Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast

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Historical view (17th century) of the Dutch forts Sao Jorge and Sao Jago da Mina (Coonradsburg) in Elmina

Dutch possessions on the Gold Coast (today's coast of Ghana ) in West Africa existed between 1598 and 1872 in the form of a number of bases, partly slightly fortified trading stations, partly powerful fortresses. The settlement became the most important Dutch colony after the capture of Fort Elmina in 1637.

The approx. 45 well-known forts on the Gold Coast changed hands mostly every few years or even decades. Centuries of competition on this coast, especially between the British and the Dutch, led to constant attacks on the fortresses of the other power. Fortresses were conquered, destroyed, abandoned, rebuilt. As a result, almost all of Ghana’s forts were at some point in Dutch possession. The list below tries to reflect these changes.

Character of the Dutch possessions

At no point did the Dutch have a “Dutch Gold Coast colony”. The aim of the fortress founding was to gain safe trading places and not colonial conquest up until the 19th century. The fortresses were not administered locally by the Dutch state itself, but by semi-public companies, of which the Dutch West India Company was the most important. The Dutch influence mostly ended just behind the walls of their fortresses. An exception was the city of Elmina , where the Dutch owned two mighty fortresses for almost 250 years and in some cases also exercised control over the city and its immediate vicinity. The Dutch soon saw the residents of this city as their subjects - but the residents of Elmina mostly saw it differently. The city was largely self-governing and the precarious hierarchical relationship between Europeans and city dwellers was constantly being rebalanced.

Like the other European powers, the Dutch also paid a kind of rent to an African power for the majority of their fortresses. Mostly this went to the local African ruler. A number of wars were also waged for this African suzerainty over European fortresses. In the case of Elmina e.g. For example, the lease agreement (the "Elmina Note") changed hands several times, eventually fell into the hands of the domestic Ashanti Empire and established a special relationship between the Ashanti Empire and the United Netherlands for 150 years .

Origin and development of the Dutch possessions

View of the interior of a trading post (Jan SG Gramberg, around 1861)
The Gramberg plantation was (according to the caption) the first European plantation on the west coast of Africa (Jan SG Gramberg, around 1861)

From 1470 to the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese were the undisputed European power on the Gold Coast. The Dutch merchants limited themselves to the role of middlemen between Northern Europe and Portugal or Spain. With the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain from 1560, however, the Spanish ports were closed to them. When Philip II of Spain and Portugal closed the crucial port of Lisbon to them in 1594 , the Dutch merchants were almost forced to go straight to the sources of the exotic goods that they had previously traded from the Spanish and Portuguese. Two years later, a Dutch captain went off course en route to Brazil and landed on the Gold Coast, where he was held captive by the Portuguese for a time. He recognized the extent of the opportunities for business. After his release he traded a large amount of gold, spread the news of this new source of gold in his home country and triggered a wave of commercial ventures in the direction of the Gold Coast. The Dutch soon emerged as serious competitors of the Portuguese, and local rulers also recognized the advantage in the fact that a second European buyer and seller had now appeared off their coasts. From 1612 until the conquest of Elmina in 1637, Fort Nassau in Mori was the headquarters of the Dutch on the Gold Coast. With the conquest of Elmina in 1637, which had been Portuguese property for almost 200 years, the Portuguese monopoly was finally broken.

The main competitors were the British, with whom one entered a phase of relatively peaceful coexistence only at the beginning of the 18th century. After the British bought the Danish properties on the Gold Coast in 1850 , they pushed the Dutch to sell too. For domestic political reasons it was not possible to sell the Netherlands at first, but in 1868 the British and Dutch agreed to exchange their forts based on geographical considerations in order to simplify administration. All Dutch forts east of Elmina were given to the British and all British forts west of Elmina to the Dutch. However, the Dutch met in several formerly British, now Dutch forts, resolute resistance from the people living outside their walls. B. in Kommenda or in Dixcove . For 47,000 Dutch guilders (about 24,000 British pounds), the Dutch sold their properties on the Gold Coast to the British in 1872, not least because of this resistance (in the 1850s the British had still offered 50–60,000 pounds).

The fortresses and other bases in the course of time in detail

(The last estates ceded to Great Britain in 1872 are marked in yellow)

place fortress Foundation (conquest) Task (sales) Comments
Beyin Fort William 1868 1872 before and after English (English: Fort Apollonia )
Ankobra Fort Elise Carthago 1702 1706 (?) (1650 trading post, 1702 fort)
Fort Ruychaver 1654 1659
Axim Fort Santo Antonio 1642 1872 Interruption 1664-1665
Princes Town Fort Hollandia 1724 1872 ( Fortress Groß Friedrichsburg ) Bought by Brandenburg-Prussia in 1717, but occupied by the local Jan Conny, conquered in 1724, - abandoned in 1814/1815, sold to the British in 1872
Dixcove Fort Metaal Kruis 1868 1872
Butri Fort Batenstein 1649 1872 Interruption 1656–1828
Takoradi Fort Witsten 1665 1690
Sekondi 1868 1872
Sekondi Fort Orange 1670 1872 with interruptions, partly conquered by the native Ahanta
Shama Fort San Sebastian 1640 1872 with interruptions (partly British, partly abandoned)
Komenda Fort Komenda 1867 1872
Komenda Fort Vredenburgh 1688 1872 Interruption 1782–1785
Elmina Fort Conraadsburg 1637 1872 (formerly port. Fort Sao Jago da Mina )
Elmina Fort Sao Jorge da Mina 1637 1872
Cape Coast Cape Coast Castle 1637 1652 Swedish name: Carolusborg 1637–1652 Dutch
Mouri Fort Nassau 1624 1868 several times meanwhile in British hands
Cormantine Fort Amsterdam 1665 1868 Interruption 1721–1785 (by contract to the British)
Anomabu Fort William 1640 1652
Egya 1647 1664 Interruption in between
Apam Fort Leydsaemheyt 1697 1868 ("Patience") interruption 1711–1785
Senya Beraku Fort Goede Hoop 1667 1868 Interruption 1782–1785
Ussher Town ( Accra ) Fort Crêvecoeur 1642 1868 Interruption 1782–1786
Keta Fort Singelenburgh 1734 1737

See also

literature

  • Albert Van Dantzig: Forts and Castles of Ghana. Sedco Publishing Ltd., Accra 1980, ISBN 9964-720-10-6 .