The sea leads to the North: Conquering S. Luís du Maragnan (1614)

It is intended to make a brief analysis of the military process that opened the way to the first successful Portuguese colony in the Amazonas river. This evolved from fighting the early French settlements in the North, with the final confrontation taking place against the main French establishment in the Maranhão region, the city of S. Luís. Initially, the Portuguese were slow to react. The confrontation between the two rival European powers took place in a physical space that favored the adaptation of means and attitudes to a wide geographical diversity, underlining three main elements: the versatility and limitations of modern fortification in Brazil, the role of local warriors in adapting of the European war to a completely different tactical environment that included a vast net of watercourses, and the ever-decisive role of the leaders in the military campaigns, namely the arquitecto-mor Francisco de Frias, the sargento-mor Diogo de Campos Moreno.