Dutch Gold Coast
Ghana, 1598–1872. Draft, not yet reviewed
The Dutch began trading in the area around 1598, joining the Portuguese, who already had a trading post there. The Dutch West India Company captured Elmina Castle from the Portuguese in 1637. On 6 April 1872 the Dutch Gold Coast was ceded to the United Kingdom.
Seat of power: Fort Nassau
No rulers documented for this era yet.
Culture
- Along the coast, European men made alliances with local people through a practice known as cassare.
- The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1814.
- In the 19th century the Dutch Gold Coast slowly fell into disarray, and the only substantial development was the recruitment of soldiers for the Dutch East Indies Army.
Picture
Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese in 1482, is the oldest extant European building in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Image: Damien Halleux Radermecker, CC BY-SA 2.0, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.