Editing Recife (section)

== History ==
{{see also|Timeline of Recife|History of Pernambuco}}
{{Quote box |width=20em |align=left   |bgcolor=#B0C4DE
|title=Historical Affiliations
|fontsize=90% |quote={{flagicon|POR|1640}} [[Portuguese Empire]] 1537–1630<br />[[File:Flag of New Holland.svg|border|22px]] [[Dutch West India Company]] 1630–1654<br />{{flagicon|POR|1640}} [[Portuguese Empire]] 1654–1815<br />[[File:Flag of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves.svg|border|22px]] [[United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves]]   1815–1822<br />[[File:Flag of Empire of Brazil (1870-1889).svg|border|22px]] [[Empire of Brazil]] 1822–1889<br />{{flagicon|BRA}} [[Brazil|Republic of Brazil]] 1889–present}}
[[File:AMH-6921-KB Map of Recife and Mauritsstad.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Recife and Mauritsstad, ca. 1682, Weduwe van Jacob van Meurs (publisher)]]
'''Recife''' began as a collection of fishing shacks, inns and warehouses on the [[river delta|delta]] between the [[Capibaribe River|Capibaribe]] and [[Beberibe River]]s in the [[captaincy of Pernambuco]], sometime between 1535 and 1537 in the earliest days of [[Portuguese colonisation of the Americas#Colonisation of Brazil|Portuguese colonisation]] of ''[[Terra de Santa Cruz]]'', later called Brazil, on the [[Northeast Brazil|northeast coast]] of [[South America]]. It was a settlement of colonial fishermen and way station for [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] sailors and passing ships. 

The first documented reference to the settlement with its "''arrecife dos navios''" (reef of the ships) was in the royal Charter Act of March 12, 1537, establishing [[Olinda]], {{convert|6|km|abbr=off}} to the north, as a village, with its port where the Beberibe River meets the sea.  Olinda (and [[Igarassu, Pernambuco|Igarassu]] before it) had been settled in 1536 by [[Captain General]] [[Duarte Coelho]], a Portuguese nobleman, proprietor and administrator of the captaincy of Pernambuco.<ref>{{cite book|last=Marley|first=D.|title=Historic Cities of the Americas: North America and South America|volume=2|year=2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1576070277|page=683}}</ref>

The city is named for the long reef ''recife'' running parallel to the shoreline which encloses its harbour.  The reef is not as sometimes stated, a coral reef, but a consolidated ancient beach, now as firm and hard as stone.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Banner|first=J.C.|title=The Stone Reefs of Brazil, their Geological and Geographical Relations|journal=Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology|year=1904|volume=XLIV|location=Harvard College, Cambridge}}</ref>

In 1541, Coelho returned from the [[Kingdom of Portugal]] with the machinery for an ''[[engenho]]'' (sugar mill), and with it, his brother-in-law established the first mill named ''Nossa Senhora da Ajuda'' (Our Lady of Help), in the floodplain of the Beberibe River at Recife.  At that time the banks of the Capibaribe River were covered by [[sugar cane]].

Recife was capital of the 17th century [[New Holland (Brazil)|New Holland]] (Dutch Brazil) established by the [[Dutch West India Company]] and was called [[Mauritsstad]]. The city was eventually [[Recapture of Recife (1652-54)|recaptured by the Portuguese]] in 1654, following their victories at the [[First Battle of Guararapes|first]] and [[second Battle of Guararapes]].

The [[Mascate War]] of 1710–1711 pitted merchants of Recife against those of nearby [[Olinda]].
{{clr}}
{{wide image|Frederick Hagedorn - Panorama do recife - 1855.jpg|1500px|align-cap=center|Panorama of Recife in 1855 by [[Friedrich Hagedorn]].}}