Fetu River Convention

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The Fetu River Convention was a military alliance between the Dutch and the English at the beginning of the second decade of the 18th century on the western Gold Coast , the western coastal area of ​​today's Ghana . The name comes from the English name for the Benya River, which flows into the sea in Elmina directly in front of the Fort São Jorge da Mina and formerly formed the border between the kingdoms of Fetu and Eguafo (Kommendah).

prehistory

The Dutch reported in February 1705 that the Fantis, with the support of the English, had invaded Cabes Terra Fetu, Sabou and Commany, whose armies had been defeated, the country ruined and almost all of the members of their previous leadership slaughtered. In the course of this, z. B. the king of Sabou was beheaded by the Fantis. Ahenuo Pampa, the king of Fetu, was subsequently taken away as a prisoner. However, after the king's killing, the Fantis in Sabou tried very hard to install a new king. According to the Dutch reports, the English were in daily expectation of the outbreak of the war between "Arcania" and "Cabes Terra" in 1706 and they would sincerely hope for a victory for the Fanti opponents, as they would have promised afterwards of their victory to sell the prisoners of war they made to the English as slaves. However, such a war did not occur.

At the beginning of 1708, an embassy from the King of Asante appeared to the Dutch in Elmina to complain that the former general director J. van Sevenhuijsen (in office until 1703) did not pay enough for eighty ivory pieces that the king had sent to him would have. However, the careful investigation into the case revealed that the ivory had been paid in full at the time. However, it was discovered in the files that there had already been a similar accusation from the same direction during the tenure of General Director Sevenhuijsen in order to fraudulently extort money in this way. However, the Dutch thought it wiser not to provoke the Ashanti ruler's resentment towards them and paid the requested sum. At the same time, the Asantehene had the English governor of Cape Coast Castle informed that he had decided to forcibly clear the trade routes between Asante and the coast of all barriers that obstructed the way to the coast if the governor could not do this .

In December 1709 the English reports mention that the Fantis as highwaymen, especially in "Cuifferoe, Abranboe and Fetu", would make the trade routes unsafe and in particular attacked and plundered Ashanti traders who had been heading towards the coast. The English governor, Sir Thomas Dalby , took the view to his superiors that a military department was necessary to keep the blacks in the state of submission and that 1,000 Negroes were effectively needed to secure the trade routes permanently. At the same time, however, the Fantis also tried to create markets in the interior of the country, where they wanted to trade with Ashanti traders in the role of middleman, with the indication that this would save them the trip to the coast.

Also in 1709, Tekki Addico (Tagee), the King of Eguafo (Grand Commany, Kommendah) allied with the Dutch in an anti-English alliance. The reason for this, however, were debts that the king still had with the English and that he was unwilling (or unable) to settle them, since the English had supported the Fantis in the invasion.

Between August and October 1710 the Fantis again invade the land of the Etsi (Cabes Terra) and defeat them one more time. Whether the Ashanti followed up on their threat of 1708 and actually opened the trade routes by force with a campaign, or whether there was a peaceful settlement with the Fantis in this regard, is in the dark, as there is a gap in the British records for these years gives. In any case, the routes were open again at the end of 1710 when a group of about 300 Ashanti traders first appeared in Kommendah and then in Cape Coast to buy weapons and ammunition from the English. Governor Dalby, however, did not have a single ounce of gunpowder in stock at this very moment to sell the Ashanti, so he felt compelled to refer them to the Dutch competition in Elmina.

The Fetu River Convention

In view of the situation, the top representatives of the Dutch West India Company (WIC), which were bitterly rivals, and the English Royal African Company (RAC) came together and on April 4, 1709, they agreed on a mutual agreement to help each other in order to Line to disempower the Fantis blocking the coastal hinterland. It went down in history as the Fetu River Convention .

On September 20, 1710, the Fetu River Convention was renewed again. A joint Dutch-English military force was even assembled. Their goal, however, was not, as it may seem at first, to fight the Fantis, but their first goal in 1711 was to fight Jan Conny in Poquesoë, who was under the Prussian flag but was considered an ally of the Fantis. The priority was of course to justify the fight against a Fanti ally to inflict as much damage as possible on the Prussian competition at the Cape of the Three Peaks .

However, distrust and suspicion were far too deeply ingrained on both the English and Dutch sides, and they continued to persist for larger joint operations to be possible. Both sides continued to support rival states in a temporal extension of the Kommendah War from 1694 to 1700, with which the Fetu River Convention had lost its meaning again a short time after its creation.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The place Elmina, whose local name was actually Odena or Edina , was therefore also called Aldea das duas Partes by the Portuguese (literally: "the village divided into two") because one half was under the control of the King of Fetu and the other half Area of ​​influence of the King of Eguafo.
  2. ↑ On the map of d'Anville from 1729 a distinction is made between Cabes Terra (Kabesterra) + Abrambo (Abram) and Atty (Etsi, Atsi), and Atty is mentioned as a subject of Akanni (= Adansi). However, the representation in the literature is not uniform. In any case, the north-eastern hinterland of Kommendah (Eguafo, Commany) and the northern hinterland of Fetu and Sabou are meant, which is essentially described by Assin.
  3. ^ The coast and coastal hinterland of Cape Coast and Fort Frederiksborg
  4. ↑ Coast hinterland between Mount Kong and the iron hill Mouri as the central coastal town
  5. ↑ between Shama (mouth of the Rio de St.John) and the Benja mouth (on the coast) or between Adom and Fetu in the coastal hinterland
  6. ↑ Twifo, Abram and Fetu
  7. ↑ today: Princes Town , located below the Großfriedrichsburg Fort

swell

  • Kwame Yeboa Daaku, Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast 1600-1720 , Oxford, 1970
  • A. Adu Boahen, Fante diplomacy in the eighteenth century , in: K. Ingham (Ed.), Foreign Relations of African States , London 1974
  • S. Tenkorang, The importance of firearms in the struggle between Ashanti and the coastal states, 1708-1807 , in: Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana , 9, 1968, pp. 1-16