Imperialisms, Revolutions, and Resolutions in the Caribbean Amazon - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 98

The syncretic cultural complex extended not just to landscape and lifeways but to
lifeblood itself. Studies of blood types comparing phenotypically black populations
on the upper Oyapoque with adjacent “isolated” native populations showed blood
chemistriesmoretypicalofnativecommunitiesthanofAfricanbloodtypes,aresultalso
found in quilombos of Amapá, where more than 50 percent of the blood characteristics
reflected native contributions, a ratio much higher than elsewhere in Brazil. Signific-
antly, the Duffy marker, a West African genetic mutation for resistance to vivax malaria,
was also widespread. These hybridized populations were able to withstand malarial rav-
ages, while the white colonists died in droves. 38
The secret settlements of fugitives, whether black or native slaves or army deserters,
followed patterns seen throughout Latin America of slaves fleeing to develop autonom-
ous communities in the interior. Figure 7.1 shows the complex cultural interface of nat-
ives and blacks in the depths of the Caribbean Amazon. These communities were suc-
cessful, many surviving up to the present day. But they were a problem for European
colonization and were not seen as a solution or alternative. The European colonial ima-
ginary for the Contestado had its own images of state-led utopias.
The Amazon Experiments of the Enlightenment
The political and economic importance of New World colonies increased markedly in
the eighteenth century, and the Amazonian holdings needed consolidation. The French
and Portuguese foreign ministers who oversaw the Contestado from the lofty perch
of continental courts of the mid-eighteenth century—Étienne François, Duc Choiseul
(1719-82), and Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal
(1699-1785)—seemedalmostmirrorsofeachother.Theyhadhomeintrigues,butitwas
the overseas politics that increasingly marked their regimes. Both were unusually influ-
ential as Enlightenment politicians in the final period of Europe's absolutist monarch-
ies. They were able but stubborn administrators, interested in managerial and trade re-
forms. Both were vehemently anti-Jesuit: Pombal suppressed the order in Portugal and
its colonies in 1759, while Choiseul eliminated the order in France in 1775. 39 Both had
spectacular colonist failures in the Caribbean Amazon.
Bothforeignministerswerewellawareoftheimplicationsofthe1750TreatyofMad-
rid for their uncertain borderlands: it eliminated Spanish control of the Amazon interior
and emphasized de facto possession. This stimulated Pombal and his half-brother Fran-
ciscoMendonçaFurtado,magistrateoverthePortugueseAmazon,toembarkonafrenzy
of fortress building at strategic points, including the immense and imposing citadel at
MacapáonthenorthchannelentranceoftheAmazon.Thetreatyindicatednothingabout
“interior” frontiers, and thus these were now up for grabs. Choiseul and Pombal par-
alleled each other in their views of colonial policy. First, they yearned to make their