Brandenburger Gold Coast

Brandenburger Gold Coast
Brandenburger colony (1682–1701) Prussian colony (1701–1721)
1682–1721 →
Location of Groß-Friedrichsburg within Gold Coast, modern-day Ghana, marked by the black dot and flag.
Inside Groß-Friedrichsburg. View in February 1884.
Capital		Groß Friedrichsburg
Languages		German, Akan
Religion		Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Akan religion
Political structure		Colonial
Elector of Brandenburg, later King of Prussia
•	1640-1688	Frederick William
•	1688-1713	Frederick I
•	1713-1740	Frederick William I
History
•	Foundation of Brandenburg African Company	May 1682
•	Renamed Prussian Gold Coast Settlements	15 January 1701
•	Sold to Netherlands	1721
Today part of		Ghana

The Brandenburger Gold Coast, later Prussian Gold Coast, was a part of the Gold Coast. The Brandenburg colony existed from 1682 to 1720, when king Frederick William I of Prussia sold it for 7200 ducats to the Dutch Republic.

Brandenburger Gold Coast

Since May 1682 a chartered company from the margravial electorate of Kur-Brandenburg, the core of the later Prussian kingdom, the Brandenburg African Company (Kurfürstliche Brandenburgisch-Afrikanische Compagnie), founded 1682, established a small West African colony consisting of two Gold Coast settlements on the Gulf of Guinea, around Cape Three Points in present Ghana:

• Groß Friedrichsburg, now Pokesu: (1682–1717), which became the capital
• Fort Dorothea, now Akwida: (April 1684–1687, 1698–1711, April 1712–1717), which in 1687–1698 the Dutch occupied

German governors during the Brandenburger era

• May 1682–1683 - Philip Peterson Blonck
• 1683–1684 - Nathaniel Dillinger
• 1684–1686 - Karl Konstantin von Schnitter
• 1686–1691 - Johann Niemann

Prussian Gold Coast

On 15 January 1701 the small colony was renamed Prussian Gold Coast Settlements, three days before the Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia crowned himself King in Prussia. From 1711 to April 1712 the Dutch occupied Fort Dorothea again.

In 1717 the colony was physically abandoned by Prussia, so that 1717–1724 John Konny (or in Dutch Jan Conny) was able to occupy Groß Friedrichsburg, from 1721 in opposition to Dutch rule.

In 1721 the rights to the colony were sold to the Dutch, who renamed it Hollandia, as part of their larger Dutch Gold Coast colony.

Governors during the Prussian era

• 1701–1704 - Adriaan Grobbe
• 1704–1706 - Johann Münz
• 1706–1709 - Heinrich Lamy
• 1709–1710 - Frans de Lange
• 1710–1716 - Nicholas Dubois
• 1716–1717 - Anton Günther van der Menden

References

• World Statesmen.org: Ghana

See also

• Princes Town, Ghana

External links

• Grossfriedrichsburg.de — (mostly in German language).

Coordinates: 4°45′13″N 2°04′01″W / 4.75361°N 2.06694°W