Danish Gold Coast

colony
Part of	European colonies in Africa
Year dem found am	1658
Official language	Danish
Anthem	Der er et yndigt land
Country	Denmark–Norway
Capital	Osu
Currency	Danish rigsdaler
Date dem dissolve, abolish anaa demolish	1850

Na de Danish Gold Coast (Danish: Danske Guldkyst anaa Dansk Guinea) comprise de colonies wey Denmark–Norway control insyd Africa as a part of de Gold Coast (roughly present-day southeast Ghana), wich dey for de Gulf of Guinea. Na ebe colonized by de Dano-Norwegian fleet, first under indirect rule by de Danish West India Company (a chartered company), later as a crown colony of de kingdom of Denmark-Norway. Na de area under Danish influence be over 10,000 square kilometres.^[1]

Na dem sell de five Danish Gold Coast Territorial Settlements den forts of de Kingdom of Denmark to de United Kingdom insyd 1850. Na Denmark want make e sell dese colonies for same tim as de expenses dem require to run de colonies increase dey follow de abolition of slavery. Although na Britain sanso dey struggle plus rising costs, na e seek make e purchase dem to reduce French den Belgian influence insyd de region, as well as make e further curtail de slave trade wey still be operated der.^[2] Na dem later incorporate de purchased settlements den forts into de British Gold Coast.^[3]

History

For April 20, 1663, na de Danish seizure of Fort Christiansborg den Carlsborg plete de annexation of de Swedish Gold Coast settlements. From 1674 to 1755 na de settlements be administered by de Danish West India-Guinea Company. From December 1680 to 29 August 1682, na de Portuguese occupy Fort Christiansborg. Insyd 1750 na dem make am a Danish crown colony. From 1782 to 1785 na e dey under British occupation.

Dey follow de 1792 decree wey dey abolish Denmark ein participation insyd de Atlantic slave trade (na dem implement insyd 1803),^[4] de purpose of dema forts for de Guinea coast cam be uncertain. Previously, na dese outposts serve solely for se slave trade, plus no real impact beyond isolated trading activities.^[5]^[6] Colonial planners, wey dey recognise dema limited knowledge of de surrounding territories (as be evidenced by requests for detailed information),^[7] seek for oda options. Na dis shift coincide plus growing abolitionist sentiment den de desire make dem establish plantation colonies insyd Africa make dem produce tropical commodities such as sugar den coffee.^[8]^[9]

Danish slave trade

Na de Danes be involved insyd de slave trade from de mid-17th century til de early 19th century. Na dem record de Danish navy den ein mercantile marine as de fourth largest insyd Europe insyd dis period. Plus de establishment of de Gold Coast colony insyd de 1660s, na commodities such as gold den ivory dominate at first, buh by de turn of de 18th century, na slaves be de most important commodity insyd de Danish trade. Those wey na dem command de large slave ships often be instructed make dem convert dema cabin into a kind of moveable showroom upon arrival for de African coast. While thru out de 18th century, na Danish exports of enslaved Africans account for about 5 percent of de total exports from de Gold Coast, by de 1780s, na dis be up to 10 percent.

Insyd 1672, na de Danish West India and Guinea Company sanso begin dey establish colonies insyd de Caribbean for Saint Thomas, Saint John insyd 1718, den Saint Croix insyd 1733. While na dese possessions be rather small, for 350 square kilometers per collectively, na dem cam be of utmost importance insyd de transatlantic slave trade under de Danish flag secof dema intensive den highly profitable sugar production wich na depend on slave labor. As a result, den secof na mortality rates be higher dan fertility rates among slaves insyd de Danish West Indies, na e cam be necessary make dem import slaves every year. Na chaw of dese enslaved human beings cam directly from Africa while na odas cam from foreign Caribbean islands.

Forts den settlements

Main forts

Na de forts wey dey follow dey for de possession of Denmark til na dem sell all forts to de United Kingdom insyd 1850.

Place insyd Ghana	Fort name	Dem found/ Dem occupy	Dem cede	Comments
Accra	Fort Christiansborg	1658	1850	Na dem first capture am from de Swedes insyd 1658. Na de Portuguese occupy am between 1680 den 1682. Na dem sell am to de United Kingdom insyd 1850.
Old Ningo	Fort Fredensborg	1734	1850	Na dem sell am to de United Kingdom insyd 1850.
Keta	Fort Prinsensten	1784	1850	Na dem sell am to de United Kingdom insyd 1850.
Ada	Fort Kongensten	1784	1850	Na dem sell am to de United Kingdom insyd 1850.
Teshie	Fort Augustaborg	1787	1850	Na dem sell am to de United Kingdom insyd 1850.

Forts den trading posts dem temporarily hold

Apart from dese main forts, na de Danes temporarily hold forts den trading posts.

Place insyd Ghana	Fort name	Dem found/ Dem occupy	Dem cede	Comments
Cape Coast	Fort Carlsborg	1658	1664	Dem capture am from de Swedes insyd 1658. Na de British capture am insyd 1664.
Amanful	Fort Frederiksborg	1659	1685
Cong	Cong Heights	1659	1661

References

↑ Gøbel, Erik (2016-01-01), "Appendix B to the Report: Slaves Bought at Danish Settlements on the Gold Coast, 1777–89", The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition, BRILL, pp. 268–271, doi:10.1163/9789004330566_015, ISBN 978-90-04-33056-6, retrieved 2022-02-05
↑ van Dantzig, Albert; Priddy, Barbara (1971). A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana. Liberty Press. p. 49.
↑ Gobel, Erik (2016). The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition. Brill Academic Pub. pp. 3–7. ISBN 978-90-04-33027-6.
↑ Hopkins, Daniel. "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts, Denmark’s Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and African Colonial Policy, 1788–1850." Forts, Castles and Society in West Africa. Brill, 2018. 148-169.
↑ Daniel Hopkins, Peter Thonning and Denmark’s Guinea Commission: A Study in Nineteenth-century African Colonial Geography (Leiden: Brill, 2013).
↑ Per O. Hernæs, Slaves, Danes, and African Coast Society (Trondheim: University of Trondheim, 1995), 129–303.
↑ Nørregård, Georg. Danish Settlements in West Africa, 1658–1850. Translated by Sigurd Mammen. Boston: Boston University Press, 1966, 120–122.
↑ Selena Axelrod Winsnes (trans.), Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade: Paul Erdmann Isert’s Journey to Guinea and the Caribbean Islands in Columbia (1788) (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1992), 190.
↑ Daniel Hopkins, ‘The Danish Ban on the Atlantic Slave Trade and Denmark’s African Colonial Ambitions, 1787–1807, Itinerario 25 (2001): 154–184, 156–159.

Read further

Closing the Books: Governor Edward Carstensen on Danish Guinea, 1842-50. Translated from the Danish by Tove Storsveen. Accra, Ghana: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2010.

External links

Article about the Danish Gold Coast during the Napoleonic Wars (insyd Danish)
WorldStatesmen- Ghana

[1] Gøbel, Erik (2016-01-01), "Appendix B to the Report: Slaves Bought at Danish Settlements on the Gold Coast, 1777–89", The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition, BRILL, pp. 268–271, doi:10.1163/9789004330566_015, ISBN 978-90-04-33056-6, retrieved 2022-02-05

[2] van Dantzig, Albert; Priddy, Barbara (1971). A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana. Liberty Press. p. 49.

[:0-3] Gobel, Erik (2016). The Danish Slave Trade and Its Abolition. Brill Academic Pub. pp. 3–7. ISBN 978-90-04-33027-6.

[4] Hopkins, Daniel. "The Danish Guinea Coast Forts, Denmark’s Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and African Colonial Policy, 1788–1850." Forts, Castles and Society in West Africa. Brill, 2018. 148-169.

[5] Daniel Hopkins, Peter Thonning and Denmark’s Guinea Commission: A Study in Nineteenth-century African Colonial Geography (Leiden: Brill, 2013).

[6] Per O. Hernæs, Slaves, Danes, and African Coast Society (Trondheim: University of Trondheim, 1995), 129–303.

[7] Nørregård, Georg. Danish Settlements in West Africa, 1658–1850. Translated by Sigurd Mammen. Boston: Boston University Press, 1966, 120–122.

[8] Selena Axelrod Winsnes (trans.), Letters on West Africa and the Slave Trade: Paul Erdmann Isert’s Journey to Guinea and the Caribbean Islands in Columbia (1788) (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1992), 190.

[9] Daniel Hopkins, ‘The Danish Ban on the Atlantic Slave Trade and Denmark’s African Colonial Ambitions, 1787–1807, Itinerario 25 (2001): 154–184, 156–159.

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