was the main way of access to the productive areas. To dominate the entrance of the Canal meant to control the maritime access to the rich interior. In May 1631, the Dutch built a fort named Oranje, on a little island off the southern tip of Itamaracá, at the southern entrance of the Santa Cruz canal, this fort was garrisoned by 366 men under the command of the Polish captain Crestofle d'Artischau Arciszewski. The original project of the fort was of the Dutch engineer Pieter Van Bueren. The first Dutch fort was initially a earth-wooden one, a square form with 4 bastions at its corners.

Koninklijke Tichelaar in Makkum    
 

25/04/2007 - MOWIC Bezoekt
Koninklijke Tichelaar in Makkum

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