Brandenburger Gold Coast Settlements | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1682–1721 | |||||||
.svg) Flag | |||||||
 Location of Groß-Friedrichsburg withinGold Coast, modern-day Ghana, marked by the black dot and flag. | |||||||
 Inside Groß-Friedrichsburg. View in February 1884. | |||||||
| Status | Brandenburger colony (1682–1701) Prussian colony (1701–1721) | ||||||
| Capital | Groß Friedrichsburg | ||||||
| Common languages | German,Akan | ||||||
| Religion | Protestantism,Roman Catholicism,Akan religion | ||||||
| Elector of Brandenburg, laterKing of Prussia | |||||||
• 1640–1688 (Founded colony in 1682) | Frederick William | ||||||
• 1688–1713 | Frederick I | ||||||
• 1713–1740 (Sold colony to Dutch in 1721) | 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 | ||||||
TheBrandenburger Gold Coast, laterPrussian Gold Coast, was a colony ofBrandenburg-Prussia, later theKingdom of Prussia, on theGold Coast. The Brandenburg colony existed from 1682 to 1701, after which it became a Prussian colony from 1701 to 1721. In 1721, KingFrederick William I of Prussia sold it for 7,200ducats and 12 slaves to theDutch West India Company.
In May 1682, theGerman colonization of Africa began when the newly foundedBrandenburg African Company (BAC, in GermanBrandenburgisch-Afrikanische Compagnie), a company that administered the colony, which had been granted acharter byFrederick William,Elector ofBrandenburg (core of the laterKingdom of Prussia), established a smallWest African colony consisting of two Gold Coast settlements on theGulf of Guinea, aroundCape Three Points in presentGhana:
On 15 January 1701, the small colony was renamed Prussian Gold Coast Settlements, in connection with the founding of the Kingdom of Prussia, which formally took place three days later, whenFrederick III,Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia, crowned himselfKing in Prussia (after which he became known as Frederick I of Prussia).
From 1711 to April 1712, theDutch occupied Fort Dorothea. In 1717, the Prussian Gold Coast colony was physically abandoned by Prussia; from then until 1724,John Konny (in DutchJan Conny) occupied Groß Friedrichsburg, despite the sale of the colony to the Dutch in 1721.
Prussia was the last major European power, and first German state, to enter transatlantic trade. It was relatively isolated from major European trade hubs at the time, so the incentive existed to enter transatlantic trade and fortify the Prussian economy.[3]
The colony was founded for many reasons, mainly: for Prussia to increase its gold reserves,[4] to supply slaves for Prussia's entry in theAtlantic slave trade, and to engage ingum arabic and ostrich feathers trade. Yet shortly after its founding, it was soon realized that the greatest profits could only be made from human cargo trade as gold had eventually run scarce in the area,[4] so the focus of the colony was put almost exclusively on trading slaves.
Prussia also leased part of the islandSaint Thomas in the Caribbean (present-day part of theU.S. Virgin Islands) from theKingdom of Denmark as a colony to which it could transport slaves, and thus a transatlantic trade between the Prussian Gold Coast and the Caribbean was born.[5]
In 1721, after 39 years of Prussian rule,Frederick William I of Prussia sold the colony to theDutch West India Company for 7,200ducats and 12 enslaved boys in gold chains. Frederick William I had no personal ties to the colony and saw it as a drain on his kingdom's resources. The Dutch West India Company subsequently renamed the colony "Hollandia" and integrated it into theDutch Gold Coast.[6][5] By this time the Brandenburg African Company had lost all but one of its ships at the colony due to Dutch and French seizures, and competition primarily with a growing Dutch presence in the area lowered Prussian revenues. Prussia’s slave output was, at its peak, less than a quarter of their Dutch counterparts. Resources going into the colony were restricted as it neared its end.[5]
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