A Historia do Novo Israel

"Today, we declare our total independence-not just from the King of the Netherlands, but from all of the Gentile lords and princes who have oppressed us during our two thousand years of exile. Today, we cast off the last remnant of that tyranny. We may not see our beautiful Israel until the Messiah's coming, but until then, we shall have a new Israel, that shall serve as a beacon of hope to all the Jewish people of the world!"

Abraham Berg, "Declaration of the Republic of Maurícia"

"At first, the Nazis seemed so distant, so far away from quiet Vilemstad*. When the first ship pulled into the harbor and we saw the wretched, teaming mass on the decks, the whole city was in shock. And then came a second, and a third...before long everyone-even those Ashkenazim who had been so in love with Hun Kultur-had come to hate the Germans with a deep, burning passion...When President Dacosta read the declaration of war out to Congress, the dozen of us huddled around the radio broke out into applause. The army couldn't print the enlistment forms out fast enough...sure, we knew many of us would die. But after all we had seen, after all the refugees had told us, we couldn't do anything else."

-Moses Lopes, quoted in Maurícia in the Second World War: an Oral History. Adam Epstein: University of Porto Novo Press, 1996
**********
Officially, the Portugal of the 1530's had no Jews. It had been that way since 1497, when, pressured by Queen Isabella, Manuel I of Portugal wrote them out of legal existence with his almighty royal pen. No, Portugal had Marranos and Conversos-former Synagogue-goers who had just happened to see the error of their ways around the time His Majesty decreed that not doing so might put one on the wrong end of a headsman's sword. And if some of them persisted with their beliefs in secret-well, crown and church had solutions for that, all of them extremely unpleasant.

In the wider world, however, Portugal's explorers sailed around the world, opening up new lands for trade and conquest. One in particular, Brazil, promised bounties of agricultural wealth, if only people could be found to exploit it. Portugal had divided Brazil into "Captaincies"-horizontal strips of land, each given to a lord who was responsible for developing it, and in turn would reap the profits, such as they may be. And in another world, a world just like our own except for one small detail, the Captain of Pernambuco happened to be friends with a priest of the Inquisition. And thus, when the next group of not-quite-Conversos found its unfortunate way into the Inquisition's hands, the sentence was harsh and unforgiving-exile.

Laboring in the Brazilwood forests and sugar plantations, few of the Pernambuco exiles would live to the end of their natural lives. Fewer still would have children. A few families in modern Mauricia-descendants of Jews who fled Brazil in the 1650's-tell stories of forefathers from among those earliest deportees. Whether there is any truth to them is impossible to know. But the precedent had been established, and transportation to America quickly became one of the inquisition's most feared punishments.

Among the Captaincies to receive convicted Jews was Sao Vincente. In 1538, the infant colony suffered an outbreak of Malaria and Yellow Fever** that left its main settlement, Piratininga***, almost deserted. Needing to repopulate the colony quickly, the Captain of Sao Vincente also turned to the Inquisition, and conditions in the south of Portuguese America proved to be better than those in the north. The Conversos sentenced to rebuild Sao Vicente soon came to outnumber the genuinely Christian inhabitants. Further from the equator, the climate was not quite so hot and the swamps not quite so deadly, and influential Conversos in Lisbon pleaded for their unlucky brethren to at least be sent to a place where they might have a chance at living. And thus, the stream of deportees began to flow to the south of Portuguese America-to future Mauricia-while the people-shortage in the North was increasingly dealt with through the slave trade. In 1547, a colonial expedition from Portugal-the majority composed of newly deported Conversos-landed in the bay of Rio de Janeiro, and what would become Mauricia's principle city was born. Increasingly, Portugal came to view the southern half of its American territory as a penal colony for Jews, and while new arrivals often had to labor on sugar or Brazilwood plantations, these weren't nearly as numerous as in the north, and many deportees were eventually able to buy their way out and take up life as craftsmen in colonial towns, or even independent farmers on the edges of civilization. Already, two very different nations had begun to form in Portuguese America-and by the time Lisbon realized just what it had created in the south, it would be too late.

*Originally founded by the Dutch as Willemstad. "Vilemstad" is my attempt at a "Portugization"-any Portuguese speakers reading this are welcome to tell me how plausible this sounds
**Second POD.
***Modern Sao Paulo
***************************
So, what do you all think? I once did a TL with somewhat similar themes to this one, though I never finished it. I have the history of Brazil and Mauricia (yes, these will be two different countries, both in the territory of OTL Brazil) worked out in my head up till about 1700, and I know roughly where I want it to go after that. And while I might now get it done in a week, I will try to be as succinct as possible.
 
Last edited:
Very interesting. As a Brazilian and a Marrano descendant I love it. Just a minor nitpick regarding the language: the name "Israel", as most countries, is a feminine noun, so in Standard Portuguese you should write "Nova Israel." In addition, Guilhermstad does sound weird in Portuguese. Nonetheless, I don't know how you want to develop your TL, but, given the POD, the possibility of a patois/creole-ish language gives you infinite options regarding linguistics.

I happen to read a lot about Dutch Brazil, feel free to PM me to discuss anything... Subscribed!
 
Very interesting. As a Brazilian and a Marrano descendant I love it. Just a minor nitpick regarding the language: the name "Israel", as most countries, is a feminine noun, so in Standard Portuguese you should write "Nova Israel." In addition, Guilhermstad does sound weird in Portuguese. Nonetheless, I don't know how you want to develop your TL, but, given the POD, the possibility of a patois/creole-ish language gives you infinite options regarding linguistics.

I happen to read a lot about Dutch Brazil, feel free to PM me to discuss anything... Subscribed!

Israel is a masculine noun in Portuguese. The OP was correct with Novo Israel. See below:
http://www.priberam.pt/DLPO/Israel
 
Very interesting. As a Brazilian and a Marrano descendant I love it. Just a minor nitpick regarding the language: the name "Israel", as most countries, is a feminine noun, so in Standard Portuguese you should write "Nova Israel." In addition, Guilhermstad does sound weird in Portuguese. Nonetheless, I don't know how you want to develop your TL, but, given the POD, the possibility of a patois/creole-ish language gives you infinite options regarding linguistics.

I happen to read a lot about Dutch Brazil, feel free to PM me to discuss anything... Subscribed!

Israel is a masculine noun in Portuguese. The OP was correct with Novo Israel. See below:
http://www.priberam.pt/DLPO/Israel

Thanks! Yeah, I do think "Guilhermstad" might have been a little much-I'll change it to Vilemstad. As for the linguistic situation, I'm not intending to have any Dutch-Portuguese creoles. Its my impression that there was a separate "Jewish" dialect of Portuguese, which is what most of the people deported to Brazil ITTL would speak. Further isolation from Portuguese will deepen the differences, and by TTL's 20th century, the inhabitants of the Jewish part of Brazil will come to see themselves as speaking a separate language, different from yet somewhat mutually intelligible with Portuguese (think Dutch and Afrikaans...or actually, think of Ladino, except derived from Portuguese rather than Spanish). Since I can't really do the conlang thing, I'm just going to fudge and use modern Portuguese (which at least exists in Google translate :eek: ).
 
Cool idea, I'm subscribing. I'm interested to see how the history of South America develops, hopefully they'll be more on par with their northern counterparts.
 
the European population grew very slowly (until the Minas Gerais gold rush, which prompted greater settlement of the southern half of Brazil - which had a more moderate climate) at a rate behind that of nearly every other settler colony.

It's also important to mention that African Slave population grew in a even slower pace both compared with the local Portuguese and with North American slaves. Brazilian population growth in colonial times was the result of constant relations with Portugal and Africa.

(the climate in Northern Brazil is not very conductive to settler colonization)

Actually, climate-wise there's not an important difference between Southeastern and Northeastern Brazil - it's only true if you talk about Brazilian South, the Amazon or the Semi-arid. All Brazilian east coast is suitable to cash crops and have similar temperature range, vegetation, etc.
The fact that Brazilian Northeast concentrates most of the Black/Mulatto population is a socio-economic fact.
 
I like it! What about Spanish Jews sent to the Caribbean? Will that happen, and would the Brazilian Jews try to connect with them?
 
biomas.jpg

population-density-of-brazil.gif


The yellow area of the first map still today concentrates most of Brazilian population. This was even more evident before the construction of Brasília. Also, go to wikipedia and analyse the climate charter of the cities in this yellow area, there's not a great difference. The only great physical difference between Northeastern coast and the Southeast is related to soil characteristics and predominance hilly areas or not.
 
For the first few decades, Portuguese America was a rather permissive environment for secret Jews. This was not so much a matter of deliberate policy as survival-in an environment where disease, starvation, and Indian attacks were a constant worry, and where a run of bad luck might spell doom, no one had the time or resources that the Inquisition inevitably required.To defend against the natives, the governors of Brazil allowed many Conversos to carry arms and the more "trustworthy" (in their eyes) ones to form small militias-something that would have been unheard of in Portugal. Though technically required of the Conversos, regular church attendance was not rigorously enforced, and, so long as one was not obvious about being a secret Jew, no one cared. To the greats in Lisbon, the "American Jewish" problem was far away and, well, not really a problem-at least they weren't nearby where the government would have to deal with them. The Inquisition already seized the property of most deportees before sending them over, and in America-at least during its first few decades-they rarely aquired enough to be worth going after again. At any rate, the Portuguese crown mostly concentrated its efforts on the north, especially the rich sugar fields of Pernambuco and Bahia. Most people who left Portugal of their own choice were bound for the riches of Salvador and Recife, as were most slave ships. In the south, meanwhile, many Marranos went to church sometimes to avoid suspicion, but their real loyalty was to their old religion and the Rabinos do Campo-the "Field Rabbis" whose illegal services-held in pastures, barns, and forests when the authorities weren't looking-kept the old faith alive. But such tolerance was only born of necessity, and would only last as long as the frontier left no other choice.

By the late 1580's, around 20,000 people had been deported to Brazil, concentrated mostly in the south. Many had started families and had children. Having survived its precarious early days, the colony was big enough that Indians, disease, and famine were no longer the existential threats they once were. And the Inquisition, hearing reports of the rampant Judaism going on in southern Brazil, began to turn its suspicious eye westward.

In 1587, the Holy Office established a branch in Rio de Janeiro, and soon its agents radiated across the country, determined to stamp out Judaism. One by one, the secret Rabbis were found, and dealt with. Long-ignored restrictions on Conversos-and some new ones the Inquisition devised-began to be enforced. Deportees and their descendants were no longer allowed to bear arms. They could not ride horses in cities. They began to be informally barred from certain professions, the crown encouraging Christian immigrants to come over instead. And any Converso who owned too much land or became too wealthy at trade inevitably caught the Inquisition's attention. Deportations from Portugal began to be reduced, but the Inquistion came up with its own dread punishment-lapsed heretics could become indentured to the crown for a specified term, bound to work in whatever place the crown wanted them. The term was usually in excess of ten years, and the place was usually a sugar plantation.

Not all the Marranos went quietly. Outside the settled coastline, the south of Portuguese America was still a trackless wilderness-a wild untamed place full of Indians, jaguars, and other dangers, but also a vast expanse where one could completely disappear. And in the south of Brazil, an increasing number of people needed to disappear. Converso farmers unwilling to give up their guns, secret Rabbis unable to safely come into any town, people tipped off that the Inquisition was coming for them-all ran into the wilderness. Many would meet their end in the thick jungle, but many survived, and the survivors slowly began to gather into groups. Really desperate, and really angry groups. The term "Maroon" had, at first, applied to runaway slaves, but in the south of Brazil, history would use it for the groups of fugitive Jews who formed much the same reasons. On the edge of the frontier, Jewish Maroons formed small, hidden settlements or bands of up to a few dozen people. Some were caught, some succumbed to the many dangers of jungle life, but many persisted, developing friendly relations with the local Indian tribes and using spears, bows and arrows, and stolen guns to defend themselves. After the creation of Mauricia, the Jewish Maroons would become one of its greatest cultural icons, and the subject of unnumbered books, songs, and movies. And none would be more famous than the figure known as "Dom David".

Untangling fact from fiction is a difficult task with this character. Historians are not sure of where he was born, though he probably was from around Orangestad*, and most of his activities as a Maroon centered on that area. We are, in fact, not even sure if "David" was his birth name or a pseudonym-he was reputed to express great admiration for the biblical David, probably because of the parallels of their situations. For, while David fought the ancient Goliath, for a few short years Dom David's band waged its own private war on the Inquisition.

Dom David's band first came to the authorty's attention in the late 1590's. At first they committed typical outlaw crimes, like break-ins of isolated farms and highway robbery. But, by all accounts, most of the gang was made up of people wanted by the Inquisition, and gradually they began to target the Portuguese authorities-in the form of rich Christian magnates, priests of the Inquisition, crown-owned sugar plantations, and similar. These activities brought them the great ire of the colonial state, and the great admiration of the Marrano populace. Dom David was at least somewhat religious, and on several documented occaisions helped hide fugitive Rabbis escaping from the Inquisition's grip. Only a very few Inquisition agents were killed by Dom David's band, but the figure grew in retelling. In any reasonable analysis, Dom David was a ruthless common criminal with a rather understandable grudge-but later centuries would make him into a figure of romance and legend, a man of polite, courtly manners who struck back against the oppressors of the common people while living the life of a fugitive outlaw in the jungle, a gentleman of religion and morals who nevertheless charmed the daughter of a Tupi chieftan into his arms-and subsequent conversion to Judaism and marriage in the depths of the forest by a Field Rabbi. (The real Dom David had good relations with local Indians and almost certainly had an Indian lover-but we are not even sure of her name, much less any of the other details of popular legend). All in all, Dom David operated for around six years, enjoying what was undoubtedly a long string of luck that eventually ran out. In 1602, his life ended in agony-dragged back to the city then called Rio de Janeiro, tortured, and burned at the stake in the main square. While the Dom David of Maurician popular culture is almost certainly upwards of 90% fiction, there is no doubt that he was a hero to a people who sorely needed one.

As Portuguese America entered the 17th century, it had divided into two very different societies-in the north, a wealthy land of planters and slaves, where sugar plantations brought prosperity for their owners and hell on earth for their laborers. All in all, few Jews had been unlucky enough to come here-some "New Christians" in Lisbon retained enough influence to save most from a lingering death sentence. In the south, the sugar plantations were fewer, and society was increasingly divided between a ruling Catholic minority and an oppressed, restive Marrano minority. And, across the ocean, the Dutch were beginning to turn a greedy eye on Pernambuco's riches. The confrontation between the two would dominate Portuguese America for over two decades-and the results would shape the destiny of Brazil and Mauricia, Portugal's child and stepchild of the New World.
*Rio de Janeiro
 
Last edited:
As a Brazilian from the Northeast (that's where Dutch Brazil was located), i can assure that the climate is not terribly different from the Southeast (that's where São Paulo and Rio are located),. In the regions that we call Sertão Nordestino is a different matter, but with the exception of the dry months (May/June-December), there's no big problem for colonization. Well, it's hotter, but it's not disease-prone like the Amazon (The Amazon is what we call Brazilian North, if we follow IBGE division of regions).

Of course, i'll be following this.
 
So...my timeline turned out to be rather more than a week:eek:. I developed kind of a bad case of writers block-I knew what I wanted to happen in the 18th-20th centuries, but couldn't bring myself to write the actual Dutch takeover of southern Brazil. But, to restart this, here goes.
******************

While the attempts of the Brazilian Marranos to resist Portuguese domination-through Field Rabbis, secret religious services, and outlaw bands-have long become the stuff of legend, in reality they very nearly failed. By the 1620's, the Inquisition had become the terror of Portuguese America, its dictates reinforced with the boots of colonial garrisons. Field Rabbis were dissappearing, recaltrant Jews were being executed, and Judaism in Portuguese America seemed on the road to annihilation. But, when all hope had begun to fade for the Portuguese American Jews, history would again intervene.

The Dutch had long coveted the riches of the Brazilian sugar plantations, and the 1620's would see a series of raids against Portuguese America, in ever increasing intensity. Finally, in 1628, a Dutch West India Company force sailed to the city of Recife, laid siege to it, and captured it.

The fall of Recife was greated with jubilation-both in Amsterdam, and among its rather large population of Jews-most of whom were prisoners sentenced to work on sugar plantations by the Inquisition. The newly liberated Jews flocked to the center of the city, where they soon became a major presence, building South America's first synagogue in the city center. Jews from all over Latin America flocked to the city. Over the next few years, the Dutch gradually expanded their control outward from Recife, capturing Natal in 1633. By the mid-1630's they had come to control most of northern and northeastern Brazil, but its capital, the fortress of Salvador, eluded them.

As the Dutch expanded their control in the north, the situation for Jews in the South grew even grimmer. After Recife fell, a massive pogrom in Salvador claimed dozens of lives. Perhaps the most infamous incident, however, would take place in what was is now Vilemstad, and was then the city of Sao Fernando [OTL Vitoria, Espirito Santo].

Sao Fernando, like several other cities in Brazil, had originally been founded by a group of deported Conversos, and their descendants-many still secret Jews-had dominated the population for several decades afterward. However, after 1600, Portugual had begun settling Christians on the small island on which Sao Fernando lay. The two groups kept to their own tightly segregated neighborhoods, and the string of Dutch successes had brought the already high level of tension to a boiling point. Finally, on February 17th, 1635, a series of rumors that the Jews of Sao Fernando were plotting with the Dutch caused the Christian population to descend on them in an orgy of murder, rape, and looting. The Portuguese civilians were soon joined by the royal garrison, and at any rate, the disarmed Jews could hardly put up much resistance. The violence went on for four days, at the end of which the great majority of the city's Jews were either dead or had fled the island to hide in the mainland's wilderness. It was events like these that sent a stream of refugees northward-ironic, considering what would later happen. But soon, an entirely new development would turn things completely around.
*******************
Adao Falero had been born in Rio de Janeiro-he never remembered the exact date, though it was certainly sometime in the early 1600's. Adao's parents had been Marranos-and when he was 15, their secret Judaism would become known to the authorities. Adao worked at Rio de Janeiro's docks, and thus was away from home when the Inquisition came for his family. Forwarned by a friend, Adao stowed away on a departing ship before the Inquisition would find him. He was discovered, but fortunately, the captain assumed he was a simple stowaway, and he was whipped before being impressed into service as a cabin boy.

In Havana, Adao jumped ship, and signed onto another departing vessel before his old master could find him. The new captain was kinder, and Adao spent the next few years on various Portuguese and Spanish ships, sailing around the Caribbean and even to Lisbon and Seville. But he never forgot that he was a Jew, and never forgot the trauma of hearing that he'd never see his parents or sister again. So, when he was about 19, Adao signed onto the crew of a ship bound for Amsterdam, where he'd heard a Jew could practice freely without fear of arrest. And, after a short while sailing on Dutch merchentmen, Adao heard about something that, to his twenty-ish mind, sounded a lot more adventurous-privateering. Here, at last, was the chance to strike back against the people who'd sent his family way. And so Adao returned to the Caribbean-but this time, bent on revenge.

The 1630's found Adao a privateer captain, commander of a stolen Spanish frigate his crew had named the Sea Serpent. Perhaps wanting to be closer to his childhood home, Adao had made Pernambuco his home base, and earned his living as an oceangoing mercenary, or else raiding on his own up and down the Portuguese Brazilian coast. Adao listened for any hint of what had happened to his family-and to his dismay, soon found out. Several former sugar-cane laborers remembered his mother and father-but both had died in the plantations long before the Dutch showed up. His sister, a girl known for her beauty, had been taken to the overseer's house. No one had seen her for six months afterwards, until she managed to jump out of a 3rd floor window. Two weeks after Adao had heard this, garbled reports of Sao Fernando had begun to reach Pernambuco. And Adao knew pinprick raids would never satisfy him. He needed to do something bigger. And, using the same force of personality that had brought him from cabin boy to privateer captain, Adao talked to the masters of several other privateers, and got together a plan.
****
It had been almost twenty years since Adao Falero had last seen Rio de Janeiro-by now, he'd spent more of his life as a sailor than he had there, a fact he still found hard to believe sometimes. But, as the city's buildings grew larger in his telescope, a thrill went through him. At long last, he was coming home. At that moment, an arm tapped him on the shoulder.

"Some ships are coming out from the harbor, Captain."
"I see them, Joshua. Tell the men to start getting the cannons turned around, and signal the other ships to do the same."
All across the seven-ship flotilla-five privateers, and two galleons the Dutch fleet in Pernambuco had lent to the effort-men swarmed around like ants, readying the black iron guns for combat. The small flotilla got into combat formation-and the three ships from Rio did the same. The enemies sailed closer to each other, until-

"Captain, they're starting to get into range."
"Good. Fire when ready!"
*****
It was amazing how quickly it all went. Within an hour, the three Portuguese defenders were no more-while all of Adao Falero's ships, though hit by a few cannons, floated. The invaders sailed up to Rio's battlements, their cannons dueling with the defenders as the ships got close enough for the soldiers within to jump into small boats and row the quick distance to the walls. Hour by hour, minute by minute, the Portuguese were forced back, royal flags torn down and replaced with the orange-white-blue of Holland. Adao's men-many of them Marranos like himself-wasted no time in taking their fury out on the men who'd drove them out of their homes. Only one thing dissapointed Adao-the chief Inquistor who'd arrested his parents had departed years ago, and was safe back in Portugal. For Adao, shooting his successor was almost as satisfying.
*****
Safetly in control of Rio, Adao Falero sent word back to Pernambuco, and the Dutch soon followed up on his success in the south. Many of the Marranos, long tormented by the Portuguese, were happy to form militias and act as scouts, and the cities of the south fell one by one, the remaining secret Jews at last coming into the open. But the Dutch conquest of southern Brazil was often marred by revenge attacks, as persecuted Marranos struck back at their former persecutors. Perhaps the most notorious would occur at Sao Fernando, a name that had already become infamous among Brazil's Jews. The city was laid siege by a Dutch-privateer flotilla in May 1637-and when it fell, the Privateer element-many of whom, like Adao Falero's force, were Jewish-ran unchecked through the city. In the confusion, a drunken privateer would set off the ammunition store in the city's main fortress-sending the structure, and indeed much of the town, sky high and creating a fire that soon engulfed the rest. The destruction of Sao Fernando citadel would later become the subject of several famous Maurician paintings-but more immediately, the story spread among Brazil's Catholics, and made the name of Sao Fernando as infamous among them as it had been among the Jews.

In 1639, two years after the sack of Sao Fernando, the Dutch again laid siege to Salvador-one of the last major cities in Portuguese hands, and whose capture, they hoped, would spell the end of Portuguese Brazil. But the Catholic planters that still populated much of the countryside-especially in the north-had been growing ever more mutinous, and, as the siege lines tightened around Salvador, a full-scale guerilla revolt broke out in Pernambuco. Meanwhile, the Jewish scouts that the Dutch had hired-and which had proved so helpful in conquering the south-were less useful away from their homeland. The rural Catholic farmers around Salvador knew the terrain, and pinprick raids against the besiegers soon grew. Two months into the siege, a massive relief fleet from Lisbon successfully forced the Dutch blockade of Salvador's harbor and delivered much-needed supplies and reinforcements. Disease broke out amongst the besiegers, and soon they were forced to abandon their effort.

The failure to take Salvador would prove to be a turning point for the Dutch. In the following years, countryside rebellions, helped by an ever-more aggressive Portuguese fleet, began to gradually retake the North. In the South, however, the Dutch managed to maintain control-both because the countryside was friendlier to them, and because the South's less developed sugar industry was second priority for the Portuguese, and at any rate further away. Gradually, a trickle, and then a flood, of Dutch and Jewish refugees began to flow south. The end of the Dutch north would come in 1652, with the fall of their last stronghold at Recife-but the next year, a Dutch-Marrano force would repulse a Portuguese offensive at the Battle of Sao Mateus River. Afterwards, the two settled into a pattern of pinprick raids until 1656, when the Dutch and Portuguese finally signed a peace treaty acknowledging the latter's loss of southern Brazil.
 
Last edited:
Top