Imitation, Continuation, and Entanglement: Dutch Policies Toward Indigenous Peoples in Curaçao and the Guianas After the Loss of Dutch Brazil, 1654–1686

Before the end of the Spanish-Dutch war in 1648 and the loss of Dutch Brazil in 1654, Dutch-Indigenous relations in the South Atlantic were shaped by the West India Company’s desire to establish anti-Iberian alliances with Native peoples. This chapter examines Dutch policies toward Indigenous peoples in the Caribbean and the Guianas after the end of the Dutch war with Spain and the loss of Dutch Brazil. In developing Indigenous policies, Dutch officials in Curaçao, Tobago, and Suriname imitated and adapted practices that they had earlier learned and observed from Iberian colonizers in the Caribbean and Brazil. At the same time, the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and Suriname reshaped the Dutch Empire in the Atlantic. In Suriname, the Caribs forced the Dutch to end the enslavement of their people. On Curaçao the Caquetios used the growth of Dutch-Spanish trade to attract Catholic missionaries to the Dutch island-colony.