To browse Academia. The paper explores the Brouwer expedition to Chile , initiated by the Dutch West India Company, aiming to find gold and establish a foothold in Valdivia. The expedition, however, faced significant challenges, including unrealistic expectations from the Company, hostile relations with indigenous groups like the Mapuche, and ultimate failure to achieve its goals, leading to financial repercussions for the Company.
This case reflects the desperation of Dutch maritime endeavors in the s and the crucial role of indigenous peoples in maritime conflicts. Brothers in Arms opens with two anecdotes that encapsulate its view of Dutch-indigenous relations during the 17th-century rise and fall of the West India Company WIC. These and many more similar stories capture what Meuwese considers the importance of WIC negotiations and the striking of deals with indigenous leaders, without which Dutch trade and imperial ventures would have been impossible.
Equally impo In this article I investigate both what we can know about Dutch ways of dealing with the important ports in the western archipelago, a commercially rich and politically divided region, and what we think we know. I take a fresh look at the beginnings of their presence and at how relations were established and evolved.
By employing a critical assessment of the documents produced during this period and comparing these with the scholarly findings in the historical literature, I aim to present an informed perspective of the nature of the different relationships.
The documents have at least the merit of being contemporary and therefore reflect perceptions and conditions during this period. Closing alliances and treaties with the rulers of these ports was one way to break the Portuguese trade monopoly which ultimately led to rewriting the region's narrative on the familiar lines of conquest. This essay focuses on the complementary historical and archaeological evidence for indigenous resistance and resilience in the specific form of parlamento political negotiations or attempted treaties between the Spanish Crown and the Araucanians or Mapuche as they are called today in south-central Chile from the late s to the early s.
