Guerra Indígena como Guerra Colonial na América Portuguesa do sec. XVI: Táticas e Estratégias Tupi na Conquista da Paraíba e do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

This paper analyses the war between Tupi speaking Native Americans and the Iberian troops in the conquest of Paraiba e Rio Grande do Norte, in 16th century Portuguese America. It emphasises tactics and strategies as well as the indigenous protagonism and analyses the changes in Tupi warfare initiated by the firsts contacts with the European as well as the configuration of a new kind of warfare specific to the northern colonies of Portuguese America, built in the interaction of indigenous and Iberian’s arts of war. Our considerations are based in the study of 16th century interpreted by readings of authors such as Manuela Carneiro da Cunha, Eduardo Viveiro de Castro, Maria Regina C. de Almeida, Jonathan Hill, Mathew Restall and Douglas Bamford and of the Brazilian Social History that thinks the colonial sugar society from the perspective of its military structures.

Keywords

• Tupi
• Conquest
• Warfare
• Portuguese America Northern Colonies
• Indigenous Protagonism