Netherlands Ahanta War

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The Netherlands-Ahanta War was a military conflict between the Netherlands and the Ahanta Empire on the coast of what is now Ghana from 1837 to 1839. Beginning with a purely economic conflict between the Ahanta and the Netherlands, which lasted from the 17th to the 19th Had several bases on the West African Gold Coast in the 19th century , the conflict grew into a war that ended with the execution of Ahanta king Badu Bonsu II , the reorganization of the Ahanta state and the establishment of a Dutch protectorate over the previously independent Ahanta.

background

Contemporary portrait of Badu Bonsu II

The trigger was the seizure of a shipload of gunpowder by the Ahanta king Badu Bonsu II. The gunpowder was supposed to be delivered by an Amsterdam dealer to the kingdom of Wassa , which is adjacent to the Ahanta . Since diplomatic efforts by the Dutch were unsuccessful, the Dutch governor Hendrik Tonneboeijer sent negotiators to the Ahanta. After both negotiators were shot by the Ahanta, Tonneboeijer decided to raise a force of 200 men in the city of Elmina to arrest Badu Bonsu. Despite warnings that this force was too small to move against the Ahanta, Tonneboeijer immediately moved with his armed men to the neighboring Ahanta kingdom. On October 28, 1837, his force was ambushed by the Ahanta who killed 45 men, including Governor Tonneboeijer himself.

After receiving news of the governor's death, the Dutch government decided to send a military expedition to “suppress the uprising”. Under the command of General Jan Verveer, the Armed Forces left Elmina in 1838 for Ahanta. There was no fighting, however, as Badu Bonsu fell into the hands of the Dutch through betrayal on the part of the Ahanta. According to another version, Badu Bonsu was so unpopular that the Ahanta were ready to hand him over.

Badu Bonsu was sentenced to death in an ad hoc court martial on July 26, 1838. Badu Bonsu did not believe in the seriousness of this judgment and tried to persuade the Dutch with a few calabashes of gold . However, he was hanged the following day on the same site where he had the Tonneboeijers negotiators shot. His companions were sent into exile in the Dutch East Indies without trial .

Badu Bonsu's head was severed by a military doctor and placed in a jar of formaldehyde , officially for medical purposes. The more likely explanation for the beheading, however, may have been a desire for revenge for the also beheaded Dutch ambassadors, with whose skulls Badu Bonsu had adorned his throne .

consequences

Citing the provisions of the Treaty of Butre , which had regulated relations between the Dutch and Ahanta since 1656, the Dutch ended the independence of the Ahanta state, appointed a Dutch resident of their base Fort Batenstein as regent and from then on held the country with a strong military and civil presence under control.

In 2005 the Dutch author Arthur Japin discovered the skull of Badu Bonsu in formaldehyde at the Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (LUMC) in Leyden, the Netherlands. Japin had found out about the existence of this skull while researching his 1997 novel De zwarte met het witte hart . In March 2009, the Dutch government announced that it would transfer the head to Badu Bonsus' home country for an appropriate burial . This promise was fulfilled on July 23, 2009 after a ceremony was held in The Hague .

See also

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  1. ↑ a b c d e f Van Kessel, Ineke: Driehonderd jaar Nederlands-Ghanese handelsbetrekkingen, in Historisch Nieuwsblad, 2001 (4) historicallynieuwsblad.nl
  2. ↑ a b c d e Doortmont, Michel R .; Smit, Jinna (2007). Sources for the mutual history of Ghana and the Netherlands. An annotated guide to the Dutch archives relating to Ghana and West Africa in the Nationaal Archief, 1593-1960s. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-15850-4 . [1]
  3. ^ Tonneboeijer, Hendrikus Jacobus . GoldCoastDataBase. January 5, 2010. Retrieved May 5, 2012.
  4. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/bring-us-the-head-of-king-badu-bonsu-said-ghana-ndash-and-the-dutch-said-yes -1760710.html /www.independent.co.uk
  5. ↑ a b Dutch to return Ghana king's head . In: BBC News , March 20, 2009. 
  6. ↑ Leiden geeft hoofd Badu Bonsu II terug . In: NRC Handelsblad , March 21, 2008. 
  7. ↑ Verhagen steunt terugkeer koning hoofd Ghanese . In: NRC Handelsblad , December 22, 2008. 
  8. ^ Joan Clements: Netherlands to return king's head to Ghana . In: The Daily Telegraph , March 20, 2009. 
  9. ^ Dutch return head of Ghana king . In: BBC News , July 23, 2009.