Tension at the top: From Fort Maurits to the heart of a colonial power struggle

Teotônio Vilela, Brazil. Stand on the windswept grounds of Fort Maurits today, near the banks of the São Francisco River in northeastern Brazil, and it’s hard to imagine the colonial drama that once unfolded here, where cannon fire echoed across the mangroves and Dutch banners flew over newly conquered land. This was not only a frontier of empire, but also the outer edge of a conflict that would shake the very foundations of colonial governance in Dutch Brazil.