![\"30751_fullimage_VOC_overwinning_560x350_560x350\"](\"http:\/\/www.revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/30751_fullimage_VOC_overwinning_560x350_560x350-300x187.jpg\")
Thumbnail of the map “Over-Winningh van de Stadt Cotchin op de Kust van Malabaer” by Johann Nieuhoff<\/p><\/div>\n
The article Sick and unable to march:\u201d life and death in the army of the Dutch West India Company in the Northeast of Brazil, 1630-1654<\/a>, published in\u00a0Hist\u00f3ria, Ci\u00eancias e Sa\u00fade \u2013 Manguinhos<\/em>\u00a0(vol.22, n.2, Apr.\/Jun. 2015<\/a>) is an in-depth piece of research by Bruno Romero Ferreira Miranda, professor at the Rural Federal University of Pernambuco.<\/p>\n The article describes how when the fleet of the West Indian Company arrived at the coast of Pernambuco in January 1630, officials from the invading army expected to quickly capture the Portuguese positions without meeting much resistance. “Initially at least, this held true”, explains the author. “The city of Olinda which was the capital of the Pernambuco captaincy fell after barely a day\u2019s fighting and its port, Recife, was overcome in just a few days”.<\/p>\n However, once they partially defeated their Portuguese enemy, the Company\u2019s commanders had to deal with a more deadly and persistent opponent, namely the innumerous diseases which affected the army and led to a high percentage of losses ever since the invasion and conquest of the territory, between 1630 and 1637, until the end of the Dutch occupation of Brazil in 1654.<\/p>\n Bruno Romero Ferreira Miranda\u00a0carried out the research in the Netherlands between 2007 and 2011, and published the results in the book \u2018Gente de Guerra: origem, cotidiano e resist\u00eancia dos soldados do ex\u00e9rcito da Companhia das \u00cdndias Ocidentais no Brasil (1630-1654)\u2019<\/em> published by Edufpe in 2014 (\u2018People of War: the origins, daily lives and resistance of soldiers from the West Indian Company in Brazil, 1630-1654).<\/p>\n As well as advancing research on the Dutch presence in Brazil, the author showed how various illnesses impacted upon soldiers\u2019 lives and hindered actions of the Company\u2019s army. He also sought to gather information about the principle diseases that spread amongst the troops and their causes.<\/p>\n For the author, the risky service of war in Brazil seemed, in certain moments, to have been less harmful to the military of the West Indian company than the various maladies that plagued them during the years of occupation.<\/p>\n *Bruno Romero Ferreira Miranda<\/strong> is History professor at the Rural Federal University of Pernambuco.<\/em><\/p>\n Read the full article on HCS-Manguinhos:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Miranda, Bruno Romero Ferreira. Sick and unable to march:\u201d life and death in the army of the Dutch West India Company in the Northeast of Brazil, 1630-1654.\u00a0<\/a>Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos [online]. vol.22, n.2, Apr.\/Jun.2015<\/p>\n