Paraiba

Paraíba stood on the Sanhauá, a tributary of the Paraíba River, near the Atlantic coast of northeastern Brazil. Its river gave access from the coast to a fertile hinterland where sugar estates developed under Portuguese rule. Founded as Filipéia de Nossa Senhora das Neves, the settlement became the seat of the captaincy of Paraíba.

Its establishment in 1585 followed several Portuguese expeditions and an alliance with the Tabajara leader Piragibe. Dutch forces took the town in 1634 and renamed it Frederikstadt. The town remained under Dutch rule for two decades. Portuguese control returned after the Dutch withdrawal in 1654, when it came to be called Paraíba. The town’s history reflects the contest for the northeastern coast and the alliances and conflicts with Indigenous peoples that accompanied colonisation.