Flag of Dutch Brazil
flag of the colony of Dutch Brazil
The Flag of New Holland, also known as the flag of Dutch Brazil, was the flag used by the Dutch West India Company for the territories that were under its control in Brazil from 1630 until 1654. In this period, Brazil was not granted its own flag, and only the flags of its colonizers or rulers were used.
History
The conquered captaincies in Brazil during the Dutch rule used the flag of the Dutch West Indies Company (in Dutch: Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie - GWC). This flag consists of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands flag – horizontally striped in red (or orange), white and blue – with the inclusion of the company monogram (GWC) in the center.
The variation of orange or red on the flag is due to the fact that between 1588 and 1630 the Dutch navy always displayed the Prince's flag (Prinsenvlag), striped in orange, white and blue, and from 1663 on, always the flag of the General States flag (Statenvlag), striped in red, white, blue, with both variants of the flag being used during the period of 1630–1662.
It is quite possible that the Prinsenvlag and Statenvlag themselves were used in Brazil: in the book Ambrosij Richszhoffers, braszilianisch- und west indianische Reisze Beschreibung, private Ambrose Richshoffer records the use of the Prince's flag, as well as mentioning the use of its colors in the ensign costume
In the pictorial representations associated with Dutch Brazil, such as maps, engravings, paintings of battles, one rarely finds elements in the images that refer specifically to the West India Company (such as the monogram of the company), with the flags being represented just by the tricolor stripes. In a few engravings, one finds the reference to the company or its commanders, by means of coats of arms or monograms as ornament of the illustrations.
These flags were flown on the tops of forts, on the masts and sterns of ships, as well as wielded on battlefields by the ensign (vaendrager). The flags on the masts and sterns of ships also were used identify the vessels in combat, the admirals and vice admirals and even the tactical orientation of an attack.
Description
In the book Brazões e Bandeiras do Brasil written by the journalist Clóvis Ribeiro in 1933, the flag of Dutch Brazil was illustrated by José Wasth Rodrigues and it consists of three horizontal stripes in the colors of the flag of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (red, white and blue) and it displays the monogram CIMD in the center of the white stripe and a crown above it, on the upper stripe, both gold-coloured.
“Flag of Dutch Brazil” enters the record as flag of the colony of Dutch Brazil. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Flag, Dutch and Brazil can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2586487. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1630, 1654, 1588 and 1663.
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This entry incorporates text from “Flag of Dutch Brazil” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.