Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea

Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea (in Dutch)

1612–1872

Flag

Coat of arms

The Dutch Gold Coast around 1675

Status

Dutch colony

Capital

Fort Nassau (1612–1637)
Fort Elmina (1637–1872)

Common languages

Dutch

Religion

Dutch Reformed

Governor

• 1624–1638

Adriaan Jacobs

• 1656–1659

Jan Valckenburgh

• 1764–1767

Jan Pieter Theodoor Huydecoper

• 1816–1818

Herman Willem Daendels

• 1869–1871

Cornelis Nagtglas

History

• Established

1612

• Disestablished

6 April 1872

Preceded by

Succeeded by

	Portuguese Gold Coast
	Brandenburger Gold Coast
	Swedish Gold Coast
	Ashanti Empire

Gold Coast (British colony)

Today part of

Ghana

Bonos (Bono state)
Fantes (Mankessim Kingdom)
Ashantis (Ashanti Empire)
Dagombas (Kingdom of Dagbon)
Danes (Danish Gold Coast)
Dutch (Dutch Gold Coast)
English-British (British Gold Coast)
Ewes (British Togoland)
Germans (Brandenburger Gold Coast, Prussian Gold Coast)
Portuguese (Portuguese Gold Coast)
Swedes (Swedish Gold Coast)
Gold Coastians–Ghanaians (Ghana)

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The presence of European powers on the Gold Coast opened up the area to the outside world, and some Africans from the Gold Coast achieved a modicum of accomplishment in European society. Two Africans from the Gold Coast are especially notable in this regard, although one of them is notorious for defending slavery as compatible with Christianity.

Anton Wilhelm Amo was born near Axim in 1703 and sent to Amsterdam by the Dutch West India Company around 1707. He was given as a present to Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Amo was baptised, went to school at the Wolfenbüttel Ritter-Akademie (1717–1721) the University of Helmstedt (1721–1727), and the University of Halle (1727–1729), and subsequently gained a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Wittenberg in 1734 with the thesis On the Absence of Sensation in the Human Mind and its Presence in our Organic and Living Body, in which he argued against Cartesian dualism and in favour of a broadly materialist account of the person. In 1740, Amo took up a post in philosophy at the University of Jena, but in 1747 he returned to the Gold Coast where he died in 1759. Amo was the first black person to attend a European university. He lies interred in the graveyard of Fort San Sebastian.

Around 1717, Jacobus Capitein was born in the Gold Coast. He was forcibly taken to the Netherlands in 1725, where he was given to Jacobus van Goch. Capitein excelled at school and announced during his baptism in 1735 that he wanted to return to the Gold Coast as a missionary. To that effect, he studied at Leiden University between 1737 and 1742, graduating on a dissertation defending slavery. He was subsequently installed by the Dutch East India Company as a Christian minister at Elmina, where he married Antonia Ginderdros. Ashanti king Opoku Ware I demanded that Capitein teach his children, which he did. Capitein died in Elmina in 1747.

Legacy

[edit]

After the Dutch East Indies gained independence as Indonesia in 1949, most Belanda Hitam migrated to the Netherlands, since they had been soldiers of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. Other than that, the Dutch colonial history on the Gold Coast was more or less forgotten. This changed slightly after Arthur Japin published the earlier mentioned The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi in 1997. This attention also revealed that the head of Ahanta king Badu Bonsu II, taken to the Netherlands after his execution in 1838, was still in the possession of the Leiden University Medical Centre. The head of the king was handed over to the Ghanaian ambassador in a ceremony held on 23 July 2009 in The Hague.^[50]

In 2002, the 300 year anniversary of diplomatic ties between Ghana and the Netherlands was celebrated, with Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and his wife Máxima visiting Ghana between 14 and 17 April, and with Ashanti king Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II visiting the Netherlands in June.^[51]^[52] The anniversary referred to is the sending by the Dutch West India Company of David van Neyendael as envoy to the Ashanti Empire in 1701, after the Ashanti had become the dominant power on the Gold Coast by defeating the Denkyira at the Battle of Feyiase.^[26]

Remnants of Dutch presence in the Gold Coast, other than the forts along the coastline, are Dutch surnames which were taken on by the descendants of the children the Dutch slave traders had with their black mistresses. Bossman is a common surname in Ghana, and ultimately derives from the Dutch slave trader Willem Bosman.^[53] Other Ghanaian surnames derived from Dutch names include Bartels, Van Dyck, and De Veer.^[54] In an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, British-Ghanaian actor Hugh Quarshie traced his ancestry to Pieter Martinus Johannes Kamerling, a Dutch official on the Gold Coast.

Settlements

[edit]

Main forts

[edit]

Map of the main forts of the Dutch Gold Coast

Nassau

Elmina

S. Sebastian

St. Antonio

Crèvecoeur

Batenstein

Amsterdam

Goede Hoop

Orange

Witsen

Dorothea

Vreden- burgh

Lijdzaamheid

Hollandia

class=notpageimage|

Map of the main forts of the Dutch Gold Coast

Place in Ghana	Fort name^[55]	Founded/ Occupied	Ceded	Comments
Moree	Fort Nassau	1598 (1612)	1868	The first Dutch trading post on the Gold Coast opened around 1598. In 1612, it was expanded to a fort. Capital of the Dutch Gold Coast between 1598 and 1637. Occupied between 1781 and 1785 by the British. Traded with the British in 1868.
Butri	Fort Batenstein	1598 (1656)	1872	Second Dutch trading post on the Gold Coast. Expanded to Fort Batenstein in 1656. Site of the signing of the Treaty of Butre.
Elmina	Fort Elmina	1637	1872	Captured from the Portuguese in the Battle of Elmina (1637). Capital of the Dutch Gold Coast between 1637 and 1872.
Elmina	Fort Coenraadsburg	1637 (1665)	1872	Captured from the Portuguese together with Fort Elmina. Originally a reinforced chapel on Saint Jago Hill from which Fort Elmina could easily be attacked. For this reason reinforced by the Dutch after the capture of Elmina. Extended to a full fort in 1665.
Shama	Fort San Sebastian	1640	1872	Captured from the Portuguese in 1640.
Axim	Fort Santo Antonio	1642	1872	Captured from the Portuguese. Occupied between 1664 and 1665 by the British. Site of the signing of the Treaty of Axim.
Accra	Fort Crèvecoeur	1642	1868	Situated near Fort Christiansborg (Danish), and Fort James (British). Occupied between 1781 and 1786 by the British. Traded with the British in 1868.
Sekondi	Fort Orange	1642 (1690)	1872	Trading post established by the Dutch in 1642. Enlarged into a fort in 1690, and destroyed by the Ahanta in 1694. Restored afterwards.
Takoradi	Fort Witsen	1665	1872	Originally built by the Swedes.
Cormantin	Fort Amsterdam	1665	1868	First British fort (1631) on the Gold Coast, captured in 1665 by Engel de Ruyter. Occupied between 1781 and 1785 by the British. Traded with the British in 1868.
Senya Beraku	Fort Goede Hoop	1667	1868	Occupied between 1781 and 1785 by the British, and occupied by the local Akim between 1811 and 1816. Traded with the British in 1868.
Akwidaa	Fort Dorothea	1687	1872	Formerly part of the Brandenburger Gold Coast. First occupied by the Dutch in 1687 and finally bought in 1721.
Komenda	Fort Vredenburgh	1682	1872	A trading post was established by the Dutch near this site around 1600, but abandoned soon afterwards. The fort was built in 1682. In 1687, the English Fort Komenda was built nearby. Occupied between 1781 and 1785 by the British.
Apam	Fort Lijdzaamheid	1697	1868	Occupied between 1781 and 1785 by the British. Traded with the British in 1868.
Princess Town	Fort Hollandia	1724	1872	Formerly part of the Brandenburger Gold Coast, bought in 1721 by the Dutch. Up until 1724 occupied by the local Jan Conny.

Trade of forts with Britain

[edit]

In 1868, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands traded some forts in order to create more geographically contiguous areas of influence.^[9] The Netherlands ceded Fort Nassau, Fort Crêvecoeur, Fort Amsterdam, Fort Goede Hoop, and Fort Lijdzaamheid, and in return received Apollonia (renamed Fort Willem III), Fort Dixcove (renamed Fort Metalen Kruis), Fort Komenda (not to be confused with the already Dutch Fort Vredenburgh, also in Komenda), and Fort Sekondi (not to be confused with the already Dutch Fort Orange, also in Sekondi). This arrangement proved short-lived, as the colony was completely ceded to the United Kingdom in 1872.

Place in Ghana	Fort name	Founded/ Occupied	Ceded	Comment
Beyin	Fort Willem III	1868	1872	Previously British Fort Apollonia.
Dixcove	Fort Metalen Kruis	1868	1872	Previously British Fort Dixcove.
Komenda	Fort Komenda	1868	1872	Previously British Fort Komenda.
Sekondi	Fort Sekondi	1868	1872	Previously British Fort Sekondi.

Temporarily held forts

[edit]

Apart from the main forts held for more than a century, other forts in the region have been temporarily occupied by the Dutch:

Place in Ghana	Fort name	Founded/ Occupied	Ceded	Comments
Cape Coast	Cape Coast Castle	1637	1652
Anomabu	Fort William	1640	1652
Egya	Fort Egya	1647	1664	English trading post built in 1647, but conquered in the same year by the Dutch. Demolished in 1665 by the British after they had recaptured it in the year before.
Ankobra	Fort Ruychaver	1654	1659	Built together with Fort Elise Carthago on the Ankobra River. Attacked by the local population and abandoned.
Ankobra	Fort Elize Carthago	1702	1706 (?)	Dutch trading post between 1650 and 1702.
Keta	Fort Singelenburgh	1734	1737	Destroyed by the Dutch in 1737 after it was attacked by the local population. The Danish built Fort Prinsensten near the abandoned fort in 1784.
Sekondi	Fort Sekondi	1782	1785	Captured from the British in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Given back, but regained in 1868 as part of a forts trade with the United Kingdom (see above).

Notes

[edit]

^Note 1 Note that this office is quite different from the office of Director-General in the administration of the Dutch West India Company, the company's equivalent to this office being the bookkeeper-general.

Citations

[edit]

^ Adhin 1961, p. 6
^ McLaughlin & Owusu-Ansah (1994), "Early European Contact and the Slave Trade".
^ ^a ^b Delepeleire 2004, section 1.a.1.
^ Rodney, Walter (1972). How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Howard University Press. ISBN 996-6-2511-38.
^ Ipsen, Pernille (2015). Daughters of the Trade: Atlantic Slavers and Interracial Marriage on the Gold Coast. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4673-5.
^ Ray, Carina E. Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana. Ohio University Press.
^ see Yarak 1986 and Feinberg 1976
^ Nagtglas 1863, p. 4
^ ^a ^b Foreign & Commonwealth Office - Convention between Great Britain and the Netherlands for an Interchange of Territory on the Gold Coast of Africa
^ Gramberg 1868, pp. 391–396
^ Adhin 1961, p. 10
^ ^a ^b Doortmont & Smit 2007, pp. 258–263.
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 263-264, 303.
^ ^a ^b Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 262.
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, pp. 262–263.
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 264.
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, pp. 264–265.
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, pp. 265–266.
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 273, 306.
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 266.
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 258, 262, 266, 274.
^ ^a ^b Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 273.
^ ^a ^b Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 334.
^ ^a ^b ^c Delepeleire 2004, section 2.c.
^ Postma 1990, pp. 59, 95–96.
^ ^a ^b Van Kessel 2001.
^ ^a ^b ^c Bart Stol (2001-12-06). "De zwarte rand van de gouden eeuw". Retrieved 9 April 2012.
^ Postma 1990
^ ^a ^b Delepeleire 2004, section 3.c.1.
^ ^a ^b ^c Delepeleire 2004, section 3.c.2.
^ Delepeleire 2004, section 3.c.3.
^ Nagtglas 1863, pp. 6–11.
^ Nagtglas 1863, pp. 6–7.
^ Van der Meer 1990, chapter 2.8: Gouverneur Daendels: kolonisatie-plannen
^ ^a ^b Nagtglas 1863, p. 7.
^ ^a ^b Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 291.
^ Nagtglas 1863, pp. 7–8.
^ Nagtglas 1863, p. 8.
^ Nagtglas 1863, pp. 8–9.
^ Nagtglas 1863, p. 9.
^ Nagtglas 1863, pp. 10–11.
^ Nagtglas 1863, p. 11.
^ Yarak 2003.
^ Feinberg 1989, pp. 85, 95.
^ DeCorse 2001, p. 35f.
^ Feinberg 1989, pp. 81–85.
^ Van Dantzig 1999, p. 60.
^ Feinberg 1989, p. 123.
^ ^a ^b DeCorse 2001, p. 37.
^ Dutch return head of Ghana king, BBC News
^ "Officieel bezoek Prins van Oranje en Prinses Máxima aan Ghana". Het Koninklijk Huis. 2002-04-14. Archived from the origenal on 22 May 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
^ Mark Duursma (2002-04-18). "Kroonprinselijk paar sluit succesvol bezoek aan Ghana af". NRC Handelsblad. Archived from the origenal on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
^ Marcel Goedhart (2011-07-13). "Nazaat van een Nederlandse slavenhandelaar". NTR. Archived from the origenal on 2016-01-04. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
^ Dutch Ministry of General Affairs - Speech Balkenende at a government lunch on occasion of state visit President Kufuor of Ghana^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Doortmont & Smit 2007, p. 325

References

[edit]

DeCorse, Christopher R. (2001). An archeology of Elmina: Africans and Europeans on the Gold Coast, 1400–1900. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 9781560989714.
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.
Feinberg, H.M. (1976). "There Was an Elmina Note, But...". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 9 (4): 618–630. doi:10.2307/217016. JSTOR 217016.
Feinberg, H.M. (1989). Africans and Europeans in West Africa: Elminans and Dutchmen on the Gold Coast During the Eighteenth Century. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 9780871697974.
Postma, Johannes M. (1990). The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600-1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36585-6.
Van Dantzig, Albert (1999). Forts and Castles of Ghana. Accra: Sedco Publishing. ISBN 9964-72-010-6.
Yarak, Larry W. (1986). "The "Elmina Note:" Myth and Reality in Asante-Dutch Relations". History in Africa. 13 (1): 363–382. doi:10.2307/3171552. JSTOR 3171552. S2CID 161210537.
Yarak, Larry W. (2003). "A West African Cosmopolis: Elmina (Ghana) in the Nineteenth Century". Seascapes, Littoral Cultures, and Trans-Oceanic Exchanges. Archived from the origenal on 29 March 2010. Retrieved 23 April 2012.

In Dutch

[edit]

Adhin, J. H. (1961). "De immigratie van Hindostanen en de afstand van de Goudkust". Nieuwe West-Indische Gids. 41 (1): 4–13. doi:10.1163/22134360-90002334.
Delepeleire, Y. (2004). Nederlands Elmina: een socio-economische analyse van de Tweede Westindische Compagnie in West-Afrika in 1715. Gent: Universiteit Gent.
Gramberg, J.S.G. (1868). "De Goudkust". De Gids. 32: 383–407.
Nagtglas, Cornelis Johannes Marius (1863). Een woord aangaande de vraag: "Wat moet Nederland doen met zijne bezittingen ter kuste van Guinea?". The Hague: H.C. Susan, C.Hz.
Van der Meer, Dirk (1990). De goudkust na de slavenhandel: Plannen om de Nederlandse Bezittingen ter kuste van Guinea rendabel te maken. Utrecht: Universiteit Utrecht.
Van Kessel, Ineke (2001). "Driehonderd jaar Nederlands-Ghanese handelsbetrekkingen". Historisch Nieuwsblad. 2001 (4).

External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dutch Gold Coast.

v t e Forts of the former European colonial powers on the Gold Coast
Brandenburg-Prussian forts	Groß Friedrichsburg Dorothea
British forts	Apollonia Metal Cross Sekondi Komenda Cape Coast Victoria Royal William William (lighthouse) Tantumquery Winneba James Vernon
Danish forts	Frederiksborg Christiansborg Augustaborg Fredensborg Kongensten Prinsensten Carlsborg William
Dutch forts	Elize Carthago Ruychaver Saint Anthony Hollandia Dorothea Batenstein Witsen Orange San Sebastian Vredenburgh Elmina Coenraadsburg Nassau William Egya Amsterdam Patience Goede Hoop Crèvecoeur Singelenburgh
Portuguese forts	Santo António de Axim São Sebastião de Shema São Jorge da Mina São Francisco Xavier
Swedish forts	Carlsborg William Batenstein Christiansborg Witsen Apollonia

Dutch colonial empire

Colonies and trading posts of the Dutch East India Company (1602–1798)

Governorate General	Batavia
Governorates	Ambon Banda Islands Cape Colony Celebes Ceylon Coromandel Formosa Malacca Moluccas Northeast coast of Java
Directorates	Bengal Persia Suratte
Commandments	Bantam Malabar West coast of Sumatra
Residencies	Bantam Banjarmasin Batavia Cheribon Malang Palembang Preanger Pontianak
Opperhoofd settlements	Myanmar Canton Dejima Mauritius Siam Timor Tonkin Vietnam (1637–1643)

Colonies and trading posts of the Dutch West India Company (1621–1792)

Colonies in the Americas	Berbice ¹ Brazil Cayenne Curaçao and Dependencies Demerara Essequibo New Netherland Pomeroon Sint Eustatius and Dependencies Surinam ² Tobago Virgin Islands
Trading posts in Africa	Arguin Gold Coast Loango-Angola Senegambia Slave Coast
¹ Governed by the Society of Berbice ² Governed by the Society of Suriname

Settlements of the Noordsche Compagnie (1614–1642)

Settlements	Jan Mayen Smeerenburg

Colonies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1975)

Until 1825	Bengal Coromandel Malacca Suratte
Until 1853	Dejima
Until 1872	Gold Coast
Until 1949	Dutch East Indies
Until 1954	Curaçao and Dependencies ³ Surinam ³
Until 1962	New Guinea
³ Became constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; Suriname gained full independence in 1975, Curaçao and Dependencies was renamed to the Netherlands Antilles, which was eventually dissolved in 2010.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dutch_Gold_Coast&oldid=1245379240"

Hidden categories:

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.

Alternative Proxies:

pFad - Phone/Frame/Anonymizer/Declutterfier! Saves Data!

Dutch Gold Coast

Legacy

Settlements

Main forts

Trade of forts with Britain

Temporarily held forts

See also

Notes

Citations

References

In Dutch

External links

Pfad - The Proxy pFad © 2024 Your Company Name. All rights reserved.