ENCYCLOPAEDIA of Rebellions

Type a location (e.g. Barcelona), or a year (e.g. 1638) or a category of event (e.g. uprising) to filter the corresponding results.

Tupinamba rebellion 1617

Synopsis
In 1617, soon after the Spanish and Portuguese united under the same crown had conquered the city of São Luís to the French and founded the city of Belém, both on the Atlantic Amazon coast, Tupinambá indigenous peoples rebelled against the Iberians. Although colonial accounts indicate that a Christian Indian was responsible for the spark of the revolt, recent research highlights that the uprising was a widespread and carefully planned rebellion organized by multiple Tupinambá leaders against Iberian rule. The revolt inherited the long history of resistance against Indigenous oppression and enslavement since the beginning of the sixteenth century on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. It relied on the web of alliances between Tupinambá villages and their leaders, some of them former allies of the Iberians. The rebels attacked and destroyed the fortress of Cumã and ravaged the coast, besieging the city of Belém and threatening the Iberian presence in the region. After their defeat in Belém, a harsh counterattack by the colonial authorities followed, killing and enslaving hundreds of Indigenous people, which helped to consolidate Iberian rule over the Atlantic Amazon coast.
Additional info

Starting date: . Ending: . Duration: 3 years. Name in sources: Rebelião Tupinambá. Location: Cumã, Belém and other areas of the State of Maranhão and Pará Country (current): Brazil. Monarchy: Portuguese. Main participants: Indigenous. Number of participants: >500. Main reasons & motivations: Anti-colonial, Resistance to conquest. Leadership: Jaguarabaior, Guaimiaba, Amaro. Relevance: high.

Further reading
CARDOSO, Alírio (2022). A conquista da Amazônia: índios, portugueses e missionários na formação do Estado do Maranhão e Grão-Pará (1607-1653). Curitiba: CRV. HEMMING, John (1978). Red Gold: the conquest of the Brazilian Indians. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, pp. 198-216. IBÁÑEZ BONILLO, Pablo (2015). "Desmontando a Amaro: una re-lectura de la rebelión tupinambá (1617-1621)", Topoi, 16:31:465-490.
Cite this entry

(2023) "Tupinamba rebellion 1617", in J. V. Serrão and M. S. Cunha (coord), Rebellions in the Early Modern Iberian World. (accessed on ).