Fort Java

Fort Java was a so-called Redute, in this case a small round hill , which was built in the then Dutch town of Elmina on the coast of what is now Ghana in the late 1820s. It was located on a hill about 300 meters north of the well-known Fort Sao Jago da Mina (also called "Conraadsburg") and which the Dutch called "Cattoenberg", or cotton hill. Today it is known as Java Hill . The statement sometimes found on the Internet that Fort Java is another name for Fort Sao Jago in Elmina, is not correct.

Fort Java was built to defend the city of Elmina against attacks from the hinterland on a narrow point on the northern of the two peninsulas on which the city lies. In 1855 the fort was rebuilt from scratch and was named Fort Java in honor of the African soldiers of the Dutch colonial army (the Belanda Hitam ) who had returned from their service on the then Dutch island of Java in Southeast Asia . In 1873 the parapet of the facility had collapsed and only a small platform for 6-pounder cannons was left.

Fort Java no longer remains in ruins today.

literature

Christopher R. DeCorse: An Archeology of Elmina. Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400-1900 . Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC et al. 2001, ISBN 1-56098-971-8 .

Fort Java

literature

See also