EARLY BELGIAN COLONIAL EFFORTS - The University of Texas at ...

CHAPTER 5
SANTA CATARINA
The Belgian colony in the Santa Catarina province in Brazil is distinguishable
from the previously examined attempts in that it proceeded without any governmental
financial help and rose and fell primarily as a result of one man’s efforts and rejection.
Santa Catarina from a colonial perspective is Charles Van Lede. It can be argued
that without Van Lede there would not have been any organized Belgian colony in this
area of Brazil. 285 Van Lede, like Victor Pirson, was an engineer who claimed to have
served in the Belgian army as a major. Unlike Pirson, who assumed more diplomatic
assignments in his career positions, Van Lede was a soldier who fought in many
different campaigns for many different nations. Similar to Hompesch in regards to
Santo Tomas, Van Lede was generally considered to be both the creator and destroyer
of his colonial child.
Van Lede traveled widely throughout South America. He was fluent in both
Spanish and Portuguese. His background in engineering and desire to utilize, or perhaps
exploit, the wealth of South America and especially Brazil seemed to be perfectly suited
to the merchants and traders in Antwerp. In 1838 these merchants created the Société
Commerciale de Bruges for the express purpose of encouraging trade with, and perhaps
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