The Gold Coast, 1600–1660
How did one Portuguese castle become a coast of rival European forts — and who decided which of them stayed?
▶ Watch the narrated atlas · 7 minThe ground by 1660, in the colours of who held it. Hatched: ground that changed hands between 1600 and 1660.
In each era below, numbered events on the map match the list under it and the marks in the text; nothing moves.
The eras
A fort for Asebu
- 1⌂São Jorge da Mina — Portuguese castle · built 1482
- 2◆Dutch lodge burned — 1610 · by the Portuguese
- 3⌂Fort Nassau — 1612 · the first Dutch fort
In brief
In 1600 there was one European fortress on the Gold Coast: São Jorge da Mina,1 the castle the Portuguese had built at Elmina in 1482. Gold came down to it from the forest states inland, and Portugal claimed the whole coast's trade. Dutch ships had been trading along that coast since the 1590s all the same. In 1609 a truce in Europe freed the Portuguese to act against them, and in 1610 they burned the Dutch lodge2 at Mouri, east of Elmina, in the kingdom of Asebu. Dutch merchants asked the States-General for a fort, and in 1611 it sent out Jacob Clantius, the first Dutch general on the coast. In 1612 Clantius built Fort Nassau3 at Mouri, at the invitation of the king of Asebu. It was the first Dutch fort on the Gold Coast, and it stood on Asebu's ground.
The chain, era by era
Cristóvão de Melo had commanded São Jorge da Mina since 1596, the year Dutch ships first attacked the castle. They came back in 1603 and 1606 and failed both times. But a castle could not make the trade come to it: its food came from the African towns around it and its gold from inland merchants, and Dutch ships now offered them goods all along the coast.
Duarte de Lima took over the castle in 1608 and held it until 1610. In 1609 the Twelve Years' Truce in Europe freed the Portuguese to act against the Dutch traders on the coast, and in 1610 they burned the Dutch lodge at Mouri, a few miles east of Elmina, in the kingdom of Asebu.
Pieter de Marees sailed from the Netherlands in November 1600 and traded on the Gold Coast through 1601. Back in Amsterdam in March 1602, he published a description of the coast: its towns and rulers, its markets, how gold changed hands. It was the first thorough account of the Gold Coast in Dutch, and it drew more merchants to a trade the Portuguese called theirs.
After the lodge at Mouri burned, Dutch merchants petitioned the States-General for protection. In 1611 it sent out Jacob Clantius as the first Dutch General on the Coast. In 1612 he built Fort Nassau at Mouri, the first Dutch fort on the Gold Coast, and the Dutch headquarters there until 1637.
The ground at Mouri belonged to the king of Asebu, and Fort Nassau went up at his invitation. No copy of the agreement survives, and his name is not recorded. Asebu gained a permanent trading partner on its own shore, a rival to Elmina; the Dutch gained a base the Portuguese could no longer simply burn.
Inland, behind the coast east of Elmina, Akwamu was taking shape in the hills around the trade paths to Accra. Its stool lists are traditions, and they disagree. By one of them Akotia was Akwamuhene from about 1595 to about 1610 and moved the capital to Ayandawaase; another list puts him decades earlier. No European of these years names an Akwamu king.
The same list makes Obuoko Dako the next Akwamuhene, from about 1610 to about 1625. Nothing is recorded of his reign beyond his place in the succession; the other list does not name him at all. What the coast saw of Akwamu in these decades was its hold on the paths along which traders carried gold down to Accra.
By 1612 the Dutch had a fort of their own on the coast, standing on ground that Asebu's king had granted.
The ambush above Elmina
- 4◆West India Company — takes over Fort Nassau
- 5◆The captain buys allies — Komenda neutral · food from Fetu · a price on Dutch heads
- 6⚔Ambush above Elmina — 25 Oct 1625 · the Dutch column destroyed
In brief
In 1621 the Dutch founded the West India Company to carry their war with Spain and Portugal overseas, and it took over Fort Nassau.4 Its director there, Arent Jacobsz van Amersfoort, set out to win the coast's rulers. On 31 March 1624 he made a treaty with Ambro, the Braffo of the Fante, who promised to stand with the Dutch against the Portuguese. Asebu and the ruler of Accra came over too. At Elmina the Portuguese captain, Francisco de Souto-Maior, answered with gifts.5 He spent nearly all the castle's trade goods to keep Komenda neutral and to have Fetu promise food in a siege, and he offered Elmina's townsmen a reward for every Dutch head. In October 1625 a Dutch fleet landed more than 1,000 men at Komenda, and they marched without waiting for the alliance; only about 150 Asebu warriors went with them. On 25 October, as the column camped in the hills above Elmina, 200 Elmina swordsmen fell on it.6 Souto-Maior's bargain held: hundreds of the Dutch died, and Amersfoort was carried off wounded.
The chain, era by era
On 3 June 1621 the Dutch founded the West India Company to carry their war with Spain and Portugal into the Atlantic. It was given a monopoly of the Gold Coast trade, barred private Dutch traders from the coast, and in 1623–24 took over Fort Nassau from the Admiralty. Its first aim in Africa was the castle at Elmina.
Arent Jacobsz van Amersfoort, director at Fort Nassau from 1624, prepared the attack on Elmina with diplomacy first. He won over Asebu, on whose land the fort stood, and the ruler of Accra far to the east. On 31 March 1624 he made a treaty with the Fante, whose country lay along the coast east of Mouri.
Ambro was the Braffo of the Fante, their war leader and the man who treated with Europeans. In 1620 the Fante had fought Asebu, and Dutch help to Asebu had left them bitter. Yet in the treaty of 31 March 1624 Ambro promised to stand with the Dutch against the Portuguese at Elmina.
Far inland, between the Ofin and Pra rivers, the Agona lived under the shadow of Adanse, the old senior state of the forest. Denkyira's tradition remembers Mumunumfi, ruler of Agona, as the man under whom the Agona became Denkyira, about 1620, with its capital later at Abankeseso. The date and the founding story are tradition, recorded long afterwards.
The Dutch now had a company built for war and a Fante pledge against Elmina.
Francisco de Souto-Maior, captain of Elmina from 1624 (some accounts call him Fernando de Sottomayor), had 56 men and heard of the Dutch fleet through his African trading partners. He spent nearly all the castle's goods on gifts: the ruler of Komenda promised neutrality, the ruler of Fetu promised food in a siege, and Elmina's townsmen were offered a reward for every Dutch head.
Jan Dircksz Lam and Andries Veron brought fifteen ships and about 1,200 soldiers and sailors, Lam's squadron joined by ships back from the failed Dutch venture at Bahia. Amersfoort was away at Accra. Without waiting for the alliance, Lam landed more than 1,000 men at Komenda and marched on Elmina; only about 150 Asebu warriors went with him. Lam's journal of the fleet runs to 1626.
Amersfoort joined the column at the last moment, was badly wounded in the ambush, and was carried back to Komenda by his Asebu allies. He then tried to bring Komenda's warriors into a second attack, but its ruler held to his bargain with the Portuguese. At Fetu's court he met a Portuguese envoy. On 29 November 1625 the fleet sailed away.
On the evening of 25 October 1625 the Dutch camped in the hills above Elmina. At a cannon shot from the castle, about 200 Elmina men armed with swords fell on them. The Dutch lost 375 soldiers, Veron among them, and 66 sailors; the Portuguese lost 27. Elmina's men stopped to strip and behead the dead for the captain's reward.
Werempe Ampem followed Mumunumfi on Denkyira's stool, by one list from 1624 to 1637. After 1629 Denkyira's campaigns grew: under Werempe Ampem it expanded by force and through its hold on the gold trade, absorbing Akan territories and breaking up old trade networks. Denkyira still owed allegiance to Adanse.
In Akwamu, by the same stool list that names Akotia and Obuoko Dako, a woman, Afrakoma, ruled next, from the 1620s to about 1640; she is listed as Akwamuhemaa. Like her predecessors she is known only from tradition. The Dutch did not record her name, but in her years they recorded her state.
A Dutch company map of the Gold Coast drawn in 1629 is the first record of Akwamu. It placed the people of Akwamu across the trade paths inland and called them diefachtich volck, a thievish people. The historian Ivor Wilks read this as a sign of the tight control Akwamu kept over merchants passing through its land.
Elmina survived because its African neighbours chose it: bought neutrality and paid warriors beat a fleet.
The English at Kormantin
In brief
By 1629 the West India Company had mapped the states behind the coast. Its map called the people of Akwamu, who sat across the trade paths inland, thievish, most likely for the hold they kept on traders crossing their land. Men who knew the coast that well could sell what they knew. In 1631 the English crown chartered a new company for the Guinea trade, and its chief shareholder, the London merchant Nicholas Crispe, wanted a fortified base on the Gold Coast. Arent de Groot, a former factor of the Dutch company, went into his service. In May 1632 four English ships sailed. De Groot reached the coast that August and dealt with Ambro, the same Fante leader who had sworn to help the Dutch. Ambro let the English build at Kormantin, on Fante ground,7 and open posts at Anomabu and Egya. Men from Great Kormantin built the lodge. The Dutch could only anchor a guard ship8 in the bay, to draw the trade away.
The chain, era by era
Nicholas Crispe, a London merchant, had been buying into the English Guinea Company since 1625 and controlled it by 1628. In 1631 the king granted it a new patent, and Crispe turned it from the Gambia and Sierra Leone to the Gold Coast, where he wanted a fortified base and paid for it himself. To find a way in, he hired men who had worked for the Dutch company.
Arent de Groot, a former factor of the Dutch West India Company, sailed with four English ships in May 1632 and reached the coast in August. He went to Ambro. With the Braffo's consent he set up an English lodge at Kormantin, on Fante ground, and opened posts at Anomabu and Egya. Men from Great Kormantin built the lodge.
Ambro, the Fante leader who had sworn to help the Dutch in 1624, now let their rivals build at Kormantin. A treaty with one company had not made the Fante its subjects. With two customers on their shore, Fante merchants could play the English against the Dutch, and Kormantin became an English station for the next three decades.
Jan Jochemsz Sticker followed Amersfoort as director at Fort Nassau from 1631 to 1635. When the English opened their lodge at Kormantin, the Dutch could not drive them off Fante ground. They anchored a trading ship of their own in Kormantin bay instead, to draw the trade away from the English.
Pedro de Mascarenhas commanded São Jorge da Mina from 1632. The castle now had Dutch rivals at Mouri and English ones at Kormantin, and Portugal, still ruled from Madrid, sent it little help. His command ended in 1634, and the castle passed through two more hands that year.
After a short acting command by Duarte Borges, André da Rocha Magalhães took over the castle in 1634. One list keeps him in office until 1642, which would make him the captain who surrendered it; a Portuguese account, after van Dantzig, gives that last captain as António Pinto da Fonseca. Either way, no help came.
The Fante showed that a treaty bought an ally, not a monopoly; Elmina was left waiting for relief that did not come.
Elmina falls
- 9♜Elmina falls — Aug 1637 · the Portuguese surrender
- 10✒Treaty of Axim — 17 Feb 1642 · the last Portuguese fort taken
In brief
In 1637 the Dutch tried Elmina again, and this time they prepared the ground first. The company now held north-eastern Brazil, and its new governor there, Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, had orders to take the castle. He gave the command to Colonel Hans Coine and sent him with nine ships and some 800 soldiers. On the coast, the director at Fort Nassau, Nicolaes van Yperen, worked on the neighbouring states. The king of Eguafo, whose port was Komenda, promised 200 manned canoes for rewards once the castle fell, and Eguafo and Asebu put between 1,000 and 1,400 armed men in the field. In late August Coine's troops landed near Cape Coast and marched on Elmina. They fought off an ambush, stormed the hill of St Jago above the castle, and dragged cannon to the top. Within days the Portuguese garrison, down to about thirty-five men, surrendered and sailed for São Tomé.9 In early 1642 the Dutch took Axim, the last Portuguese fort. Axim's chiefs signed a treaty:10 they kept their courts, took gold for every Dutch ship, and each gave a son as surety.
The chain, era by era
Nicolaes van Yperen, director at Fort Nassau from 1637, prepared the ground before the next attack. He worked on the states around Elmina, to win their warriors or at least keep them from the Portuguese. The company would not again march on the castle with no African army beside it.
The company now held north-eastern Brazil, and its new governor there, Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, arrived at Recife in January 1637 with orders to take Elmina. He sent nine ships and about 800 soldiers, some 1,300 men in all, under Colonel Hans Coine.
Hans Coine landed near Cape Coast in late August 1637 and marched on Elmina. His troops beat off an ambush, stormed the hill of St Jago above the castle, and dragged cannon to its top. He refused the garrison a three-day truce: his food would last only one more day.
Jacob Ruychaver, second in command from 1639, took charge of the Dutch coast in January 1641. In January 1642 the Dutch took Axim, the last Portuguese fort. On 17 February its chiefs signed a treaty with the Dutch: they kept their courts, with the Dutch merchant presiding, took an ounce of gold for every Dutch ship, and each gave a son as surety.
The king of Eguafo, whose port was Komenda, promised 200 manned canoes in return for rewards once the castle fell. Eguafo and Asebu put between 1,000 and 1,400 armed men in the field beside Coine's soldiers. The states that had stood aside in 1625 now fought for the Dutch.
With cannon firing down from St Jago, the garrison, down to about thirty-five men, surrendered within days, on 27 or 29 August 1637 by different accounts. By the terms, the governor, the soldiers and the Portuguese townspeople left unarmed by boat for São Tomé. São Jorge da Mina became the Dutch headquarters on the coast.
By the Akwamu stool list, Ansa Sasraku followed Afrakoma about 1640 and reigned until about 1674. The name was borne by several kings in a row, and the Ansa Sasraku who led Akwamu's attack on Accra in 1677 is counted the first by some lists and the second by others.
By 1642 Portugal had lost every fort on the Gold Coast, and the Dutch held them because the kingdoms around them had joined in.
Carloff's two flags
- 11⌂Carolusborg — 1652 · a Swedish fort on Fetu ground
- 12♜Carolusborg taken for Denmark — Jan 1658 · opened from within
In brief
Hendrik Carloff had served the Dutch company at Elmina and Mouri in the 1640s. In 1648 he won a promise of land from Fetu, the kingdom behind Cape Coast, and took it to a new Swedish Africa Company. He landed on 22 April 1650. Fetu's king, Bodema, with the treasurer Acrosan and Acrosan's brother, the heir, let him build at Cape Coast, for monthly payments to the brothers and a fee on every ship. The Swedes laid the foundations of Carolusborg11 in 1652. Four years later Carloff quarrelled with his employers and was replaced. In 1657 he went over to Denmark, then going to war with Sweden. In January 1658 he was back on the coast with one ship, flying Swedish colours to deceive the fort. Acrosan agreed to help him and called on the Swedish company's own slaves. In the morning they opened the gate. Carolusborg fell in less than an hour,12 and its Swedish governor became Carloff's prisoner.
The chain, era by era
John Wood, a factor on the Sierra Leone River in the 1620s, went to Kormantin as head factor in 1638. That year the company began turning its lodge into a fort; a fire in June 1639 stopped the work, and the English blamed saboteurs backed by the Dutch. Wood later returned to London to run the business.
Crispe was a royalist. In January 1643 the Commons questioned him over money owed him for secret service to the king, and he fled to Oxford. Parliament ordered his share in the Guinea Company applied to his debt to the Navy, and in December 1643 the Lords confirmed it. The venture he had built passed to other London merchants.
Wood became governor of the Guinea Company in the 1640s, and around 1647 the merchant Maurice Thomson joined it. Under them Kormantin's lodge was replaced by a stone fort with gun batteries, the only English fort on the Gold Coast for three decades. No record shows Wood taking over Crispe's share.
A Dutch report of 1646 placed Akwamu, which it called Oquie, three to four Dutch miles north of Great Accra, with Larteh on the Akuapem ridge at the eastern edge of its control. Akwamu sat between Accra's markets and the gold country, and it would conquer Accra itself in the 1670s.
The English kept their fort through the fall of its founder, and Akwamu closed in on the paths to Accra.
Louis De Geer, a Walloon merchant whose ironworks and cannon foundries had made him rich in Sweden, founded the Swedish Africa Company in 1649 with his son Laurens, under a charter from Queen Christina, and based it at Stade on the Elbe. He held most of its shares. The idea came from a Dutch company man who offered him a promise of land.
Hendrik Carloff had served the Dutch company at Elmina and Mouri from 1645 to 1649 and in 1648 got the king of Fetu to promise land. Hired by De Geer for three years, he landed on 22 April 1650 and bought the site at Cape Coast. He opened posts at Butre in 1650, Anomabu in 1651 and Osu in 1652.
In September 1652, sailing home with gold and ivory, Carloff was seized by the English in the war with the Dutch and taken to Plymouth. On the coast his men began the fort at Cape Coast, Carolusborg, in 1652, and took Takoradi in 1653. In Sweden Carloff was knighted in 1654.
Bodema, king of Fetu, the kingdom behind Cape Coast, let Carloff build there. The terms were monthly payments to the brothers Acrosan and Hennequa and a fee on every ship that came to trade. Fetu kept the ground; the Swedes paid to stand on it.
Acrosan, Fetu's dey or treasurer, and the man Europeans dealt with as their protector, drew a monthly payment from the Swedish company. He and his brother stood between the company and the kingdom: who could trade at Cape Coast, and on what terms, passed through them.
Hennequa, Acrosan's brother and the heir to Fetu's stool, dealt with the English as well. On 28 May 1650 the king of Fetu signed with both companies; the English were granted the right to trade for half a year. Fetu's rulers kept more than one European customer at their door.
Ruychaver came back as director-general in March 1651 and set up Fort Ruychaver inland to reach the gold trade directly. Against the Swedes he used neighbours: in 1652 the people of Encasser attacked the Swedish lodge at Butre at Dutch instigation. In the Anglo-Dutch war of 1652–54 the company men on the coast agreed not to attack each other's posts.
Cape Coast became Swedish because Fetu's king and his officials sold it, for rent they would keep collecting.
Ruychaver died at Elmina on 24 January 1656. Jan Valckenburgh, a basket weaver's son who had come out as the company's fiscal in 1652, became director-general that day. His first task was to finish pushing the Swedes off the coast west of Elmina.
With the Swedes driven out of Butre, the Dutch built a fort on the hill above its bay, Batenstein, finished in 1656. On 27 August 1656 Eduard Man, fiscal, signed a treaty there with the chiefs of Upper Ahanta and Butre, titled the Dedication of Upper Ahanta and Butre.
Adriaan Hoogenhouck, a company commissioner, signed beside Man. By the treaty Ahanta placed itself under the protection of the States-General and the company, on condition that the Dutch fortify and defend the places under their protection and keep Ahanta free from war. It stayed in force until the Dutch left the coast in 1872.
The Ahanta had invited the Dutch director to come to Butre because of their war with Encasser. The chiefs of the country signed the treaty; Rochia, captain of Butre, and other local leaders ratified it. The Dutch then worked closely with Butre's chief, the second man in what became the kingdom of Ahanta.
In January 1658 Carloff, now in Danish service, asked Fetu's leaders to help him take back the fort he had built. By the account of the Danish priest Müller, Acrosan agreed and called on the Swedish company's own slaves; a Danish history gives the part to Hennequa. In the morning the slaves opened the gate.
Johan Filip von Krusenstierna, son of a Reval diplomat ennobled in Sweden, was named governor in Carloff's place and reached Cape Coast in February 1656. Carloff had been accused of trading on his own account. He left the colony in anger.
On 27 March 1657 Carloff offered his services to Frederick III of Denmark, who was about to go to war with Sweden. The king and his council approved an attack on the Swedish forts, and Carloff became director of a new Danish Africa Company. In December he sailed with the Glückstadt, a ship of eighteen guns.
Frederick III, king of Denmark and Norway since 1648, opened war on Sweden in June 1657. Carloff's raid was part of it. The capture of Carolusborg in January 1658 became one of the grievances Charles X Gustav of Sweden cited when he went back to war with Denmark that summer.
Carloff arrived on 25 January 1658 showing Swedish colours, borrowed boats and sailors from the Dutch at Axim, and marched by night to Cape Coast. Two days later the gate was opened from inside. The garrison of sixteen gave up; Krusenstierna was taken prisoner, with about 185 kilograms of gold and tons of ivory.
Carloff sailed home with the gold and left Samuel Smidt in command. Few Danish ships followed. Acrosan now threatened the Danes' water and food and kept traders away. On the night of 15–16 April 1659 Smidt gave up the fort to the Dutch, by other accounts sold it, and disappeared with gold.
Jasper van Heussen took over Carolusborg from Smidt for the Dutch company in April 1659, and on 27 April he succeeded Valckenburgh as director-general. The Dutch now held the fort the Swedes had built and the Danes had seized, on ground that still belonged to Fetu.
Every fort on the coast had changed flag at least once, and each change had passed through the hands of the rulers around it.
Acrosan's verdict
- 13◆Acrosan squeezes the Danes — 1658–59 · water, food and trade cut off
- 14◆Handed to the Dutch — 15–16 Apr 1659
- 15♜Fetu besieges the fort — six weeks · taken early 1660
- 16✒Back to the Swedes — Dec 1660 · for gold
- 17⚔Denkyira defeats Adanse — c. 1659 · by tradition
In brief
Carloff sailed home with the gold and left a deputy in command at Carolusborg. Few Danish ships came after him. Acrosan now turned on the men he had let in. He threatened to cut off their water and food, kept African traders away from the fort, and put the company's slaves to work for himself; the Danes could not leave13 without his permission. On the night of 15 April 1659 their commander handed the castle to the Dutch.14 Acrosan would not have the Dutch either. Fetu's men stormed the storehouse beside the fort and besieged it for six weeks,15 and early in 1660 they took it, at heavy cost. In December Fetu gave the castle back to the Swedes,16 for a large sum in gold. Inland, about 1659, Denkyira, by most accounts under its king Boa Amponsem, broke Adanse,17 its old overlord, and became the leading power in the gold country between the Ofin and the Pra. In 1600 one Portuguese castle had claimed the Gold Coast. By 1660 Dutch, English, Swedes and Danes held forts along it, each on ground its African landlords could take back.
The chain, era by era
Acrosan would not have the Dutch. On 29 May 1659 he wrote to the Swedish company, and he talked with the English and Swedes to keep the Dutch from holding the whole coast. Fetu's men stormed the storehouse beside the fort, besieged it for six weeks, and early in 1660 took it at heavy cost. Late in 1659 Fetu had also let the Danes build nearby.
The peace of Copenhagen in 1660 required Denmark to give the fort back to Sweden, but Smidt had already handed it to the Dutch, and Fetu had taken it from them. On 10 December 1660 Fetu gave the castle back to the Swedish company, for a large sum in gold.
Boa Amponsem followed Werempe Ampem as Denkyirahene; one list puts his accession in 1637, McCaskie in the 1650s. About 1659 Denkyira broke Adanse, its old overlord; a Dutch report of that year speaks of wars in the distant districts of Adanse. Most traditions credit Boa, some Werempe Ampem. Denkyira became the leading power between the Ofin and the Pra.
Denkyira and Adanse traditions, quoted by McCaskie, remember Ntiamoah, chief of Abooso in Adanse, as the man who captured and killed members of Denkyira's royal family during the war. Boa Amponsem, they say, took and executed him and enslaved Abooso's people. These details are tradition; Adanse's defeat itself is in the Dutch record.
By 1660 the castle at Cape Coast was Swedish again because Fetu said so, and inland Denkyira had replaced Adanse as the power over the gold.
Who’s who
The Akan and coastal states
The Portuguese
The Dutch
The English
The Swedish company
The Danes
Others
Timeline
- 1⌂São Jorge da Mina — Portuguese castle · built 1482 1600–1612
- 2◆Dutch lodge burned — 1610 · by the Portuguese 1600–1612
- 3⌂Fort Nassau — 1612 · the first Dutch fort 1600–1612
- 4◆West India Company — takes over Fort Nassau 1621–1625
- 5◆The captain buys allies — Komenda neutral · food from Fetu · a price on Dutch heads 1621–1625
- 6⚔Ambush above Elmina — 25 Oct 1625 · the Dutch column destroyed 1621–1625
- 7⌂English lodge at Kormantin — 1632 · on Fante ground 1629–1632
- 8◆Dutch guard ship — anchored in Kormantin bay 1629–1632
- 9♜Elmina falls — Aug 1637 · the Portuguese surrender 1637–1642
- 10✒Treaty of Axim — 17 Feb 1642 · the last Portuguese fort taken 1637–1642
- 11⌂Carolusborg — 1652 · a Swedish fort on Fetu ground 1648–1658
- 12♜Carolusborg taken for Denmark — Jan 1658 · opened from within 1648–1658
- 13◆Acrosan squeezes the Danes — 1658–59 · water, food and trade cut off 1658–1660
- 14◆Handed to the Dutch — 15–16 Apr 1659 1658–1660
- 15♜Fetu besieges the fort — six weeks · taken early 1660 1658–1660
- 16✒Back to the Swedes — Dec 1660 · for gold 1658–1660
- 17⚔Denkyira defeats Adanse — c. 1659 · by tradition 1658–1660
Sources
- Treaty of Asebu and Fort Nassau at Mouri, 1610–1612 (after A. van Dantzig, Forts and Castles of Ghana, 1980, and M. Doortmont, 2001) — source
- The 1625 attack on Elmina: Amersfoort's alliances, the captain's gifts, the ambush (after M. Meuwese, Brothers in Arms, Partners in Trade, 2012, pp. 289–296) — source
- R. Law, 'The Government of Fante in the Seventeenth Century', Journal of African History 54 (2013): the Dutch–Fante treaty of 31 March 1624 and the Braffo's office — source
- Digital Kormantin (University of Rochester), history timeline: Asebu's invitation, Crispe and de Groot, the Kormantin lodge, the 1637 campaign — source
- Fante Confederacy — Wikipedia (K. Y. Daaku, Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast, 1970: Ambro the Brafo, the Dutch guard ship at Kormantse) — source
- Battle of Elmina (1637) — Wikipedia (Coine's expedition from Brazil, St Jago hill, the surrender terms) — source
- Treaty of Axim, 17 February 1642 — Wikipedia (the chiefs' courts, the ounce of gold per ship, the sons as surety) — source
- Y. Deffontaine, Guerre et société au royaume de Fetu (1471–1720), IFRA 1993, ch. IV: Bodema, Acrosan and the forts at Cape Coast, 1650–1660 — source
- Capture of Carolusborg (1658) — Wikipedia (after Nørregård, Danish Settlements in West Africa, 1966) — source
- Hendrik Carloff — Wikipedia (service with the Dutch, the Swedes and the Danes) — source
- T. C. McCaskie, 'Denkyira in the Making of Asante c. 1660–1720', Journal of African History 48 (2007): Denkyira's defeat of Adanse, c. 1659 — source
- Akwamu Empire — Wikipedia (I. Wilks 1957 on the Dutch map of 1629) — source
Every claim in the text was checked against the sources above. Borders: historical-basemaps (A. Ourednik, GPL-3.0), the c.1600 snapshot, simplified — schematic, the right states in roughly the right places. Ground that changed hands: modern provinces (Natural Earth) or later snapshots standing in for historical ones. Land, lakes and rivers: Natural Earth. Portraits: credited below with author, licence and source.
Portraits
- Nicholas Crispe — Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen · Public domain — Commons
- Johan Maurits — Jan de Baen · Public domain — Commons
- Louis De Geer — David Beck · Public domain — Commons
- Jan Valckenburgh — Daniel Vertangen · Public domain — Commons
- Frederick III — Paul Prieur · Public domain — Commons
- Jacob Ruychaver — Frans Hals · Public domain — Commons
- the King of Asebu — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Jacob Clantius — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Arent Jacobsz van Amersfoort — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Ambro — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Francisco de Souto-Maior — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Arent de Groot — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Nicolaes van Yperen — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- the King of Eguafo — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Hans Coine — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Hendrik Carloff — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Bodema — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Acrosan — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Boa Amponsem — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Cristóvão de Melo — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Duarte de Lima — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Pieter de Marees — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Akotia — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Obuoko Dako — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Mumunumfi — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Jan Dircksz Lam — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Werempe Ampem — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Afrakoma — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Jan Jochemsz Sticker — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Pedro de Mascarenhas — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- André da Rocha Magalhães — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Ansa Sasraku — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- John Wood — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Hennequa — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Eduard Man — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Adriaan Hoogenhouck — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Rochia — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Johan Filip von Krusenstierna — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Samuel Smidt — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Jasper van Heussen — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration
- Ntiamoah — imagined likeness, generated in the manner of sober naturalistic painted portrait in period dress (Codex image generation, 2026); no historical portrait survives or could be identified · generated illustration